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142 THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP
years, settle down, and either have children or open a dance studio in their
hometowns. And, it is asserted, they have a very low divorce rate. Typical publicity
is as follows:
While all of the girls appear glamorous (but not too “showgirl,” since the
Music Hall caters principally to a family trade) on stage, they actually lead
a simple, almost monastic life off stage. Because there is not too much
time between shows, they stay at the Music Hall, and every effort is made
to keep them comfortable and happy.
(“Radio City Music Hall” 1956)
By one account, Markert growled indignantly if anyone referred to his Rockettes
as chorus girls, and elsewhere he asserted that he did not like “the flashy, exotic
type, such as the dyed blonde with ultra-high heels or swishing sexy walk. …If
she’s cheap or common, we don’t want her” (Markert 1955:115). In other words,
the Rockettes are decent, wholesome, and pure, and they embody the work ethic
as well as heterosexuality admirably. 7
It is not surprising then that the ethic of working hard as a group, assemblyline
motifs, and militarism should all converge in, and be embodied by, the
Rockettes. Such is the essence of tourist productions in America’s corporate
heartland or, perhaps more accurately, the military-industrial complex. 8 Nor is it
surprising that there is a consistent ideology from the top to the bottom in the
corporate hierarchy. As E.Richard Brown pointed out:
it made little difference whether one owned a substantial share of the
country’s corporate wealth or whether one simply ran the factories and
institutions owned by the wealthy. The actions of each group were
essentially the same, and their values were quite similar. They both
accepted the prevailing economic, social, and political system as given, and
they sought to make the system work smoothly.
(51)
Capitalist ideology and the agency of spectacle
Music Hall productions have an impact on the observer through the agency of
spectacle. 9 In brief, spectacle is a genre of performance that, as John MacAloon
shows, makes use of: 1) the primacy of visual sensory and symbolic codes, 2)
monumentality and an aggrandizing ethos, 3) institutionalized bicameral roles of
actors and spectators (that is, presentational action set in opposition to passive
spectating), and 4) dynamism in the presentation that engenders excitement in
the audience (243–244).
The spectacle format becomes significant in the construction of the experience.
Spectacle constructs, perhaps more persuasively than any other genre, how the
audience is to experience the performance and organizes attitudes toward that