Narrating Media History by Bailey Michael

Author:Bailey, Michael.
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2009-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Wisdom’s mother then speaks of his ‘determination to succeed’ as Andrews recounts how ‘your story starts in the grimy streets of Paddington. Frail and small even for your years, you’re still pugnacious and always trying to emulate your brother Fred’. Along comes Fred to recount childhood pranks, followed by a school friend who tells stories of a shy Wisdom, bullied and vulnerable at school. We then hear of his job in a grocer’s and his difficulty riding the tricycle. But according to his old boss, he was a ‘wonderful worker, on the go from 8 every morning to 7 at night…although he did pinch the cheese from the shop next door’. We cut back to Andrews’ narration as we move closer towards Wisdom’s acting aspirations, but he finds that the ‘streets of London are not paved with gold’. We are told how his first act ‘dies the death’ at a music hall in Islington, but how ‘fate and the kindness of a fellow-artiste then takes a hand, as well as, of course, your irrepressible talent’. We then hear testimonies from film colleagues, which give Andrews the opportunity to stress how Norman ‘is clearly still the same kid from Paddington’, and we end on contributions from Norman’s children who are so proud of ‘his journey to success’.

The programme drew on the ‘success myth’, a longstanding trope in star construction (Dyer 1998), in which a combination of talent, ‘ordinariness’, hard work, setbacks and lucky breaks functions to catapult the subject to celebrity status. No matter what the class background or profession of the subject, they were also constructed as remaining essentially unchanged by their fame (Vera Lynn is still ‘the same unspoiled girl who sang around the house at number 3, Thackery Rd…’). Although it might be suggested that there was rather a difference in ‘achievement’ between ‘rescuing dying and injured from a train accident’ (Edith Powell), saving ‘many from the ravages of leprosy’ (Dr Philip Clayton) and the success of a ‘glittering film career’ (Anna Neagle), the emphasis on hard work and determination prevailed in all spheres. But what is important here is that – as the Wisdom narrative makes clear – there was actually an emphasis on a seamless continuity between ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ self.

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