Wikipedia

America's Sweetheart

"America's Sweetheart" is an unofficial title afforded by the American press to a public figure who is widely beloved or popular. In most cases, the title is typically awarded to young female entertainers whose public personas are generally perceived as wholesome, charming, humble, and relatable. Canadian-born actress Mary Pickford is considered to be the first known celebrity nicknamed "America's Sweetheart", having been coined as such by theatre producer David Grauman in 1914.

Actress Mary Pickford, the first known celebrity crowned "America's Sweetheart".

Since Pickford, dozens of celebrities have been referred to as "America's Sweetheart" in the media throughout history, with notable examples including Shirley Temple, Debbie Reynolds, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston, and Taylor Swift.[1]

Origins and definition

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The term "America's Sweetheart" is believed to have first appeared in the early 1900s. It has since been used to describe a large number of celebrities, typically "young, bubbly, wholesome-seeming ladies who women want to be and men want to introduce to their mothers", according to Shaunacy Ferro of Mental Floss.[1] Although the term has occasionally been used to refer to some famous men, the overwhelming majority of recipients have been female.[1] Scottie Andrew of CNN defined "America's Sweetheart" as a celebrity who is "so beloved that they appeal to most Americans, regardless of political and social differences", citing Dolly Parton, Tom Hanks, Betty White, and Oprah Winfrey as examples.[2]

History and usage

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Actress Mary Pickford is widely regarded as the first known person to be called "America's Sweetheart" publicly.[1][3] Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Canada.[4][5] After beginning her acting career on stage,[4] Pickford moved to the United States, where she began appearing in the new medium, motion pictures, in 1909.[5] By 1910, critics and audiences had grown endeared to the actress' innate on-screen charisma, which distinguished her from other performers who had struggled to transition from stage to silent films.[5] Her immense popularity coincided with the rise of feature-length films.[5] In 1914, movie theater owner David Grauman nicknamed Pickford "America's Sweetheart",[6][7] despite the actress being Canadian,[5] and Famous Players Film Company started promoting Pickford's films as starring "America's Sweetheart" two years later.[7] Some historians suggest that film producer B. P. Schulberg conceived the nickname.[8][9] Pickford's reputation is attributed to playing sweet and innocent yet feisty young girls well into adulthood.[10][11][12] By 1919, Pickford had established herself as one of Hollywood's most popular and highest-paid stars.[5] She would go on to make some of her most memorable films during the early to mid-1920s, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Coquette (1929).[5] She eventually retired from acting in 1933 after the advent of talkies and aging out of the ingénue roles she became famous for,[5] transitioning to a full-time producer role.[13] Pickford is one of the pioneering entertainers of American cinema, and one of the most important actors of the silent film era.[5]

During the Great Depression, film star Shirley Temple was nicknamed "America’s Sweetheart" as a child actress, the most prolific period of her career (1934-1938).[1]

Initially breaking through on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966),[14] actress Mary Tyler Moore was nicknamed "America's Sweetheart" while starring as Mary Richards on her eponymous sitcom from 1970 to 1977,[15] receiving the moniker from publications such as Esquire and Rolling Stone.[1][16] Moore's portrayal of an unmarried, working woman was considered revolutionary for addressing topics pertaining to feminism and women's rights.[14] The 1980s and 1990s saw an influx of female celebrities sharing the "America's Sweetheart" title, most notably actresses Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, and Sandra Bullock.[17][18][19][20] Each actress ranked among the most bankable and highest-paid of the time period, with their films grossing millions of dollars at the box office.[21][22] Their creative output was characterized by "romantic, sympathetic and funny roles",[19] and they dominated the romantic comedy genre during the peak of their careers.[23][24][25] Roberts in particular, according to Vogue's Nora Brara, "earned critical acclaim for a string of roles portraying many versions of America's sweetheart".[26]

Actress Jennifer Aniston achieved global fame playing Rachel Green on the sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, transitioning to a successful film career once the series ended.[27] In 2019, Rachel Simon of NBCNews.com opined that arguably no other celebrity has retained the title "America's Sweetheart" for as long as Aniston, describing her as "an anomaly — a superstar whose status is tied not to her career, but to her humanity".[28] Both Simon and Laura L. Finley, author of Women in Popular Culture: The Evolution of Women's Roles in American Entertainment (2023), attributed Aniston's longevity to her avoidance being typecast as a "mother figure" unlike other actresses who experience aging in Hollywood.[29][28]

In the 2000s and 2010s, the term "America's Sweetheart" was brandished on actresses such as Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, and Anne Hathaway.[28]

Reception and criticism

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Some figures have publicly denounced the term. Although writer Kevin Sessums declared actress Renée Zellweger "the newest version of America’s sweetheart, proving just how far we’ve come since Mary Pickford" in 1997, Zellwegger said the title "sounds as if I should be riding on a float in the Rose Bowl parade ... I wouldn’t think about myself that way at all”.[30] In 2005, Aniston stated that while she was not actively trying to "shake" her "America's Sweetheart" reputation, she hoped her role in the then-upcoming Derailed (2005) would debunk the label.[31] In 2019, Roberts has expressed ambivalence towards the title.[32] Kate Torgovnick of CNN criticized the Academy Awards for becoming predictable by frequently awarding the Academy Award for Best Actress to "America's Sweetheart" almost immediately for playing against type, citing Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Goldie Hawn, and Donna Reed as examples, and predicting that Sandra Bullock would win in 2010.[33]

In 2018, Andrea Mandell of USA Today called the term "so dusty and fraught with the residue of gender inequity that it might as well be retired in the Smithsonian".[34]

Pop culture critics have documented that few people of color have been widely embraced as "America's Sweetheart", with singer Whitney Houston being a rare exception in a category dominated by white women.[35][36][37] According to music journalist Gerrick Kennedy, the country had not yet "collectively christened a Black girl as America’s Sweetheart" prior to Houston.[38] Beginning with her breakthrough during the 1980s, Houston cultivated a wholesome image that was marketed as "America's Sweetheart" by both the media and her management.[39][40] Journalists such as Janice Min and Bim Adewunmi called her "the first black America's sweetheart".[41][37] Film director Kevin Macdonald said Houston cemented her status as "America’s Sweetheart" when she performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV, becoming "this symbol of everything that was pure and sweet and lovely about America at that time".[42] According to Constance Grady of Vox, Houston "seemed to represent a kind of Americana to which Black women are not usually allowed access" that simultaneously made her palatable to white audiences but dismissible by some Black critics, who at times accused her of selling out to be mainstream.[36][39] Houston's reputation soured in the early 2000s when her drug addiction and troubled marriage to singer Bobby Brown became highly publicized and parodied by the media.[36] Grady theorized that Houston "was allowed to be America’s Black sweetheart, but only if she followed the rules laid out by white America".[36] Kennedy said that, for much of her career, Houston hid her personal struggles in order to be accepted as "America's Sweetheart", until the public ultimately ran out of patience.[38]

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America's Sweethearts, a 2001 romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts.[32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Ferro, Shaunacy (Oct 18, 2018). "9 People Who Have Been Called America's Sweetheart". Mental Floss. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  2. ^ Andrew, Scottie (February 5, 2023). "How stars like Dolly Parton and Tom Hanks became American sweethearts". CNN. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  3. ^ "Hollywood's Leading Ladies: Mary Pickford". New York Public Library. April 11, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2024. Film star Mary Pickford was the first "America's Sweetheart,"
  4. ^ a b "Mary Pickford (1892-1979)". PBS. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Whitfield, Eileen; Butts, Ed (May 14, 2008). "Mary Pickford". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  6. ^ "Mary Pickford Chronology". The Mary Pickford Foundation. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Larke-Walsh, George S. (2018). A Companion to the Gangster Film. United States: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781119041740 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "Cinema: Help Wanted". Time. November 7, 1949. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  9. ^ Vallance, Tom (August 11, 2009). "Budd Schulberg: Screenwriter who won an Oscar for 'On the Waterfront'". The Independent. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  10. ^ "Mary Pickford". PBS. April 4, 2005. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  11. ^ Stamberg, Susan (February 27, 2018). "How Movie Darling Mary Pickford Became The Most Powerful Woman In Hollywood". NPR. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  12. ^ Butler, Paul (February 1, 2004). "The Canadians Who Shaped Hollywood". Canada's History. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  13. ^ Dwyer, Shawn. "Mary Pickford". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Chappet, Marie-Claire (July 14, 2023). "Who was Mary Tyler Moore?". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  15. ^ Walsh, Savannah (May 25, 2023). "Mary Tyler Moore Was Rarely What She Seemed on TV". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  16. ^ VerMeulen, Michael (January 25, 2017). "Mary Tyler Moore: America's Sweetheart Goes All the Way". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  17. ^ "Essential Sandra Bullock Movies to Watch". A.frame. Retrieved August 23, 2024. "America's Sweetheart" isn't one single person, but a title bestowed upon greats like Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts and, yes, Bullock.
  18. ^ ""Proposal" star Sandra Bullock hates romantic comedies". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. June 15, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2024. Sandra Bullock was once poised to steal the title of "America's Sweetheart ... Julia Roberts (who had stolen it from Meg Ryan).
  19. ^ a b Posner, Amos (September 30, 2004). "America's Sweetheart". The Daily Cardinal. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  20. ^ D'Silva, Elvis (July 10, 2009). "Unexpected Proposal". Rediff.com. Retrieved August 27, 2024. Sandra Bullock, remember her? She sort-of, kind-of inherited the 'America's Sweetheart' title when Meg Ryan's lips went all weird looking and Julia Roberts couldn't figure out whether she was an 'actress' or a 'star'.
  21. ^ "The Hollywood Pay Scale". Chicago Tribune. October 1, 1995. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  22. ^ "Hollywood's Heavy Hitters". Chicago Tribune. January 23, 2000. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  23. ^ "The Rom-Com Hall of Fame: Champions and Challengers". Grantland. July 22, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  24. ^ "The romcom queens return! Can Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock revive the ailing genre?". The Guardian. May 4, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  25. ^ Houseback, Morgan (February 22, 2023). ""Set It Up" is the best romantic comedy of the last 10 years". The University News. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  26. ^ Brara, Noor (April 22, 2017). "5 Things You Didn't Know About Julia Roberts". Vogue. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  27. ^ Ali, Lorraine (August 9, 2015). "American sweetheart Jennifer Aniston as you've never seen her in Cake". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  28. ^ a b c Simon, Rachel (November 30, 2019). "From 'Friends to 'The Morning Show,' how Jennifer Aniston has remained America's sweetheart". NBCNews.com. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  29. ^ Finley, Laura L. (2023). Women in Popular Culture: The Evolution of Women's Roles in American Entertainment [2 Volumes]. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 75. ISBN 9781440874130 – via Google Books.
  30. ^ Sessums, Kevin (September 12, 1997). "Running with the Stars". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  31. ^ Roman, Julian (Nov 9, 2005). "Jennifer Aniston & Clive Owen Talk Derailed". MovieWeb. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  32. ^ a b Tingley, Anna (June 4, 2019). "Why Julia Roberts Never Thought of Herself as 'America's Sweetheart'". Variety. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  33. ^ Torgovnick, Kate (February 19, 2010). "And the Oscar (always) goes to ... America's sweetheart". CNN. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  34. ^ Mandell, Andrea (June 10, 2018). "Here's how Meg Ryan really feels about that 'America's Sweetheart' title". USA Today. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  35. ^ Adewunmi, Bim (February 12, 2012). "Whitney Houston: the trailblazer". The Guardian. Retrieved August 27, 2024. She was marketed as America's sweetheart, previously the domain of blond white girls: a huge cultural shift.
  36. ^ a b c d Grady, Constance (July 8, 2021). "Whitney Houston, American girl". Vox. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  37. ^ a b Sullivan, Caroline; Adewunmi, Bim (February 14, 2012). "Descent into darkness". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  38. ^ a b Stewart, Alison (February 11, 2022). "10 years after Whitney Houston's death, what have we learned about her — and ourselves?". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  39. ^ a b Lee, Hiram (February 13, 2012). "The death of Whitney Houston". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  40. ^ Considine, J. D. (February 12, 2012). "The rise and fall of a pop princess". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 27, 2024. Under the direction of Arista Records chief Clive Davis, Houston was groomed to become the America's Sweetheart of her era
  41. ^ Traister, Rebecca (April 12, 2006). "Didn't she almost have it all?". Salon. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  42. ^ Alter, Ethan (July 3, 2018). "Celebrate July 4 with the story behind Whitney Houston's iconic performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'". Yahoo! Entertainment. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
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