'Prima donna in pigtails': reading the child stardom of Julie Andrews. Issue 2 (3rd April 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Farmer, Brett
• Is Part Of: Celebrity studies. Volume 14:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 131
• Page End: 145
• Publication Date: 2023-04-03
• Subjects: Julie Andrews -- child star -- prodigy -- post-war Britain -- myth; Fame -- Periodicals; Celebrities -- Periodicals; 306.405
• DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2022.2109303
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1939-2397

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper analyses the juvenile career of Julie Andrews who was a child performer of considerable note in her native Britain during the immediate post-war period. Possessed of a remarkably developed singing voice, Andrews was feted as a musical child prodigy, and she performed widely in variety and radio as 'Britain's youngest singing star'. In an era of profound disruption, Andrews' popular image as national wunderkind served – as the myth of the child star so often it does – as a resonant cultural fiction for the articulation of deeply felt ideological concerns and the fantastic reconciliation of social and emotional anxieties.