Calamity Jane
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appearing in a dress only once. She wields a bull^^ilip, which she uses to snatch
off Bill Hickok’s hat, possibly a gesture of symbolic castration. Louisa Cody
(Helen Burgess), Buffalo Bill’s (James Ellison) young, genteel wife, mirrors the
grotesque Calamity. Louisa is kindhearted, domestic to the core, and she abhors
violence. She announces early on that she intends to tame Buffalo Bill. By
comparison. Calamity Jane is brash, uncouth, and brazen. The first time
Calamity sees Louisa, she assumes she is with Bill Hickok, clearly her love
interest. “Is that chipmunk yours?” she quips. Louisa tries several times to
“tame” Calamity, even loaning her dresses. Calamity resists, though, and suffers
for her truculence in the end.
The social and political ideology of DeMille sought to promote lies in
the social fabric of the audience he addressed. The most significant social event
of that period was the Great Depression. The 1929 stock market crash shocked
the American people who had put their faith in capitalism. Many sought
scapegoats. The rural conservatives ^\ilo had joined the revitalized Ku Klux
Klan during the 1920s blamed northeastern banks, foreigners, African
Americans, and liberated women for the economic calamity. Celebrations of
individualism, nostalgia for a simpler, rural past and yearning for basic
American virtues punctuated social life. Patriotic celebrations emphasized
historical characters such as the pioneer. Americans wanted heroes—strong
men who by the force of their will could rescue their society.
Besides the Depression, the specter of Hitler loomed on the horizon.
Between 1929 and 1933, Hitler’s Nazi Party rose to power. Hitler was a
charismatic dictator served by armies of Brown Shirts and Black Shirts. His
seemingly magical ability to manipulate th H