Fictional character created by Christopher Isherwood
Fictional character
Sally Bowles
Julie Harris as Sally Bowles in the 1951 play I Am a Camera
First appearance
Sally Bowles (1937 novella)
Created by
Christopher Isherwood
Based on
Jean Ross[1]
In-universe information
Gender
Female
Occupation
Cabaret singer
Nationality
British
Sally Bowles (/boʊlz/) is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross.[1] The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella Sally Bowles published by Hogarth Press,[2] and commentators have described the novella as "one of Isherwood's most accomplished pieces of writing."[2] The work was republished in the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin and in the 1945 anthology The Berlin Stories.
In the 1937 novella, Sally is a British flapper who moonlights as a cabaret singer in Weimar-era Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age. She is depicted by Isherwood as a "self-indulgent upper-middle-class British tourist who could escape Berlin whenever she chose."[3] By day, she is an aspiring film actress hoping to work for the UFA GmbH, the German film production company.[4] By night, she is a mediocre chanteuse at an underground club called The Lady Windermere located near the Tauentzienstraße.[5] She aspires to be a serious actress or, as an alternative, to ensnare a wealthy man to keep her as his mistress.[6] Unsuccessful at both, Sally departs Berlin on the eve of Adolf Hitler's ascension as Chancellor of Germany and is last heard from in the form of a postcard sent from Rome, Italy, with no return address.[7]
Following the tremendous popularity of the Sally Bowles character in subsequent decades, Jean Ross was hounded by reporters seeking information about her colourful past in Weimar-era Berlin.[8] She believed her popular association with the naïve character of Bowles occluded her lifelong work as a political writer and social activist.[9] According to her daughter Sarah Caudwell, Ross never "felt any sense of identity with the character of Sally Bowles, which in many respects she thought more closely modeled on" Isherwood's gay friends,[10] many of whom "fluttered around town exclaiming how sexy the storm troopers looked in their uniforms".[11]
Sally Bowles is a central character in the 1951 John Van Druten stage play I Am a Camera, the 1955 film of the same name, the 1966 musical stage adaptation Cabaret and the 1972 film adaptation of the musical. The character of Sally Bowles inspired Truman Capote's Holly Golightly in his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's,[12][13] and the character also has appeared in novels by other authors.[14] In June 1979, critic Howard Moss of The New Yorker commented upon the peculiar resiliency of the character: "It is almost fifty years since Sally Bowles shared the recipe for a Prairie oyster with Herr Issyvoo [sic] in a vain attempt to cure a hangover" and yet the character in subsequent permutations lives on "from story to play to movie to musical to movie-musical."[15]
^ abIsherwood 1976, pp. 60–64; Parker 2004, p. 179.
^ abParker 2004, p. 313.
^Isherwood 1976, pp. 244–245.
^Isherwood 2012, p. 29.
^Isherwood 2012, pp. 27, 38; Garebian 2011, p. 5.
^Isherwood 2012, pp. 44–45.
^Isherwood 2012, pp. 75–76.
^Caudwell 1986, pp. 28–29; Friedrich 1995, p. 307; Fryer 1977, p. 164.
^Firchow 2008, p. 120; Caudwell 1986, pp. 28–29.
^Caudwell 1986, pp. 28–29.
^Isherwood 1976, pp. 124–125; Doyle 2013.
^Cite error: The named reference Izzo 2005 p. 144 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Norton 2010; Clarke 1988, Chapter 19
^Bailey 2012.
^Cite error: The named reference Moss 1979 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
SallyBowles (/boʊlz/) is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean...
between Ross and Paul Bowles made an impression upon Isherwood, who later used Bowles' surname for the character SallyBowles, whom he based upon Ross...
the character SallyBowles. Izzo 2005, p. 144: "Isherwood himself admitted that he named the character of [SallyBowles] for Paul Bowles, whose 'looks'...
Manhattan (2002), and The White Countess (2005). For her performance as SallyBowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, she won the Tony Award for Best...
critically acclaimed success for both Julie Harris as the insouciant SallyBowles, winning her the first of five Tony Awards of her career for Best Leading...
guest appearances on television in 1963. She originated the role of SallyBowles in the musical Cabaret on Broadway in 1966. Haworth was born in Hove...
starred in the 2014 revival of Cabaret as Fräulein Kost. She starred as SallyBowles in the 2024 revival opposite Eddie Redmayne, earning acclaim and a nomination...
for Best Actress. She later received the award for her performance as SallyBowles in the musical film Cabaret (1972), which brought her to international...
by co-directors Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, she played the role of SallyBowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret on the national tour in 2000–2001...
the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Buckley's portrayal of SallyBowles in a 2021 West End theatre revival of Cabaret won her the Laurence Olivier...
patron and the divinely decadent SallyBowles, a young Englishwoman who sings in a seedy cabaret. The narrator and Bowles soon become roommates, and he learns...
leftist magazine, New Writing, and it included Isherwood's 1937 novella SallyBowles, in which he created his most famous character, based on a young Englishwoman...
Norwood would make her West End debut in June 2024 playing the role of SallyBowles in Cabaret (musical) at the Playhouse Theatre, London. 'Births, Marriages...
Maniac (2018) and The Curse (2023). On Broadway, Stone has starred as SallyBowles in a revival of the musical Cabaret (2014–2015). She and her husband...
the West End revival of Cabaret from May 29, in the starring role of SallyBowles. She completed her time with the show on September 23. In April 2024...
debut occurred in 1998, when she became the replacement for the role of SallyBowles in the musical Cabaret. Leigh was born in Los Angeles, California. Her...
theater group Naked Angels. She has appeared on Broadway three times: as SallyBowles in the revival of Cabaret; in the revival of the sex farce Boeing-Boeing;...
Newcomer. In 1968, she drew excellent reviews for her leading role of SallyBowles in the musical Cabaret. Over the next two decades Dench established herself...
From 11 March 2024, Delevigne will make her stage debut taking over as SallyBowles in the West End musical Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre)...
consultant Ange Godard. On 21 March 2022, she took over the role of SallyBowles in Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre, starring alongside Fra Fee. In June...
nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Miller also took the role of SallyBowles in the Broadway revival of Cabaret after Emma Stone's scheduled departure...
October 14 and ran through November 9, 2014. Weed played the role of SallyBowles in the Signature Theatre production of Cabaret from May 12 to June 28...
Global Information