I was looking around today for a Doris Day song called “Secret Love,” which I hadn’t realized was from the musical Calamity Jane, with Ms. Day in the title role. I’d never seen Calamity Jane before, and boy oh boy, was I in for a treat. I think it gives Wicked a run for its money in the “Most Lesbian Musical” category.
Let’s review the gay:
So it starts off in Deadwood, somewhere waaaay out West. There’s a club the men (and Calamity Jane) like to frequent called the Golden Garter. From its name, you can guess what kinds of shows happen there. The problem is, there’s a shortage of ladies in Deadwood, so, you guessed it, we’re treated to a drag show:
(For those of you playing along at home, don’t worry– no terrible violence befalls our hero/ine.)
Of course, Calamity Jane, being the dashing, go-get-’em Wild Wester that she is, volunteers to run off to Chicago and collect Adelaid Adams, so that the men (and herself) might enjoy a show put on a by a “real” lady. She arrives in the Windy City wearing her leathers and toting a gun, but instead of enlisting Ms. Adams, accidentally snags her assistant Katie:
Skip ahead to around 1:45 for this one, if you don’t care to see the intro.
Wow. Seriously, wow. I love Katie’s misreading of Calamity Jane’s gender, and Jane’s unabashed admiration for Katie’s appearance. This scene is seriously textbook, day-in-the-life butch lesbian. And I love how, from the very beginning, Calamity Jane is so protective of and solicitous toward Katie.
True to her word, Jane transports Katie back to Deadwood. Katie attempts to put on a show at the Golden Garter, but accidentally reveals her true identity due to her inability to perform like Adelaid. Despite this, she manages to win the men over anyway (Calamity Jane, by this point affectionately called “Calam” by Katie, has already been won over). Jane brings Katie back to her filthy cabin, so they can cohabitate. Katie is disappointed at first, but soon teaches Calamity Jane how to clean, during “A Woman’s Touch”:
Oh, there is so much here. I’m not even going to go into analyzing the lyrics; you can look those up yourself (though, did you know that a woman’s touch can quickly fill the empty flower boxes on a window sill?)
At :21, Jane tells Katie, “Yep, you ‘n’ me’ll batch it here as cozy as two bugs in a blanket!” And I love at :53, how Jane’s face falls when she reads the disappointment in Katie’s. I only wish that Katie was as tender in convincing Jane to stay as Jane was in attempting to cart Katie back to the hotel. And did you see what happened at 3:29? Katie paints this on their front door:
This is seriously the height of lesbian displays of affection. It almost makes me forgive Katie for cleaning/femming up Calamity Jane, though I appreciate that even when Jane’s out of her leathers, she maintains an air of masculinity (and I suppose that even she admits that she’s been longing for “nice things,” though I think by that she might mean something more along the lines of a woman like Katie in her life than a skirt).
Aaaaaand that’s where we’ll end it. They live happily ever after! Without men! In their cabin built for two! Oh, happy day. Doris Day, that is.
Tags: calamity jane, doris day, lesbian, musicals
