Abstract
Inka Zemánková (1915-2000) is known as a pioneering Czech female swing singer, a symbol of burgeoning Czech popular music under the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Due to personal, cultural, and political circumstances, her professional career, spanning over sixty years, did not ever reach nearly the same level of fame and success as in the early 1940s.
Since the 1960s, however, there were many waves of nostalgia for the singer (and the golden days of swing) driven by radio and especially television that strove to bring her back to the spotlight. Our study argues for the significant role of nostalgia and recycling in (re)defining Zemánková's star image, which cemented not only her status as the first Czech swing star but also many ongoing myths about her life as well as gender stereotypes.
Analysis of written and audiovisual archival sources, focused particularly on television shows that involved Zemánková's iconic song Slunečnice (Sunflower) from the film Hotel Modrá hvězda (Hotel Blue Star, 1941), uncovers the ways in which nostalgic framing filtered the singer's star image through the gaze of prominent male figures of the Czech showbiz. It also demonstrates that the role of Inka Zemánková herself was far from passive: she exploited the nostalgic male gaze to revive her fame and support the myth of not fulfilling her star potential due to ideological persecution.
The nuances of Inka Zemánková's stardom examined throughout the article are further demonstrated in the accompanying audiovisual essay Slunečnice očima gentlemanů (Sunflower Through the Eyes of Gentlemen).