Going for ‘It’

WHAT exactly is It? What did Marilyn Monroe, Charles II, Clara Bow and other “abnormally interesting people” have that the rest of us don’t? It’s not just about sex, though that’s an essential ingredient; it’s not just glamour or rarity, nor is it what Joseph Roach, a professor of theater at Yale University, calls that “effortless look of public intimacy.” The genius of It, the It factor, is a combination of all of these and more. It is a combination of charisma (strength) and stigmata (vulnerability). People who have It are utterly lacking in self-consciousness; they walk into a room and sense who needs them most.

Roach has set himself a difficult task, for It is one of those things in life that utterly dissolves under scrutiny and analysis. He relies heavily on the taste and guidance of Lady Duff Gordon (1863-1935), famous couturiere and tastemaker, and her sister, the writer Elinor Glyn (1864-1943). Glyn coined the usage in 1927 with her pulp novel “It,” which was made into a movie. “To have ‘It,’ ” she wrote, “the fortunate possessor must have that strange magnetism which attracts both sexes. He or she must be entirely unselfconscious and full of self-confidence, indifferent to the effect he or she is producing, and uninfluenced by others. There must be physical attraction, but beauty is unnecessary.”

Glyn, passionately inspired by the Stewart Restoration of 1660, read Samuel Pepys’ “Diary” when she was 10 and a “naughty Victorian.” Her “concept of the romantic genesis of theatrical and cinematic celebrity leans heavily on Pepys’ account of the English Restoration’s improvisatory mix of theater, politics, religion, careerism, and sex.” Pepys was obsessed with monarchy (particularly Charles II) and he regularly masturbated in church. On Feb. 23, 1669, while showing the tombs of Westminster Abbey to some visiting relatives, he kissed the mummified body of Queen Katherine of Valois on the mouth, an event he recorded proudly.

Roach, like Glyn, looks to this period as the crucible of the cult of celebrity. In Restoration drama, substance was reduced to image. It was the age of icons and mass appeal, the birth of marketing and commercialization based on the viewer’s desire to have “it.” That period, Roach ominously writes, is not yet over. This book is a romp, slightly fetishistic and often inscrutable because it is so very personal, but it is full of pageantry and insight, ideas that leap and shimmer like sequins on an unforgettable gown.

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susan.reynolds@latimes.com