Sara Thomas
Sara Thomas | |
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| Born | 14 April 1940 Şet, Free Territories |
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Sara Thomas (Gylic transcription: Sara Þomys; born 14 April 1940) is a Gylian model, actress, and musician. She gained fame for her "ultimate georgette" persona, which was showcased in her modelling and acting work, and as the producer of a series of albums known for their easy listening sound and campy sensibilities.
Early life
Sara was born on 14 April 1940 in Şet. She was primarily of mixed Yaskan and Aréş descent. Later in life, she started using "Thomas" as an anglicisation of her original surname, "Þomys".
She was educated at home and in volunteer classes.
Career
She began working as a photographic model in the late 1950s. Her career took off during the Golden Revolution, appearing on magazine covers and being photographed by renowned artists like Annemarie Beaulieu and Vivian Meyer. She was particularly in demand for her blonde hair and classical beauty.
She was known for her willingness to use white make-up, bright lights, and red lipstick to give herself a pale appearance, earning her the nickname "the elegant ghost".
She acted in several orgone films but found her niche playing georgette characters after the release of Georgette and Sandra. She came to be considered Sima Daián's closest competitor in portrayals of georgettes on screen. Sara interpreted her characters as ingénues, adding an element of comic but endearing naïveté reminiscent of Dorothy Gish and Kay and Windsor.
As a member of the Groovy Gylias scene and a regular of hotspots like Sibylla and L'Usine, Sara made acquaintance with many musicians, and became interested in musical projects. Sári Gábor offered her a contract to release material on Imperial Records, which she accepted. Beginning with 1965's Georgette Stride, she produced a series of albums for Imperial, into the late 1970s.
Sara's albums contained Gylian Sound music, with influences from space age pop, lounge music, soul-jazz, psychedelic pop, and similar genres. The music was contributed by a mixture of session musicians and well-known guests. She did not play any instruments, but served as the "director" of the albums. Over the music, she delivered comedic spoken monologues, portraying herself as the "ultimate georgette". She largely stuck to topics related to the georgette lifestyle and fashion; some songs jokingly portrayed activities like shopping and getting dressed as equivalents to sexual arousal. She appeared on the album covers, and penned similarly tongue-in-cheek liner notes, making a running gag out of her attempts to do the bare minimum necessary to have the albums be considered her work.
While her albums received good notices in the Gylian music press, they were only modest successes in distribution, as their audience was limited by design. Today, they are seen as predecessors to Neo-Gylian Sound, city pop, and hip hop. Beyond the comedic presentation, Sara is considered one of the pioneers of producer-driven pop and producers with individual identities as artists. Jane Birkin credited her albums as inspiring her own career:
"Back then, you were expected to play something, or sing, and I didn't either … and then Sara puts out albums, and people have a good laugh over them and write good reviews, and a door was opened. I realised I didn't need to play an instrument — I could just play the studio!"
Nora Gunnarsen writes that "Sara was the first to discover the goldmine of swinging grooves topped by comedic chitchat", resulting in a "rich vein" of like-minded recordings such as Amanda Leloup's "I Am a Photograph", Marie-Agnès Delaunay's albums, Miss Kittin's work, and The Ins & Outs' "impressive sex fixation". She adds that beyond Sara's tongue-in-cheek self-love and materialism, "the musicianship of the albums is consistently impressive", highlighting their supple grooves, catchy melodies, and varied instrumentation.
Sara largely retired in the 1980s. During the 1990s, she experienced greater popularity as a result of the Neo-Gylian Sound scene, with her likeness being used for album artwork and her songs sampled by other acts. She had her albums remastered and uploaded to Proton, gaining many new listeners, and her modelling portraits to ArtNet.
