Celebrity Culture
"Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!]" primarily explores the role of celebrity culture in modern life, and the divide between the popular image of Hollywood stars and the human realities of their lives, identities, and limits. It is also concerned with the broader public's opinion of these celebrities, and the relationships people tend to form with the personas of famous people. Even if you've never met Hollywood stars personally, it's easy to feel like you "know" them from the information about them available to you, and from the way the media presents them on a day-to-day basis.
Though sensational, the headline "Lana Turner has collapsed!" is depersonalized and distanced, the equivalent of a loud tabloid you'd see on the newsstand at a gas station or grocery store. It seeks to garner sales and attention by feeding into Turner's popular image with tragedy, controversy, and judgment. The speaker's astonishment at the news, and his final hope for Turner to "get up" because the speaker and the rest of America loves her, reflects the reality of the feelings the public can develop for these stars, and articulates the widespread impact of celebrity culture on the public.
Modern Life
Like many of O'Hara's poems, "Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!]," reflects on the distinctiveness of modern life. In this example, the theme manifests through the poem's tone and pace, its sensational headlines, and the speaker's reaction to Turner's collapse. The poem moves quickly, as a result of the action the speaker describes and the urgent tone he adopts. The repetition of the news headline echoes the onslaught of sensational news in modern culture. At the end, the speaker's response is derived from the popular image of Hollywood stars. The ease with which he tells Turner to "get up" because he and the broader American public "love" her comments upon the American obsession with celebrity culture. This last line also parallels the busyness of modern life, and the difficulty of slowing down in a culture that never stops.
Disillusionment
Although "Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!]" is commonly understood to be a light-hearted, humorous poem, the undertones of the second half the poem suggest a deeper truth about the ways the public regards celebrities.
Beginning in line 11 and continuing until the poem's end, the speaker articulates the disillusionment with Hollywood's sensationalized glamour provoked by the news of Lana Turner's collapse. It never "rains" or "snows" in Hollywood and California partly because of the West Coast's climate, but mostly because the popular image of Hollywood makes it seem like the sun is always shining. Between parties, movies, magazine shoots, and red carpets, a life in the spotlight appears perfect, desirable, and otherwordly: however, as the speaker's realization suggests, this image is a fantasy. Lana Turner isn't just a model or a movie star—she's a person, and like all people, she has her limitations. Even though the speaker has "been to lots of parties/ and acted perfectly disgraceful," he himself "never actually collapsed."
Because we only "know" famous people through their work and through popular news, we often develop an idea of them that may not be wholly accurate. When the speaker juxtaposes his own experience with the news of Turner's collapse, he subtly suggests the severity and extremity of the impact of parties and pressure upon her life. However, this disillusionment is short-lived: he calls upon Turner to "get up," regardless of what her current state may be.
