Sally Bowles (/boʊlz/) is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross.

[6] Unsuccessful at both, Sally departs Berlin on the eve of Adolf Hitler's ascension as Chancellor of Germany and is last heard from in the form of a postcard sent from Rome, Italy, with no return address.

[7] Following the tremendous popularity of the Sally Bowles character in subsequent decades, Jean Ross was hounded by reporters seeking information about her colourful past in Weimar-era Berlin.

[9] According to her daughter Sarah Caudwell, Ross never "felt any sense of identity with the character of Sally Bowles, which in many respects she thought more closely modeled on" Isherwood's gay friends,[10] many of whom "fluttered around town exclaiming how sexy the storm troopers looked in their uniforms".

[14] In June 1979, critic Howard Moss of The New Yorker commented upon the peculiar resiliency of the character: "It is almost fifty years since Sally Bowles shared the recipe for a Prairie oyster with Herr Issyvoo [sic] in a vain attempt to cure a hangover" and yet the character in subsequent permutations lives on "from story to play to movie to musical to movie-musical.

"[15] Sally Bowles is based on Jean Ross,[16] a vivacious British flapper and later an ardent Stalinist,[17] whom Isherwood knew while sojourning in Weimar-era Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age.

"[19] According to Isherwood, Ross was a sexually liberated young woman who once claimed to have had sex with another performer in view of the audience during Max Reinhardt's production of Tales of Hoffmann circa Winter 1931:[a] "In the course of the ball scene at the Venetian palace of the courtesan Giulietta, several pairs of lovers were carried onto the stage.

These lovers were merely extras and few members of the audience can have paid any attention to their embraces, once they had made their entrance, for a dazzling corps de ballet was performing in the middle of the stage.

I noticed that her finger-nails were painted emerald green, a colour unfortunately chosen, for it called attention to her hands, which were much stained by cigarette smoking and as dirty as a little girl's.

She sang badly,[b] without any expression, her hands hanging down at her sides—yet her performance was, in its own way, effective because of her startling appearance and her air of not caring a curse of what people thought of her.

[6] Unsuccessful at both, Sally departs Berlin on the eve of Adolf Hitler's ascension as Chancellor of Germany and is last heard from in the form of a postcard sent from Rome, Italy, with no return address.

[31] In late Spring 1933, while in an extended period of uncertainty and dire financial straits,[32] Isherwood began drafting the nucleus that would become the novella Sally Bowles (1937).

[34] In a letter to editor John Lehmann dated 16 January, 1936, Isherwood briefly outlined the piece, envisioning it as part of his unfinished novel The Lost which became Mr Norris Changes Trains.

[36] He also was concerned about the inclusion in the manuscript of Sally's abortion, fearing both that his printers might refuse to typeset it and that Jean Ross might file a libel action.

[37] In a January 1937 letter, Isherwood expressed his conviction that, without the abortion incident, Sally would be reduced to a "little capricious bitch" and that the omission would leave the novella without a climax.

[10] For the remainder of her life, Ross believed her popular association with the naïve character of Bowles occluded her lifelong work as a professional journalist, political writer, and social activist.

[40] "[Ross] never liked Goodbye to Berlin, nor felt any sense of identity with the character of Sally Bowles, which in many respects she thought more closely modeled on one of Isherwood's male friends.... She never cared enough, however, to be moved to any public rebuttal.

[42] According to her daughter Sarah Caudwell, Ross never "felt any sense of identity with the character of Sally Bowles, which in many respects she thought more closely modeled on" Isherwood's gay friends,[10] many of whom "fluttered around town exclaiming how sexy the storm troopers looked in their uniforms".

[42] Ross was purportedly vexed by the lack of political awareness demonstrated by the tabloid reporters—particularly those from the Daily Mail—who stalked her and hounded her with invasive questions about her colourful past.

[49] As the run continued, actresses including Tina Arena, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Susan Egan, Joely Fisher, Gina Gershon, Deborah Gibson, Teri Hatcher, Melina Kanakaredes, Jane Leeves, Molly Ringwald, Brooke Shields, Lea Thompson, and Vanna White appeared in the role.

A West End revival at The Strand Theatre in October 1986 featured Kelly Hunter as Sally Bowles and was the subject of printed criticism by both Jean Ross and her daughter Sarah Caudwell.

[10] Later West End revivals starred Toyah Willcox (1987), Jane Horrocks (1993), Anna Maxwell Martin (2006) and Jessie Buckley (2021) playing the part.

According to unaccredited screenwriter Hugh Wheeler, he was tasked by ABC Pictures with bowdlerizing the source material and was forced to change Sally's nationality as well as to transform her into a noble heroine in order to increase the film's commercial appeal.

"[58] In June 1979, critic Howard Moss of The New Yorker noted the peculiar resiliency of the character: "It is almost fifty years since Sally Bowles shared the recipe for a Prairie oyster with Herr Issyvoo [sic] in a vain attempt to cure a hangover" and yet the character in subsequent permutations lives on "from story to play to movie to musical to movie-musical.