CELEBRITY
CRITICAL CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
General Editors: Jonathan Gray, Aswin Punathambekar, Adrienne Shaw
Founding Editors: Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kent A. Ono
Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media
Isabel Molina-Guzmán
The Net Effect: Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet
Thomas Streeter
Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance
Kelly A. Gates
Critical Rhetorics of Race
Edited by Michael G. Lacy and Kent A. Ono
Circuits of Visibility: Gender and Transnational Media Cultures
Edited by Radha S. Hegde
Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times
Edited by Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser
Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11
Evelyn Alsultany
Visualizing Atrocity: Arendt, Evil, and the Optics of Thoughtlessness
Valerie Hartouni
The Makeover: Reality Television and Reflexive Audiences
Katherine Sender
Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture
Sarah Banet-Weiser
Technomobility in China: Young Migrant Women and Mobile Phones
Cara Wallis
Love and Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural Production
Lisa Henderson
Cached: Decoding the Internet in Global Popular Culture
Stephanie Ricker Schulte
Black Television Travels: African American Media around the Globe
Timothy Havens
Citizenship Excess: Latino/as, Media, and the Nation
Hector Amaya
Feeling Mediated: A History of Media Technology and Emotion in America
Brenton J. Malin
The Post-Racial Mystique: Media and Race in the Twenty-First Century
Catherine R. Squires
Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the Entertainment Industries
Edited by Derek Johnson, Derek Kompare, and Avi Santo
Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-Language Radio and Public Advocacy
Dolores Inés Casillas
Orienting Hollywood: A Century of Film Culture between Los Angeles and Bombay
Nitin Govil
Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship
Lori Kido Lopez
Struggling for Ordinary: Media and Transgender Belonging in Everyday Life
Andre Cavalcante
Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-First Century
Suzanne Leonard
Dot-Com Design: The Rise of a Useable, Social, Commercial Web
Megan Sapnar Ankerson
Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity
Ralina L. Joseph
Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution
Ramon Lobato
The Identity Trade: Selling Privacy and Reputation Online
Nora A. Draper
Celebrity: A History of Fame
Susan J. Douglas and Andrea McDonnell
Celebrity
A History of Fame
Susan J. Douglas and Andrea McDonnell
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
© 2019 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Douglas, Susan J. (Susan Jeanne), 1950– author. | McDonnell, Andrea M., author.
Title: Celebrity : a history of fame / Susan J. Douglas and Andrea McDonnell.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030568| ISBN 9781479852437 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781479862030 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Celebrities. | Fame. | Social influence. | Social status. | Mass media—Social aspects. | Popular culture.
Classification: LCC HM1176 .D68 2019 | DDC 302/.13—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030568
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Also available as an ebook
For Paddy Scannell, teacher, scholar, mentor, friend
CONTENTS
2. The Rise of Mass Culture and the Production of Celebrities
3. Silver Screens and Their Stars
4. Radio: The Stars in Our Homes
5. TV and the Need for Familiarity