Movie Crazy: Stars, Fans, and the Cult of Celebrity

by Samantha Barbas

Book Overview

While the impact that legendary actors and actresses have had on the development of the Hollywood film industry is well known, few have recognised the power of movie fans on shaping the industry. This books redresses that balance, and is the first study of Hollywood's golden era to examine the period from the viewpoint of the fans. Using fan club journals, fan letters, studio production records, and other previously unpublished archival sources, Samantha Barbas reveals how the passion, enthusiasm, and ongoing activism of film fans in Hollywood's golden era transformed early cinema, the modern mass media and American popular culture.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312239629
• ISBN13: 9780312239626
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Exciting History

I really liked this book. I expected it would take me a month to read, a little here and a little there, but I found it surprisingly exciting and finished it in just one week. I am not a film historian but I am a silent film buff and was especially impressed by the sections on Florence Lawrence, Rudolph Valentino, etc.The overall thesis is quite persuasive - that it was movie fans, as much as studios, executives, etc. who really determined the quality and character of American movies, at least through the 1950s. Even when studios misled fans (as in their portraying Clark Gable as a rough-and-tough guy in real life), they were doing so because they had already determined what fans wanted in the first place. This book is very well written and free from the sort of annoying jargon that is only of interest to specialists. There is a LOT of information here and a useful index as well. Highly recommended.