What do you think?
Rate this book
The Business of Bobbysoxers: Cultural Production in 1940s Frank Sinatra Fandom
The Business of Bobbysoxers reconsiders the story of American popular music, celebrity following, and fan behavior during World War II through close examination of “bobbysoxers.” Preserved in popular memory as primarily white, hysterical, teen girl devotees of Frank Sinatra clad in bobby socks and saddle shoes, these girls were accused of displaying inappropriate behavior and priorities in their obsessive pursuit of a crooning celebrity at a time of international crisis. Author Katie Beisel Hollenbach peels back the stereotypes of girlhood idol adoration by documenting the intimate practices of wartime Sinatra fan clubs, revealing a new side of this familiar story in American history through the perspective of the bobbysoxer.
In World War II America, fan clubs and organizations like Teen Canteens offered a haven for teenage girls to celebrate their enjoyment of popular culture while cultivating relationships with each other through media icons and the entertainment industry. Many of these organizations attempted to encourage diverse memberships, influenced in part by Frank Sinatra's public work on racial and religious tolerance, and by Sinatra's own identity as an Italian American. Away from the critical public eye, these communities offered girls a place to safely explore and discuss issues including civil rights, politics, the war, patriotism, internationalism, and professional development in the context of their shared Sinatra fandom. With these broader social and political complexities in mind, The Business of Bobbysoxers shines a light on musical fan communities that provided teenage girls with peer groups at a critical moment of personal and historical change, allowing them to creatively express their desires and imagine their futures as American women together.
In World War II America, fan clubs and organizations like Teen Canteens offered a haven for teenage girls to celebrate their enjoyment of popular culture while cultivating relationships with each other through media icons and the entertainment industry. Many of these organizations attempted to encourage diverse memberships, influenced in part by Frank Sinatra's public work on racial and religious tolerance, and by Sinatra's own identity as an Italian American. Away from the critical public eye, these communities offered girls a place to safely explore and discuss issues including civil rights, politics, the war, patriotism, internationalism, and professional development in the context of their shared Sinatra fandom. With these broader social and political complexities in mind, The Business of Bobbysoxers shines a light on musical fan communities that provided teenage girls with peer groups at a critical moment of personal and historical change, allowing them to creatively express their desires and imagine their futures as American women together.
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 18, 2024
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Read
March 15, 2025Reasonably intriguing little historico-sociological study of Frank Sinatra fan culture in the 40s, cutting off around 1954.
I have sympathy for the general thesis, which is that teenage girls, an overlooked group part of the war effort, found maturity, political and social autonomy, and self-expression, in the form of fan clubs and journals based on their admiration of Sinatra. The interconnection between the contradictory expectations placed on women at the time and the, at least slightly, subversive masculinity that Sinatra represented during war-time America, is fairly convincingly argued to have produced a distinctive kind of cultural production: whether activism, creative endeavours, professional development, morale, etc.
The book is slightly uneven however. The last chapter aims to round off the transformation of Sinatra's celebrity persona and the change/dissolution of the fan culture, but the text itself sort of fizzles out. I'm not truly sure what to take as the distinct change in consequence. It is clear that both things happen, but the illustration of this movement is a little vague.
I would have also liked to see a more significant portion dedicated to the consumption of celebrity culture in a critical way. I felt that, despite the overwhelmingly positive depiction of fan-culture as a site of cultural production, not enough significance was placed on fan culture as a form of celebrity worship. I don't mean that antagonistically, only to say that more analysis on the cultural preconditions required for these dynamics to occur would have been welcome. It is also notable how absent the general cultural reception of the Bobbysoxers was. Other than passing comments about how the culture viewed them as immature, unproductive, loose-lipped women, there was little mention about the public anxieties about mass-hysteria in the face of Nazi Germany (a genuinely distinct fear) for instance. Engagement with this in a deeper way would have been beneficial, though would have taken the book into lengthier territory.
I am reminded, reading this, of Rancière's The Ignorant Schoolmaster, mainly because this follows in the vein that, so long as there is a central reference point, and a sense of equity in educative function, the birth of an entire micro-society is essentially possible. Fairly interesting stuff, and replicated all the time.
Ultimately, pretty good. Obviously only recommended to those interested in fan-culture, Sinatra, or war-time celebrity history.
I have sympathy for the general thesis, which is that teenage girls, an overlooked group part of the war effort, found maturity, political and social autonomy, and self-expression, in the form of fan clubs and journals based on their admiration of Sinatra. The interconnection between the contradictory expectations placed on women at the time and the, at least slightly, subversive masculinity that Sinatra represented during war-time America, is fairly convincingly argued to have produced a distinctive kind of cultural production: whether activism, creative endeavours, professional development, morale, etc.
The book is slightly uneven however. The last chapter aims to round off the transformation of Sinatra's celebrity persona and the change/dissolution of the fan culture, but the text itself sort of fizzles out. I'm not truly sure what to take as the distinct change in consequence. It is clear that both things happen, but the illustration of this movement is a little vague.
I would have also liked to see a more significant portion dedicated to the consumption of celebrity culture in a critical way. I felt that, despite the overwhelmingly positive depiction of fan-culture as a site of cultural production, not enough significance was placed on fan culture as a form of celebrity worship. I don't mean that antagonistically, only to say that more analysis on the cultural preconditions required for these dynamics to occur would have been welcome. It is also notable how absent the general cultural reception of the Bobbysoxers was. Other than passing comments about how the culture viewed them as immature, unproductive, loose-lipped women, there was little mention about the public anxieties about mass-hysteria in the face of Nazi Germany (a genuinely distinct fear) for instance. Engagement with this in a deeper way would have been beneficial, though would have taken the book into lengthier territory.
I am reminded, reading this, of Rancière's The Ignorant Schoolmaster, mainly because this follows in the vein that, so long as there is a central reference point, and a sense of equity in educative function, the birth of an entire micro-society is essentially possible. Fairly interesting stuff, and replicated all the time.
Ultimately, pretty good. Obviously only recommended to those interested in fan-culture, Sinatra, or war-time celebrity history.
July 3, 2025
One of the most enjoyable pieces of nonfiction I've read this year! It felt a little short, leaving some biographical and cultural contexts a bit underdeveloped, but I still loved the archival research that lies at the heart of this book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews