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

by Samantha Barbas

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 Using fan club journals, fan letters, studio production records, and other previously unpublished archival sources, Samantha Barbas reveals how the passion, enthusiasm, and ongoing activism of film fans in Hollywood's golden era transformed early cinema,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.

Genres: Cultural Studies, Psychology, Nonfiction, Film

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2001

About the author

An expert on legal history, First Amendment law and mass communications law, Samantha Barbas is a professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law. She was previously a professor of history at Chapman University, a visiting professor of history at U.C. Berkeley, and a lecturer at Arizona State University.

Reviews

[Jan C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book. Follows the influence of fans on the movies, movies on the fans, fans used by the movies and the movies being “surprised” when the fans became out of control. There were two famous riots by the fans - one, when Valentino died in 1926 and the fans were so distraught that they broke the window in the funeral home in their frenzy to get to their idol no matter how. The other famous demonstration occurred in 1944 when Frank Sinatra was appearing and something people showed up in Times Square when there were only 157 cops on duty. Needless to say, they felt overwhelmed.

I enjoyed the section where she was talking about how the fans would rationalize how their favorite stars had changed. And the case used in point was Joan Crawford and how the fan of 1935 could associate her with the Lucille LeSeuer of Dancing Daughters (1928), although she had already changed her name and had more than 20 movies under her belt at that point; although, per imdb, she had only started in the movies in 1925. But, having already Bob Thomas’ book on her, I have a pretty general idea that she never did leave Lucille behind. Much as she might have liked to and tried to.

And she brings in what professionals were saying about the fans. They were childlike and immature and couldn’t reality from a dream world. On the other hand, in the years being discussed here (1910s though 1950s), reality was pretty grim and, as fans pointed out, the movies gave them a respite from reality. Movies helped them chill out for a couple of hours and to forget their real lives for the nonce. Movies helped to recharge their energies so they could go out and forget just how humdrum their lives really were. How with the respite, they could go back, know that there was a better world somewhere, and face life for a while.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is thoroughly researched and written with a passion and respect for its subject matter that displays the author's dedication to re-thinking film history and its impact on the formation of the modern American self. Barbas illustrates the often complicated and contradictory nature of the relationship between film fans, the stars and the motion picture studios. What sets this volume apart from so many others is that Barbas demonstrates that the idea of participatory fan culture first discussed by Henry Jenkins in connection with postmodernism and the Internet in fact has always been a vital element of the media business model, and more importantly of how Americans understand their relationships to their government, media, capitalism and themselves.

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author looks at the creation of celebrity (focusing on the first celebrity's of the 1910s and 1920s)and the interactions between them and their fans, the movie industry, and the media.