Flickers of desire : movie stars of the 1910s / edited by Jennifer M. Bean.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bean, Jennifer M., 1968-

Series:

Star decades: American culture/American cinema

Star Decades: American Culture/American

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture actors and actresses--United States--Biography.

Motion picture actors and actresses.

Motion picture industry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (309 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Today, we are so accustomed to consuming the amplified lives of film stars that the origins of the phenomenon may seem inevitable in retrospect. But the conjunction of the terms "movie" and "star" was inconceivable prior to the 1910s. Flickers of Desire explores the emergence of this mass cultural phenomenon, asking how and why a cinema that did not even run screen credits developed so quickly into a venue in which performers became the American film industry's most lucrative mode of product individuation. Contributors chart the rise of American cinema's first galaxy of stars through a variety of archival sources--newspaper columns, popular journals, fan magazines, cartoons, dolls, postcards, scrapbooks, personal letters, limericks, and dances. The iconic status of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp, Mary Pickford's golden curls, Pearl White's daring stunts, or Sessue Hayakawa's expressionless mask reflect the wild diversity of a public's desired ideals, while Theda Bara's seductive turn as the embodiment of feminine evil, George Beban's performance as a sympathetic Italian immigrant, or G. M. Anderson's creation of the heroic cowboy/outlaw character transformed the fantasies that shaped American filmmaking and its vital role in society.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Introduction: Stardom in the 1910s

1. G. M.Anderson: “Broncho Billy” among the Early “Picture Personalities”

2. Mary Pickford: Icon of Stardom

3. Lillian Gish: Clean, and White, and Pure as the Lily

4. Sessue Hayakawa:The Mirror, the Racialized Body, and Photogénie

5. Theda Bara: Orientalism, Sexual Anarchy, and the Jewish Star

6. Geraldine Farrar: A Star from Another Medium

7. George Beban: Character of the Picturesque

8. Pearl White and Grace Cunard:The Serial Queen’s Volatile Present

9. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: Comedy’s Starring Scapegoat

10. Douglas Fairbanks: Icon of Americanism

11. Charles Chaplin:The Object Life of Mass Culture

In the Wings

Works Cited

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

0-8135-5072-6

9786613839121

1-283-52667-0

OCLC:

804661511