On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > Zsa Zsa Gabor did some acting, but mostly she maintained her fame by > staying in the spotlight, becoming a cartoonish media figure (and, > yes, slapping a cop). It appears as though the light is about to go > out. > > http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100723/people_nm/us_gabor
The concept of being famous for being famous goes back to the beginning of a national mass media. A wire service that sent articles across the country would have been the technological step necessary to make a person famous based only on newspaper articles. At the turn of the 20th Century, either EL Doctorow in Ragtime of Neal Gabler in Life: The Movie (or possibly both) called Evelyn Nesbit the first woman who was famous for being famous. She was a showgirl who married a steel baron heir named Harry Thaw. She was messing around with the famous architect Stanford White and Thaw shot White in public. During the trial Nesbit became the focus of unrelenting national media attention which turned her into a household name at the time. Walter Winchell was a struggling vaudeville performer who started writing items for a performers' newsletter. He was able to give up performing and he became a national columnist covering the rising Broadway and falling vaudeville scenes. Through his column and the columns of his competitors, notably Ed Sullivan and Dorothy Kilgallen, anybody could rise to national prominence with just a column appearance. When vaudeville faded away and Broadway went into a downturn during the early Depression, the columnists filled their columns by writing about the goings on of young women of inherited wealth who hung around cafes together during the day and went to chic nightclubs in the evenings. They were referred to as "Cafe Society" and as the Hiltons and Kardashians have done in our time, they attracted attention for doing nothing. Zsa Zsa was one in a long line of people who became famous for being famous, not the first one. Tom -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
