Taking Fame to Market On the Pre-History and Post-History of Hollywood Stardom

The study of stars and celebrities is awash with enticing terms that compound the magic and mystery of their luminous subjects. Taking Fame to Market is the first historical exploration of the relationship between stardom as a form of popular heroism and as a commodity produced by capitalist enterprise. Beginning with an examination of the first star, David Garrick, King charts the representation of stars through a line of development that ends with the absolute celebrity of contemporary times, as exemplified by Lady Gaga. His case studies, which discuss the relationships of stars and celebrities with their fans, are placed in their social context and raise pertinent questions about the likely effects on audience perceptions of fame. King applies a new grammar of stardom to explore the differences between the stars of yesteryear and today's 'superstars', who are famous more for what they appear to be than for what they do. This phenomenon has been noted before, but the aim of this book is to explain it.

Barry King is Professor of Communications at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He received his BSC (Hons) from City University, London, and his PhD from the London School of Economics. He is the author (with Sean Cubbit, Harriet Margolies and Thierry Jutel) of Studying the Event Film: The Lord of the Rings (2008). He has also published a substantial number of articles that explore the relationships been popular culture, celebrity and stardom, and digital media. His other publications focus on creative labour, semiotic determinism, the sociology of acting and performance, and New Zealand's cultural industries.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. From Custom to Price
2. The Formation of Stardom
3. Garrick as a Personage
4. The Descent from Stardom as Personage
5. Writing the Stars
6. The High Tide of Biography
7. The Rise of Autography
8. The End of Seeming
Notes
Index