Lasting Screen Stars Images that Fade and Personas that Endure
Lasting Stars examines the issue of stardom and longevity and investigates the many reasons for the persistence or disappearance of different star personas. Through a selection of chapters that look at issues such as inappropriate ageing, national identit
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Lasting Screen Stars
Lucy Bolton • Julie Lobalzo Wright Editors
Lasting Screen Stars Images that Fade and Personas that Endure
Editors Lucy Bolton • Julie Lobalzo Wright School of Languages, Linguistics and Film Queen Mary University of London London, UK
ISBN 978-1-137-40732-0 ISBN 978-1-137-40733-7 DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-40733-7
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936089 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London
FOREWORD
Those of us who write about film stardom crave the kind of smart, probing analysis proposed here by Lucy Bolton and Julie Lobalzo Wright. Friends for many years, and experienced and energetic teachers and scholars, Lucy and Julie’s passion for their subject is clear on every page of this excellent book. Their guiding question is a deceptively simple one: Why it is that some film stars endure in the hearts and minds of the public, while others fade away into obscurity or become permanently fixed in a historical moment? Is it down to talent? Luck? Good or bad management of a career? Why did Rudolph Valentino prevail as a screen icon after his death, while his cinematic peer Wallace Reid did not? Why does a film stock image of Marlon Brando appeal to twenty-first-century consumers of jeans? Why is the book’s cover girl, Norma Shearer, only ever seen through the prism of the 1930s and, often, eclipsed by Bette Davis and Joan Crawford? What Lucy and Julie reveal, through a series of detailed case studies, is that the surface alchemy of star glory is in fact a consequence of complex cultural, historical, political, and industrial forces; shifting forces th
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