Editing Celebrity (section)

==History==
In his 2020 book ''Dead Famous: An Unexpected History Of Celebrity'', British historian [[Greg Jenner]] uses the definition:
{{blockquote|Celebrity (noun): a unique persona made widely known to the public via media coverage, and whose life is publicly consumed as dramatic entertainment, and whose commercial brand is made profitable for those who exploit their popularity, and perhaps also for themselves.<ref name="jenner">{{cite book |last1=Jenner |first1=Greg |title=Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen |date=2020 |isbn=978-0297869801 |url=https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Famous-Celebrity-Greg-Jenner/dp/0297869809/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g5447869900?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8#reader_B07VTMZGGQ |access-date=24 May 2020 |chapter=Introduction|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson }}</ref>}}

Although his book is subtitled "from Bronze Age to Silver Screen", and despite the fact that "Until very recently, sociologists argued that ''celebrity'' was invented just over 100 years ago, in the flickering glimmer of early Hollywood" and the suggestion that some medieval saints might qualify, Jenner asserts that the earliest celebrities lived in the early 1700s, his first example being [[Henry Sacheverell]].<ref name=jenner /><ref name="dabhoiwala">{{cite news |last1=Dabhoiwala |first1=Fara |title=Dead Famous by Greg Jenner review – a joyous history of celebrity |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/18/dead-famous-by-greg-jenner-review |access-date=24 May 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=18 March 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Choregos actors MAN Napoli Inv9986.jpg|thumb|[[Choregos]] and theater actors, from the [[House of the Tragic Poet]], [[Pompeii]], Italy. [[Naples National Archeological Museum]].]]
[[Athlete]]s in [[Ancient Greece]] were welcomed home as heroes, had songs and poems written in their honor, and received free food and gifts from those seeking [[celebrity endorsement]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = Ancient Greek Athletics|last = Miller|first = Stephen|publisher = Yale University Press|year = 2004|isbn = 0-300-11529-6}}</ref> [[Ancient Rome]] similarly lauded actors and notorious gladiators, and [[Julius Caesar]] appeared on a coin in his own lifetime (a departure from the usual depiction of battles and divine lineage).<ref name=BBC>{{Cite web|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1777554.stm|title = A brief history of celebrity|date = April 4, 2003|access-date = June 8, 2014|website = BBC News|publisher = BBC}}</ref>

In the early 12th century, [[Thomas Becket]] became famous following his murder, the first possible case of posthumous popularity. The Christian Church promoted him as a martyr, and images of him and scenes from his life became widespread in just a few years. In a pattern often repeated, what started as an explosion of popularity (often referred to with the suffix 'mania') turned into long-lasting fame: pilgrimages to Canterbury Cathedral, where he was killed, became instantly fashionable, and the fascination with his life and death inspired plays and films.

[[File:Charles Dickens - Project Gutenberg eText 13103.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The reaction at [[Charles Dickens]]'s public readings, where "people sometimes fainted at his shows", have been compared to those of a contemporary pop star.<ref>{{cite news |first=Matt |last=Shinn |title=Stage frights |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/jan/31/theatre.classics |date=31 January 2004 |access-date=12 September 2019 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=4 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104173933/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/jan/31/theatre.classics |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
The cult of personality (particularly in the west) can be traced back to the Romantics in the 18th century,<ref>{{cite book|title = A Short History of Celebrity|last = Inglis |first = Fred|publisher = Princeton University Press|date  = 2010 | isbn = 9780691135625}}</ref> whose livelihood as artists and poets depended on the currency of their reputation. [[Lord Byron]] became a celebrity in 1812 after the publication of the first two cantos of ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bostridge |first1=Mark |title=On the trail of the real Lord Byron |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/on-the-trail-of-the-real-lord-byron-126324.html |access-date=30 January 2025 |work=The Independent on Sunday |date=3 November 2002}}</ref> "I awoke one morning and found myself famous," he said.<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Moore|chapter=Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, 1830, volume 1|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations|editor-first=Susan|editor-last=Ratcliffe|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford, England|date=2006|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t91.e416}}</ref>  According to McGann: "He rapidly became the most brilliant star in the dazzling world of [[Regency era|Regency]] London."<ref>{{Cite web |last=McGann |first=Jerome |date=23 September 2004 |title=Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4279 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004172753/https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4279 |archive-date=Oct 4, 2023 | url-status=live |access-date=30 January 2025 |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}}</ref>

Establishing cultural hot spots became important in generating fame, such as in London and Paris in the 18th and 19th centuries. Newspapers started including "gossip" columns,<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/concisehistbritnews/britnews19th/ |title = Concise History of the British Newspaper in the Nineteenth Century |publisher = British Library |access-date = June 21, 2014 |archive-date = December 3, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171203234400/http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/concisehistbritnews/britnews19th/ |url-status = dead }}</ref> and certain clubs and events became places to be seen to receive publicity. [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]] called [[Charles Dickens]] the "first writer to feel the intense pressure of being simultaneously an artist and an object of unrelenting public interest and adulation", and Juliet John backed up the claim for Dickens "to be called the first self-made global media star of the age of mass culture."<ref>{{cite news |title=Charles Dickens and Fame vs. Celebrity |url=https://daily.jstor.org/charles-dickens-and-fame-vs-celebrity/ |access-date=11 May 2022 |agency=JSTOR Daily}}</ref>

Theatrical actors were often considered celebrities. Restaurants near theaters, where actors would congregate, began putting up caricatures or photographs of actors on [[celebrity wall]]s in the late 19th century.<ref name="whitaker">Jan Whitaker, "Faces on the wall", ''Restaurant-ing through history'', blog, [https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2016/09/11/faces-on-the-wall/ September 11, 2016]<!-- Whitaker is an established subject-matter expert (cf. [[WP:SPS]]), a social historian with several published books on restaurant history -- see https://us.macmillan.com/author/janwhitaker/ --></ref> The subject of widespread public and media interest, [[Lillie Langtry]], made her [[West End theatre]] debut in 1881 causing a sensation in London by becoming the first [[socialite]] to appear on stage.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lillie Langtry British actress |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lillie-Langtry |access-date=3 March 2022 |work=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> The following year she became the poster-girl for [[Pears (soap)|Pears Soap]], becoming the first celebrity to endorse a commercial product.<ref>{{cite news |title=When Celebrity Endorsers Go Bad |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/02/03/when-celebrity-endorsers-go-bad/260776e6-d38c-4319-b683-eb466c499dce/ |first1= Richard |last1=Morin |date=February 3, 2002 |access-date=2 March 2022 |newspaper=The Washington Post|quote=British actress Lillie Langtry became the world's first celebrity endorser in 1893 when her likeness appeared on packages of Pears Soap. }}</ref> In 1895, poet and playwright [[Oscar Wilde]] became the subject of "one of the first celebrity trials".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Is Oscar Wilde's reputation due for another reassessment? |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/oscar-wilde-facing-retrial-9773718.html |first1=Marcus |last1=Field |date=4 October 2014 |access-date=16 March 2021 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302134040/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/oscar-wilde-facing-retrial-9773718.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Another example of celebrities in the entertainment industry was in music, beginning in the mid-19th century. Never seen before in music, many people engaged in an immense fan frenzy called [[Lisztomania]] that began in 1841.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCw4cxHmpgYC&pg=PA371 |title=Franz Liszt: The virtuoso years, 1811-1847 |date=1987 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-9421-5 |language=en}}</ref> This created the basis for the behavior fans have around their favorite musicians in modern society.

[[File:Charlie Chaplin.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Charlie Chaplin]] as [[the Tramp]] in 1915. ]]
The [[Film industry|movie industry]] spread around the globe in the first half of the 20th century, creating the first film celebrities. The term celebrity was not always tied to actors in films however, especially when cinema was starting as a medium. As Paul McDonald states in ''The Star System: Hollywood's Production of Popular Identities'', "In the first decade of the twentieth century, American film production companies withheld the names of film performers, despite requests from audiences, fearing that public recognition would drive performers to demand higher salaries."<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Star System: Hollywood's Production of Popular Identities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZjHTABEWTYC&pg=PA15 |last = McDonald|first = Paul|publisher = Wallflower|year = 2000|isbn = 978-1-903364-02-4|location = Great Britain|pages = 15}}</ref>  Public fascination went well beyond the on-screen exploits of [[movie star]]s, and their private lives became headline news: for example, in Hollywood the marriages of [[Elizabeth Taylor]] and in [[Bollywood]] the affairs of [[Raj Kapoor]] in the 1950s. Like theatrical actors before them, movie actors were the subjects of [[celebrity wall]]s in restaurants they frequented, near movie studios, most notably at [[Sardi's]] in Hollywood.<ref name="whitaker"/>

[[File:Elvis_Presley_-_Modern_Screen,_June_1958.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Elvis Presley]] was a singer and actor whose charismatic performances and distinctive voice revolutionized the music industry.]]

The second half of the century saw [[television]] and popular music bring new forms of celebrity, such as the rock star and the pop group, epitomised by [[Elvis Presley]] and [[the Beatles]], respectively. [[John Lennon]]'s highly controversial 1966 quote: "We're [[more popular than Jesus]] now",<ref>{{cite news|url = http://www.beatlesbible.com/1966/03/04/how-does-a-beatle-live-by-maureen-cleave/ |newspaper = London Evening Standard|date  = 1966|author = Cleave, Maureen|title=How does a Beatle live |via=The Beatles Bible |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330104259/https://www.beatlesbible.com/1966/03/04/how-does-a-beatle-live-by-maureen-cleave/ |archive-date= Mar 30, 2023 }}</ref> which he later insisted was not a boast, and that he was not in any way comparing himself with Christ,{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=295}} gives an insight into both the adulation and notoriety that fame can bring. Unlike movies, television created celebrities who were not primarily actors; for example, presenters, talk show hosts, and newsreaders. However, most of these are only famous within the regions reached by their particular broadcaster, and only a few such as [[Oprah Winfrey]], [[Jerry Springer]], or [[David Frost]] could be said to have broken through into wider stardom. Television also gave exposure to sportspeople, notably [[Pelé]] after his emergence at the [[1958 FIFA World Cup]], with [[Barney Ronay]] in ''[[The Guardian]]'' stating, "What is certain is that Pelé invented this game, the idea of individual global sporting superstardom, and in a way that is unrepeatable now."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ronay |first1=Barney |title=Pelé's revolutionary status must survive numbers game against Lionel Messi |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jan/01/pele-revolutionary-status-must-survive-numbers-game-against-lionel-messi-santos |access-date=8 September 2023 |newspaper =The Guardian |date=1 January 2021}}</ref>

In the '60s and early '70s, the book publishing industry began to persuade major celebrities to put their names on autobiographies and other titles in a genre called celebrity publishing. In most cases, the book was not written by the celebrity but by a [[ghostwriter]], but the celebrity would then be available for a book tour and appearances on talk shows.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Another Life: A Memoir of Other People|last=Korda|first=Michael|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1999|isbn=9780679456599|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord}}</ref>