1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910786706603321

Autore

Anderson Mark Lynn <1960->

Titolo

Twilight of the idols [[electronic resource] ] : Hollywood and the human sciences in 1920s America / / Mark Lynn Anderson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2011

ISBN

0-520-94942-0

9786613278081

1-283-27808-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (239 p.)

Disciplina

384/.80973

Soggetti

Motion pictures - Social aspects - United States

Popular culture - United States

Motion picture industry - United States - History - 20th century

Motion picture actors and actresses - United States

Celebrities - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Early Hollywood Scandals and the Death of Wallace Reid -- 2. Psychoanalysis and Fandom in the Leopold and Loeb Trial -- 3. Queer Valentino -- 4. Black Valentino -- 5. Mabel Normand and the Ends of Error -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Twilight of the Idols revisits some of the sensational scandals of early Hollywood to evaluate their importance for our contemporary understanding of human deviance. By analyzing changes in the star system and by exploring the careers of individual stars-Wallace Reid, Rudolph Valentino, and Mabel Normand among them-Mark Lynn Anderson shows how the era's celebrity culture shaped public ideas about personality and human conduct and played a pivotal role in the emergent human sciences of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Anderson looks at motion picture stars who embodied various forms of deviance-narcotic addiction, criminality, sexual perversion, and racial indeterminacy. He considers how the studios profited from popularizing ideas about deviance, and how the debates generated by



the early Hollywood scandals continue to affect our notions of personality, sexuality, and public morals.