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Star Attractions
Twentieth-Century Movie Magazines and Global Fandom
Edited by Tamar Jeffers McDonald and Lies Lanckman
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Book Presentation:
During Hollywood’s “classic era,” from the 1920s to 1950s, roughly twenty major fan magazines were offered each month at American newsstands and abroad. These publications famously fed fan obsessions with celebrities such as Mae West and Elvis Presley. Film studies scholars often regard these magazines with suspicion; perhaps due to their reputation for purveying scandal and gossip, their frequent mingling of gushing tone, and blatant falsehood.
Looking at these magazines with fresh regarding eyes and treating them as primary sources, the contributors of this collection provide unique insights into contemporary assumptions about the relationship between fan and star, performer and viewer. In doing so, they reveal the magazines to be a huge and largely untapped resource on a wealth of subjects, including gender roles, appearance and behavior, and national identity.
Contributors: Emily Chow-Kambitsch, Alissa Clarke, Jonathan Driskell, Lucy Fischer, Ann-Marie Fleming, Oana-Maria Mazilu, Adrienne L. McLean, Sarah Polley, Geneviève Sellier, Michael Williams
About the authors:
Tamar Jeffers McDonald is a reader in film studies at the University of Kent. She is author or editor of four books, including Doris Day Confidential: Hollywood, Sex, and Stardom.Lies Lanckman is associate lecturer in film studies at the University of Kent.
Press Reviews:
"McDonald and Lanckman see the importance of the early fan magazine in connection with film studies as a major source of information, offering tremendous amounts of data, information on contemporary tastes and not to be neglected historical documents shaping popular culture. . . . Star Attractions is an intriguing addition for students and fans of early cinema, fandom culture, media statistics and social aspects of film promotions." ― popcultureshelf.com
See the publisher website: University Of Iowa Press
> From the same authors:
Stars, Fan Magazines and Audiences (2025)
Desire by Design
Dir. Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Lies Lanckman and Sarah Polley
Subject: On Films > Movie magazines
Gothic Heroines on Screen (2019)
Representation, Interpretation, and Feminist Inquiry
Dir. Tamar Jeffers McDonald and Frances A. Kamm
Subject: On Films > Characters
> On a related topic:
Hollywood's Second Sex (2015)
The Treatment of Women in the Film Industry, 1900–1999
Subject: Sociology
Star Bodies and the Erotics of Suffering (2015)
Dir. Rebecca Bell-Metereau and Colleen Glenn
Subject: Sociology
Beyond the Looking Glass (2014)
Narcissism and Female Stardom in Studio-Era Hollywood
by Ana Salzberg
Subject: Sociology
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