Jerry West dead at 86
- Thread starter Cotton
- Start date
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
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RIP
Smitty
DCC 4Life
- Joined
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I feel like as a society we are reaching the end stage for a lot of first-wave career celebrities.
Like, obviously there have always been "celebrities," in the modern sense of the word, probably back to the turn of the century 1900. Before that, 1700s, 1800s, it was basically politicians and that's it, there was no media.
But even in the early 1900s, you had actors, etc. But even the 1940s Golden Age of Cinema produced comparatively few stars who remained in the spotlight their whole lives. You think guys like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, etc.
It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that you started seeing the advent of the larger than life career actor or sportsman. Pele, Joe Namath, etc.
That generation is reaching the end.
I guess my point is that I think celebrity deaths as a news driver is going to be increasing in ways that you didn't see in the 1980s or 1990s because there wasn't an entire dying celebrity generation yet, back then.
Just in the last few days we got Jerry West, Donald Southerland and Willie Mays.
Like, obviously there have always been "celebrities," in the modern sense of the word, probably back to the turn of the century 1900. Before that, 1700s, 1800s, it was basically politicians and that's it, there was no media.
But even in the early 1900s, you had actors, etc. But even the 1940s Golden Age of Cinema produced comparatively few stars who remained in the spotlight their whole lives. You think guys like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, etc.
It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that you started seeing the advent of the larger than life career actor or sportsman. Pele, Joe Namath, etc.
That generation is reaching the end.
I guess my point is that I think celebrity deaths as a news driver is going to be increasing in ways that you didn't see in the 1980s or 1990s because there wasn't an entire dying celebrity generation yet, back then.
Just in the last few days we got Jerry West, Donald Southerland and Willie Mays.
