The Divo and the Duce (eBook)

Promoting Film Stardom and Political Leadership in 1920s America

Giorgio Bertellini (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
352 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-97217-9 (ISBN)

Infos

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Presss Open Access publishing program. Visitwww.luminosoa.orgto learn more. In the postWorld War I American climate of isolationism, nativism, democratic expansion of civic rights, and consumerism, Italian-born star Rodolfo Valentino and Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini became surprising paragons of authoritarian male power and mass appeal. Drawing on extensive archival research in the United States and Italy, Giorgio Bertellini's work shows how their popularity, both political and erotic, largely depended on the efforts of public opinion managers, including publicists, journalists, and even ambassadors. Beyond the democratic celebrations of the Jazz Age, the promotion of their charismatic masculinity through spectacle and press coverage inaugurated the now-familiar convergence of popular celebrity and political authority. This is the first volume in the newCinema Cultures in Contactseries, coedited by Giorgio Bertellini, Richard Abel, andMatthew Solomon.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: “Nothing Like Going to an Authority!”

Part One. Power and Persuasion
1. Popular Sovereignty, Public Opinion, and the Presidency
2. Cultural Nationalism and Democracy’s Opinion Leaders
3. Wartime Film Stardom and Global Leadership

Part Two. The Divo, or the Governance of Romance
4. The Divo, New-Style Heavy
5. The Ballyhooed Art of Governing Romance
6. Stunts and Plebiscites

Part Three. The Duce, or the Romance of Undemocratic Governing
7. Promoting a Romantic Biography
8. National Leader, International Actor

Conclusions

Archival Sources
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Primary Sources
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.1.2019
• Reihe/Serie: Cinema Cultures in Contact
• Reihe/Serie: Cinema Cultures in Contact
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Ambassadors • America • american climate • authoritarian • Benito Mussolini • charismatic masculinity • Consumerism • democratic celebrations • democratic expansion of civil rights • dictator • isolationism • italian born star • Italy • Jazz Age • Journalists • male power • nativism • political popularity • post world war 1 • publicists • Public Opinion • rodolfo valentino • United States
• ISBN-10: 0-520-97217-1 / 0520972171
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-97217-9 / 9780520972179