Early film studios hid their actors' names to stop them asking for raises
Fame feels like a Hollywood invention, yet historian Greg Jenner traces the first true celebrities to the early 1700s. Long before cinema, Lord Byron woke up famous, Liszt drove concert crowds into a frenzy, and a London socialite named Lillie Langtry became the first star paid to promote a product: Pears Soap.
Celebrity means wide public recognition generated by mass media, and the word usually carries a flattering tone that neutral terms like famous lack. Greg Jenner, in his 2020 book Dead Famous, defines a celebrity as a persona whose life is consumed as entertainment and whose brand earns money for others and sometimes for the person. Sociologists once dated the phenomenon to early Hollywood, but Jenner names Henry Sacheverell, who lived in the early 1700s, as his first example. Older precedents exist too: victorious Greek athletes got free food and poems, and Julius Caesar put his own face on a coin while alive.
The 19th century built the machinery. Gossip columns appeared in newspapers, and Madame Tussauds opened on Baker Street in 1835; Punch joked in 1849 that nobody counted as popular without a wax double there. Byron became famous overnight in 1812 after Childe Harold's Pilgrimage appeared. Lisztomania, starting in 1841, set the pattern for fan behaviour around musicians. Langtry's stage debut in 1881 caused a sensation, her soap campaign followed a year later, and Oscar Wilde's case in 1895 is described as one of the first celebrity trials.
Cinema complicated things at first. In the 1900s, American producers refused to publish performers' names, even when audiences asked, fearing salary demands. That resistance collapsed, and stars' private lives, from Elizabeth Taylor's marriages to Raj Kapoor's affairs in the 1950s, became front-page material. Television later made presenters and newsreaders famous, and Pelé's showing at the 1958 World Cup helped create the idea of a global sports superstar.
Money followed attention. Forbes has ranked top earners since 1987, and its Celebrity 100 took in a combined 4.5 billion dollars in 2010. Many stars moved into business: Paul Newman sold salad dressing, and David Beckham co-owns Inter Miami, which began playing in 2020. Most celebrities, though, never succeed as entrepreneurs, and some went broke chasing side ventures.
Source: Celebrity
