Smith The Thrill Makers

Celebrity, Masculinity, and Stunt Performance
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-520-95236-2
Verlag: Springer Publishing Company
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 282 Seiten

Well before Evel Knievel or Hollywood stuntmen, reality television or the X Games, North America had a long tradition of stunt performance, of men (and some women) who sought media attention and popular fame with public feats of daring. Many of these feats-jumping off bridges, climbing steeples and buildings, swimming incredible distances, or doing tricks with wild animals-had their basis in the manual trades or in older entertainments like the circus. In The Thrill Makers, Jacob Smith shows how turn-of-the-century bridge jumpers, human flies, lion tamers, and stunt pilots first drew crowds to their spectacular displays of death-defying action before becoming a crucial, yet often invisible, component of Hollywood film stardom. Smith explains how these working-class stunt performers helped shape definitions of American manhood, and pioneered a form of modern media celebrity that now occupies an increasingly prominent place in our contemporary popular culture.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smith, Jacob