Twilight of the idols : Hollywood and the human sciences in 1920s America / Mark Lynn Anderson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The early Hollywood scandals and the death of Wallace Reid -- Psychoanalysis and fandom in the Leopold and Loeb trial -- Queer Valentino -- Black Valentino -- Mabel Normand and the ends of error.

Print version record.

This book revisits some of the sensational scandals of early Hollywood to evaluate their importance for our contemporary understanding of human deviance. By analyzing changes in the star system and by exploring the careers of individual starsWallace Reid, Rudolph Valentino, and Mabel Normand among themMark Lynn Anderson shows how the eras celebrity culture shaped public ideas about personality and human conduct and played a pivotal role in the emergent human sciences of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Anderson looks at motion picture stars who embodied various forms of deviancenarcotic addiction, criminality, sexual perversion, and racial indeterminacy. He considers how the studios profited from popularizing ideas about deviance, and how the debates generated by the early Hollywood scandals continue to affect our notions of personality, sexuality, and public morals.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide