In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

STARS 213
striking inability to live a life of happiness with their partners and
relatives come together in the stars' public personae. This is why Charlie
Chaplin, alluding to the private frustrations that may have contributed
to Valentino's death at the height of his career, speaks of this event as
"one of the greatest tragedies that has occurred in the history of the
motion picture industry" (Robinson, 369). [see Action = Impotence
(Tragedy)] Most stars are acutely aware of the dual-level nature of their
existence, and, somewhat astonishingly, it does not seem to work against
them if they publicly speak about its implicit problems. Dempsey describes
his "pal" Valentino as "an intelligent, oversensitive individual
who allowed himself to be packaged by Hollywood and didn't like the
result" (Dempsey and Dempsey, 195). Beginning with her very first
Hollywood movie, Greta Garbo insists on the distinction between her
own artistic appreciation of her films and the simultaneous awareness
that "as a commodity [she] was quite precious to MGM" (Gronowicz,
187). It thus no longer make a difference for the status of the established
stars whether they decide to actively join the sphere of artificial glamour
or stay at a distance from it. [see Authenticity vs. Artificiality] In either
case, they cannot avoid having their private lives exposed on the public
stage. Instead of resisting this exposure, stars might as well give in to the
demands of their fans-and shake hands with Albert Einstein and Mahatma
Gandhi, as Chaplin does (Chaplin, 320ff., 340ff.); pose for the
press in bathrobes at the breakfast table, like Babe Ruth and Jack
Dempsey (Ritter and Rucker, 118); or appear at the fabulous parties
organized by the media magnate William Randolph Hearst and his
mistress Marion Davies, where the short-circuit between the private
sphere and the public sphere is symbolically closed (Chaplin, 308ff.;
Dempsey and Dempsey, 191).
Meanwhile, highly skilled managers exploit every opportunity on the
market for the stars to attract the world's gaze. Hollywood actors regularly
attend the premieres of their films on the East Coast (Orbanz, 136).
Appearing on the stages of vaudeville theaters and in daily exhibition
games during the off-season, Babe Ruth tours numerous cities between
Minneapolis and California that have no major league teams-and the
baseball commissioner has long given his blessing to such "barnstorming"
(Ritter and Rucker, 148). [see Center = Periphery (Infinitude)] Even
the highly conservative organization that regulates tennis is willing to
temporarily suspend the formal demarcation between amateur and pro-