What happens when an actor owns shares in the stage on which he performs and the newspapers that review his performances? Celebrity that lasts over 240 years. From 1741, David Garrick dominated the London theatre world as the progenitor of a new 'natural' style of acting. From 1747 to 1776, he was a part-owner and manager of Drury Lane, controlling most aspects of the theatre's life. In a spectacular foreshadowing of today's media convergences, he also owned shares in papers including the St James's Chronicle and the Public Advertiser, which advertised and reviewed Drury Lane's theatrical productions. This book explores the nearly inconceivable level of cultural power generated by Garrick's entrepreneurial manufacture and mediation of his own celebrity. Using new technologies and extensive archival research, this book uncovers fresh material concerning Garrick's ownership and manipulation of the media, offering timely reflections for theatre history and media studies.
By:
Leslie Ritchie (Queen's University Ontario)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 158mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 640g
ISBN: 9781108475877
ISBN 10: 1108475876
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 17 January 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction; 1. A view of London's mediascape, circa 1741–1776; 2. Proofs: Garrick's involvement in the mediascape; 3. Advertising and brand Garrick: infinite variety; 4. A short history of negative publicity; 5. Prompting, inside and outside the theatre; Conclusion: Garrick re-collected.
Leslie Ritchie is Associate Professor of English Literature at Queen's University, Ontario. She is the recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant and has received fellowships at the Houghton Library, Harvard, and the Folger Shakespeare Library for her work on David Garrick. Ritchie's previous work includes Women Writing Music in Late Eighteenth-Century England (2008).
Reviews for David Garrick and the Mediation of Celebrity
'There is much new material here - thanks to Ritchie's expert mining of manuscript and archival materials - for theater historians and scholars of media. Fine illustrations; full bibliography ... Highly recommended.' E. D. Hill, Choice 'Leslie Ritchie's meticulous David Garrick and the Mediation of Celebrity joins such re-considerations of the assumptions and anecdotes that shape the study of eighteenth-century theatre - and particularly of its most famous actor-manager.' Julia H. Fawcett, Theatre Journal
