The Enid Blyton Society

Some people say that royalty were the first celebrities in history!

Moonraker wrote:We didn't have celebrities in my childhood days.

What were The Beatles then? (Excuse me if they're not from you childhood days, I don't know the exact timeline of either your life or their rise to stardom. )

Yes, I was 12 when Love Me Do was released, Sunskriti. They weren't referred to as celebrities - not that I remember anyway! They were famous but if they had a noun it would probably have just been stars. We didn't have this celebrity culture then, certainly footballers' wives were never considered as stars or famous.

That's strange, because I've heard of the Beatle 'mania' gripping the world so many times, and it seems similar to the fascination for present day celebrities, just without the added madness of social media.
I certainly don't care for footballer' spouses, I'm only here for the actual action.

Darrell71 wrote:That's strange, because I've heard of the Beatle 'mania' gripping the world so many times, and it seems similar to the fascination for present day celebrities

My point was that the term/word celebrities wasn't used (to my knowledge) for famous people or pop stars in the 60s.

Ahh, ok. I get it now.

The nineteenth century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt inspired the same types of behavior in his fans that the Beatles would inspire over a century later. A critic of the time even called it "Lisztomania".

Totally remember this (I mean I remember reading about that) but honestly who wouldn't fall in love with Liszt!!!! He was just very handsome and an excellent pianist. So these two combined made the perfect man...

Darrell71 wrote:That's strange, because I've heard of the Beatle 'mania' gripping the world so many times, and it seems similar to the fascination for present day celebrities, just without the added madness of social media.
I certainly don't care for footballer' spouses, I'm only here for the actual action.

Talking about the Beatles, it is so sad what modern music has become. Wish all the singers of today had the quality of those of the past..

Queen wrote a song about the C-lebrity...

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Machupicchu14 wrote: Talking about the Beatles, it is so sad what modern music has become. Wish all the singers of today had the quality of those of the past..

I don't think all of modern music is a lost cause though. Despacito and Shape of You don't represent the entire era. There will always be good musicians and bad ones, and I think we have our fair share of both too.

Oh I am not referring to those exactly (can't even talk about them) but in general the quality of music is not the same. (Bands and singers may have good voice but definitely the songs are just not the same) this is from a person who has grown up between two eras in music. But that doesn't mean there isn't good music nowadays because I'm fairness there is...

KEVP wrote:Some people say that royalty were the first celebrities in history!

Funnily enough, the other day after Christmas shopping in Windsor (never a fun experience!), I was Googling members of the Royal Family, and I do seem to remember the death of a Princess Alice being announced on the news in the early 1980s. Again, I had never previously heard of her, but it's fascinating (if not rather scary) to think I can recall the deaths of people who go way back into history. I see I was born the day before Princess Alice's 90th birthday which makes me feel rather old! Apart from people like Jeanne Calment who were only famous for their longevity, 1883 is possibly the earliest birthdate of a famous person whose death I remember.

I remember being fascinated by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) as well because his name kept cropping up every year in the birthdays list as he got older and older. I gathered he had something to do with music, but didn't quite understand his significance...

I have just found this topic and have been reading through it. My first recollection, like others who have said the same, was the death of King George VI. I was four at the time and was happily playing with my toys on the floor and my mum was doing the ironing and I remember saying to my mum ‘Why are they playing all this music?’ as the Light Programme never played that type of music and there were no children’s programmes on, and her reply was ‘Because the King has died’. I still have this vision of that day whenever it is mentioned, although it was nearly 70 years ago.

I also recall the death of George VI very vividly, Boatbuilder. I posted the following last December:

The death of King George VI on 6th February 1952 is the first one I really remember. I was eight years old and I recall the whole school being sent home at lunchtime. My sister, Jane was born on this day and so this is another reason for remembering it so vividly.