Reel 1389

(Documentary/Series) Debut: Writer and British-TV personality Clive James hosts this entertaining eight-hour BBC exploration of the nature of fame in the 20th century. James begins by examining how newspapers, moving pictures and recorded sound helped propel people to fame. Among the famous figures observed: President Theodore Roosevelt (who "realized that a simple, manly image would win him fame, and fame would win him elections"), Houdini, the Red Baron, T.E. Lawrence, Lenin, Henry Ford, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo ("mystery made her a bigger star"), and Charlie Chaplin (pictured), who, in his day, "filled the sky as the most famous person in the world." The second hour picks up after World War I, profiling celebrities such as Al Jolson, Laurel and Hardy, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Marlene Dietrich, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Noel Coward, the Marx Brothers, Jean Harlow, Mae West, George Gershwin, Fred Astaire and Charles Lindbergh, "the greatest shy hero of all time." (2:00) Last 10 Min. on tape # 1284.

Documentary/Series. Debut: Writer and British-TV personality Clive James hosts this entertaining eight-hour BBC exploration of the nature of fame in the 20th century. James begins by examining how newspapers, moving pictures and recorded sound helped propel people to fame. Among the famous figures observed: President Theodore Roosevelt (who "realized that a simple, manly image would win him fame, and fame would win him elections"), Houdini, the Red Baron, T.E. Lawrence, Lenin, Henry Ford, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo ("mystery made her a bigger star"), and Charlie Chaplin (pictured), who, in his day, "filled the sky as the most famous person in the world." The second hour picks up after World War I, profiling celebrities such as Al Jolson, Laurel and Hardy, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Marlene Dietrich, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Noel Coward, the Marx Brothers, Jean Harlow, Mae West, George Gershwin, Fred Astaire and Charles Lindbergh, "the greatest shy hero of all time." (2:00) Last 10 Min. on tape # 1284.

Documentary/Series. Debut: Writer and British-TV personality Clive James hosts this entertaining eight-hour BBC exploration of the nature of fame in the 20th century. James begins by examining how newspapers, moving pictures and recorded sound helped propel people to fame. Among the famous figures observed: President Theodore Roosevelt (who "realized that a simple, manly image would win him fame, and fame would win him elections"), Houdini, the Red Baron, T.E. Lawrence, Lenin, Henry Ford, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo ("mystery made her a bigger star"), and Charlie Chaplin (pictured), who, in his day, "filled the sky as the most famous person in the world." The second hour picks up after World War I, profiling celebrities such as Al Jolson, Laurel and Hardy, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Marlene Dietrich, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Noel Coward, the Marx Brothers, Jean Harlow, Mae West, George Gershwin, Fred Astaire and Charles Lindbergh, "the greatest shy hero of all time." (2:00) Last 10 Min. on tape # 1284.