A01=Jacob Smith
adrenaline junkies
adrenaline lovers
Author_Jacob Smith
base jumping
books about daring stunts
books for young adults
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
death defying stunts explained
discussion books
easy to read
engaging
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evel knievel
fun books to read
history
history of stunts
hollywood
how to be a stunt double
how to do a trick
incredible humans
learning from experts
leisure reads
page turner
popular culture
quarantine books
sky diving
start of media
stunt double history
stunt pilots
thrill makers
vacation reads
x games
Product details
- ISBN 9780520270893
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2012
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Well before Evel Knievel or Hollywood stuntmen, reality television or the X Games, North America had a long tradition of stunt performance, of men (and some women) who sought media attention and popular fame with public feats of daring. Many of these feats - jumping off bridges, climbing steeples and buildings, swimming incredible distances, or doing tricks with wild animals - had their basis in the manual trades or in older entertainments like the circus. In "The Thrill Makers", Jacob Smith shows how turn-of-the-century bridge jumpers, human flies, lion tamers, and stunt pilots first drew crowds to their spectacular displays of death-defying action before becoming a crucial, yet often invisible, component of Hollywood film stardom. Smith explains how these working-class stunt performers helped shape definitions of American manhood, and pioneered a form of modern media celebrity that now occupies an increasingly prominent place in our contemporary popular culture.
Jacob Smith is Assistant Professor at the School of Communications at Northwestern University. He is the author of Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media, and Spoken Word: Postwar American Phonograph Cultures (both UC Press).
