"Mad About the Blonde": Lydia Thompson's transatlantic fandom

Abstract

Lydia Thompson, the nineteenth-century British dancer and comedienne, had an active following in America and achieved immense success there – more so than in her own country, in terms of fandom and remuneration. The impact of Thompson’s performances on audiences is considered here, in order to reveal the parasocial relationships her public persona inspired in her female fans in the United States. This essay relies on the life writing of Thompson and one of her fans to evidence the ways in which celebrity culture mediated transatlantic cultural exchange in the mid to late nineteenth century. Focus is cast on the encounters and parasocial interactions – interactions that occur across a significant social distance – between Thompson and her fans and how this exposed her cultural consumers to new constructions of public and private identity. It explores how, and on what terms, Lydia Thompson became an ‘intimate stranger’ (Schickel, 1985) to her female fans, and in what ways, she was a celebrity.

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ORCID for Holly Gale Millette: orcid.org/0000-0003-4731-3138

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