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Description:

The first real celebrity was a poet? Guess our standards have changed.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Lord Byron a la Shmoop. Celebrities today are often famous for something

00:13

besides their actual job.

00:15

Sure, they might occasionally star in a blockbuster movie…

00:19

…but people are talking about them because they’re feuding with other celebrities or…

00:22

unwittingly starring in a racy online video.

00:26

But celebrities existed before E! News and paparazzi, they just didn’t have a word

00:31

for it.

00:32

Is it possible that Lord Byron was the world’s first celebrity?

00:37

Like George Clooney, Byron was famous for his devastating good looks and his scandalous

00:41

personal life.

00:47

And just as Clooney occasionally does a movie or two, Byron may have written one or two

00:51

famous works.

00:52

In a pre-Hollywood world, poetry was hot. But Byron’s looks and behavior were even

00:57

hotter.

00:59

Lord Byron was crazy enough to have been on the cover of a tabloid, if they existed back

01:04

then.

01:04

He claimed to live on a diet of vinegar and potatoes. Could that have been the first celebrity

01:09

diet craze?

01:11

And just like people throw their underpants at the Rolling Stones, women sent Byron fan

01:15

mail. Sometimes very personal items.

01:18

How much would it have cost to ship a girdle back then?

01:21

He wasn’t just defined by his poetry and his adoring fans.

01:25

Just as Sean Penn is always on his soap box about something, Byron, too, had his pet causes.

01:32

He fought for Greek independence.

01:34

Not only did his poetry help raise awareness for the cause, he trucked it over there to

01:38

raise funds and procure supplies.

01:42

What sets Byron apart from many modern celebs is that he actually died for this cause. He

01:47

came down with a fever and died in Greece.

01:50

Do you think Sarah McLachlan would take a bullet to save a stray dog? Yeah, we don’t

01:58

think so either.

02:01

Perhaps cementing his celebrity status, Byron lived fast and died young.

02:05

He was like James Dean, the rebel without a cause… not James Deen, the X-rated film

02:11

actor.

02:11

Although with Byron, who knows? He might have been a little of both if video cameras were

02:15

around back then…

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