ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Literary Topics Videos 221 videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Dr. Seuss was a failure to start, but he soon learned to follow his heart. He wrote books about things that he knew, and soon enough, his book sale...
Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?
Lord Byron 377 Views
Share It!
Description:
The first real celebrity was a poet? Guess our standards have changed.
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.
Full Transcript
- 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…
Related Videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...
