So many celebrities have been created that we can reasonably expect in the near future a celebrity death every single day, especially when the baby boomers start expiring. This could get a bit depressing! Will People Magazine become a daily?
There are already celebrity deaths every day. Depending on your definition of “celebrity”.
It’ll make scoring in the Celebrity Death Pool 2028 thread easier.
It all depends on who you call a “celebrity.” When I was growing up, celebrity deaths were a regular part of the nightly news, but it wa nobody anny of us Generation Xers knew …
Walter Cronkite: “Finally, some sad news: Sam Delvecchio died in his sleep last night, at the age of 78.”
Mom: “Oh my God! Remember him? That’s so sad …”
Me: “Who the hell was Sam Delvecchio?”
Dad: “He was the leader of the leader of Sam Delvecchio And His 10,000 Trumpet Orchestra. They were really big in the summer of '46 …”
Me: ???
During the 1970s and 1980s, not a day went by without some obscure – to my generation, at least – faded Broadway actor, big band leader, crooning one-hit wonder or silent/early talkie movie star passed away.
I take exception to the idea that there are “so many celebrities” today compared to previous eras. I remember a LOT of people who were big for a short while when I was growing up in the 70s who wouldn’t even get a glimmer of recognition from anyone born before 1980: Barbie Benton, Rodney Alan Rippey, Brett Summers (who actually DID die recently, and only got remembered because Game Show Network has been running Match Game reruns for a couple of years now), Rip Taylor (who is really only remembered by 70s kids who watched way too much Sigmund & the Sea Monsters), etc., etc., etc…hell, watching reruns of the old Love Boat is enough to let you know just how many “celebrities” were around in the 70s!
This is not an era any more packed with celebrities than any era of the mass media has been. There are more flashes in the pan because of greater access to the public eye (reality shows, youtube, etc), but I defy the average person on the street to name all the contestants on the first Survivor, or name the “Leave Brittney alone!” guy. They aren’t celebrities, they’re wannabes.