I’d like to come at the issue from a different angle that really goes to the same basic point.
That is: Who (or what) from the past is the best counterpart to today’s version on the list?
The only specific one I have in mind is Pia Zadora for Paris Hilton. Her day in the sun was not all that long-lived so I can see Paris going the way of Pia in fairly short order. And if you have to ask who Pia is/was that’s my main point.
But I think it may be fun, especially for the older crowd, to try to conjure up examples from the past for these folks and any others whose 15 minutes of fame are on the verge of fade-out.
It doesn’t have to be as much as 10 years ago either. I suspect we have much more recent counterparts for people like Sanjaya.
Anyway, it’s an idea for some fun and games. And if you have some specific “flash in the pan” celebrity types of the past who have identifiable copies these days, don’t hesitate to list those pairs, too.
I hate to thread-poop, but Tiny Tim is one of the most misunderstood characters of the past century because he was treated like a weirdo novelty on some late shows. He was actually an incredibly gifted songwriter and he had an encyclopedic knowledge of nineteenth and twentieth century songwriting, especially pre-rock vaudeville and tin pan alley stuff. I remember reading a review of one of his shows where he did completely forgotten pop songs from 1879 to 1979 in chronological order without breaking a sweat.
His whole warbling falsetto thing is often misunderstood as well; in “Tiptoe through the tulips,” he was emulating the old 78 rpm version of the song where the singer sang it in a high, vaudevillian style. He actually had a deep baritone voice, and would often do duets with himself where he alternated a deep bass part with a higher falsetto part. On “On the Old Front Porch” (my favorite of his songs), he makes it a trio, doing two man voices and one woman voice.
That aside, I don’t think that there’s a modern analogue to him. They broke the mold, so to speak.
He also stopped the show at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970. Hundreds of thousands of hippies who came to hear the Doors, ELP, Jethro Tull and the like actually gave him a HUGE hand for his rendition of “There’ll Always Be an England” sung through a megaphone.
He was a seriously strange guy… but he was also unique. I can’t think of any current celebrity who bears any real resemblance to him. It’s easy to imitate Tiny Tim’s quirks, but it’s not easy to duplicate the talent that lay under all those quirks.
Oh yeah- on one interview I watched with him he was asked what he’d have been had he not become a singer and he said either a porn star or a minister, and he wasn’t joking. He also discussed why he wore Depends and other adult undergarments- it wasn’t because he had control problems but because it was cheaper than buying underwear “which you only wear one time and then throw away” (speaking as if everybody does this) and how he sometimes went months eating nothing but potatoes (wasn’t due to lack of money but preference). Very very weird man- but agree about the talent and misunderstood as a musical historian.
I’ve heard Paris Hilton called this generation’s Zsa-Zsa (who was once married to her great-grandfather), but I dispute that majorly. For one thing, Zsa Zsa was self-made and for another she was just a helluva lot classier and more refined. She was more a classic courtesan (though she married a lot of her men) ala Niñon de Lenclos (sp?) or Nell Gwynne, but with much better business sense. Paris is more on par with Gloria Vanderbilt’s mother (Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt)- airheaded promiscuous heiress of no real talents.
My picks for reincarnated celebrities:
Evelyn Nesbit = Anna Nicole Smith
Andy Kaufman = Sasha Baron Cohen (though I find SBC good for at least an occasional laugh)
Unity Mitford = Ann Coulter
Sarah Bernhardt = Angelina Jolie (the brilliant at self-promoting her own bizarreness but nevertheless highly talented and genuinely caring actress and headline regular)
Richard M. Nixon = George Bush (not just because he’s a corrupt Republican president but the paranoia/thin-skinned/power abusing towards enemies things)
Eva Peron = Hilary Clinton (not just the “married to a powerful man” thing but the 'propelling him/promoting him/cheering him louder in times of scandal/using his power to promote herself"
STAR TREK (any incarnation) - pretty much every classical Greek hero/troupe that went on series of exotic adventures in far-off and mystical lands. Specifically: Herakles, Odysseus, and Jason.
Reality Television - apparently, during the First Battle of Manassas during the Civil War, some of the locals brought their picnic baskets out to near where the troops were engaging and sat down to watch what was considered a minor skirmish at the time.
Fundamentalist Islam - the Flagellants who splintered off from the Christian church and became popular largely as a result of the Black Death in the 1300s.
Christian Right as a major political influence - English Puritans as a major political influence. Although not the majority group, they (under Oliver Cromwell) did manage to get the king executed, shut the theatres down, and rule England for a few decades.
Tiny Tim was like most rock bands of today in that he performed in an idiom that had been in vogue forty years earlier.
As for Angelina Jolie, given the peculiar relationships with father and brother there seems something Jane Fonda-ish about her.
Justin Timberlake is like a new Bobby Darin - teen-idol fame early on… romance with teen-idol counterpart… artistic ambition grows… talents become more apparent and remarked-upon.
Regarding Nixon, you left out “insecure” and “paranoid”. So far, Bush himself hasn’t really come across as either of these. Unfortunately I think that’s because he and his supporters are off in their own little universe where the sky isn’t blue.