BY JANE HENDERSONSt. Louis PostDispatch
Which sold more copies of People magazine? The "sexiest men alive" or lovely young women with problems?
It's the women â€" particularly Princess Diana, who graced the cover more than any other person, says Landon Y. Jones, a retired head editor of People.
"The frailties of movie stars, rock stars, sports superstars and royals are central to their appeal," Jones writes in his new book, "Celebrity Nation." "We gain a seeming intimacy that makes us comfortable judging them."
When Diana's marriage problems were highlighted in one issue in 1992, Hillary Clinton grabbed the magazine from Jones' hand, saying, "Oh, she never should have married so young!"
Jones uses the anecdote as an illustration of how celebrity gossip is "the world's backyard fence." And of the irony of Clinton's comment, considering how many times she'd be the object of news, gossip and scandal over the following decades.
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Jones comes to his hometown of St. Louis on July 13 to discuss his book. It's a history of America's cultish fascination with celebrities, which has multiplied like an out-of-control virus since people such as Mark Twain and Charles Lindbergh were among America's early superstars.
Marketers, media and celebrities forged a "marriage made in heaven," he says from his home in Princeton, New Jersey. A financial boon for all three.
But between the famous and their fans, it's a "parasocial" relationship, he says:
"You think you know someone famous, but you don't. The fans think they have an intimate relationship with them, but the celebrities don't know the fans. It's a one-way street."
The risks of such fandom can lead to anxiety, depression, eating disorders and overspending. Young people compare themselves to the fantasy lives of celebrities and feel lacking.
At the same time, celebrities suffer from anxiety, extreme narcissism and drug abuse: Jones points out that studies show famous women, in particular, have shorter lifespans than average folks.
Jones summarizes his conclusion after decades of observation: "Beware of celebrity."
Now 79, Jones was with Time magazine and then People, which was founded in 1974 after a Time Inc. executive's wife suggested it, saying most Time readers flock to its "People" page.
Born in Georgia while his father served in World War II, Jones and his family moved to St. Louis when he was a toddler. His father, Landon Y. Jones Sr., became CFO of Pet Milk Inc. His mother, Ellen Edmondson Jones, who died at 103 in 2021, was on the board of many institutions. "She was really active in St. Louis, Jones says. "You name it, she did it."
Her outgoing nature was a great influence on him. "I love to meet people," he says.
As a boy, Lanny suffered hearing loss at age 4, which he attributes to a bad case of mumps, and learned to lip read to help him understand speakers. He attended St. Louis Country Day School, graduating in 1962, then went on to Princeton University (later, he would edit its Princeton Alumni Weekly). In addition to working at Time and People, Jones also served as an editor of Money magazine. Along the way, he wrote an early look at boomers with "Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation" (1984).
He retired from magazines just as the 20th century was ending, then went to work on more books. He's the editor of 2000's "The Essential Lewis and Clark," from the explorers' journals. He thought he'd then write a "fun" book about their canoe travel. But 2004's "William Clark and the Shaping of the West" turned out to have more about Clark's role in Indian removal than any paddling adventures.
He says he was surprised to learn about Clark's long work in Indian removal. "Now, of course, we take it for granted."
As much as Jones enjoys meeting people, he says he never was all that keen to hobnob with celebrities, and his "Celebrity Nation" takes a serious and critical look at the history of celebrity culture, describing how celebrities are no longer the "heroes" they used to be.
Although his People work in the 1990s was as managing editor, he has also met and interviewed presidents, activists and actors, saying that he was often surprised by their warmth and likeability. The first time he was so surprised was when as a Princeton sophomore he interviewed Malcolm X in 1963.
He writes: "At this time, the word celebrity was not in common use, especially in politics. There was no narrative of celebrity for Malcolm to 'fit' into, especially as a Black man. The role that some celebrities would come to play as the agents of social change was not yet recognized."
But the man described in the media as akin to a terrorist turned out to be "patient, with a professorial bearing, and not at all angry," Jones writes. "He sat with us and answered all of our questions thoughtfully and uncompromisingly."
It wasn't the last time Jones found that his assumptions about famous people were askew. His book is informed by notes he took decades ago after interviews with people such as Bill Gates and Elizabeth Taylor (he found her "serious and selfaware" and a "genuine heroine in the battle against AIDS"). Taylor's swing from celebrity to do-gooder is emblematic of the effort some famous people take today in supporting causes.
Regarding People magazine, he notes that its first issue only featured one actor, Mia Farrow, who was on the cover. Inside there was an author, Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and a 24-year-old musician, Bruce Springsteen. He writes: "We told the public we were writing about extraordinary people. But in reality we began portraying celebrities as ordinary people."
In efforts to sell 1 million copies from newstands, the magazine soon came to the conclusion that nothing sold better "than the celebrity dead." In 1977, it shied away from putting Elvis Presley's death on the cover. But by 1980, it had no such qualms featuring the killing of John Lennon. The cover featuring Princess Diana's death in 1997 became the magazine's all-time bestseller, he writes.
The magazine's first editor, Dick Stolley, came up with rules regarding cover-subject sales, including that "young stars sell better than old" and "pretty sells better than ugly."
An unspoken rule, Jones attests, was that "white sells better than Black. Cicely Tyson was the only Black celebrity on People's cover in the first year." It took several years before Black people were cover subjects more frequently and that a Black man was deemed the "sexiest man alive." (Denzel Washington took the honor in 1996; Mel Gibson was first in 1985.)
Celebrities often say that the media is their biggest stressor, but often they can't stop pursuing attention. Jones points to Prince Harry as an example.
It's hard to play the game of being a celebrity and not suffer the paparazzi, he says: "If they want to avoid media, they have to pull back."
Over the years, several technological changes in media have increased celebrity culture, Jones says, from the invention of printed books, to reproducible images in print and on screens, and finally the invention of the internet and social media.
He finds hope, though, in celebrities who are actively helping communities, he writes:
"Celebrity is ultimately at the core of an ecosystem that empowers an entire spiderweb of industries, including social media, nightlife, entertainment, fashion, publishing, television, and much more. We are now in the awkward period when we try to look past the newest technologies to see if celebrities can approach the public naturally and honestly, unmediated by intense media coverage. If celebrities themselves can gain the self-awareness needed to do so, there is hope." He points to work by Greta Thunberg on climate change and actor Michael J. Fox on Parkinson's disease.
Although celebrity "gossip" can be natural and doesn't always seem harmful, Jones says that celebrity culture does damage in three ways: to the celebrities themselves (drug use, shorter lives, mental illness), to fans (who see a distorted reality, suffer low self-esteem) and to society (rise of narcissism, racial disparities, celebrity politicians who promote lies).
Today, many young people tell researchers that their goal is to be famous or to work for someone famous. His advice?
"Be yourself, help others and don't worry about being famous. Being a celebrity can hurt you." Jane Henderson • 314-340-8107 @STLbooks on Twitter jhenderson@post-dispatch.com
When • 6 p.m. July 13
Where • Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue
More info • left-bank.com
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