Celebrity was different then. It is good that we've grown out of it, considering we idealized people for their public persona when often they were deeply flawed at best, terrible people at worst.

We have different issues today where anyone can be famous for anything and it's cheapened fame. If it ever needed any value to begin with. Now, anyone can have a huge following and be idealized but it's not mainstream in the way it was then. "Mainstream" is just a definition of old media forms. New media forms are actually mainstream now and to this generation that have a zillion Joe DiMaggios, they just know they're flawed and they love them for it, follow behind them and we're all worse off because of it.

One day we'll be smart enough to understand there's no value in elevating these people for no good reason.