High Society from a Global Perspective, or: The Fabrication of Zsa Zsa Gabor

Abstract

This paper seeks to capture the relationship between media visibility, social mobility, and the formation of social groups in the 20th century by introducing the concept of "high society." In many countries around the world between the 1880s and 1920s, the traditional focus in journalism on politics and economics shifted towards a new form of so-called society news and gossip. In this context, high society emerged as a social group that was no longer determined solely by family ties, wealth, or profession, but rather by mass media visibility. Media professionals decided who was "in" high society - and who was not - while high-society members and those who wanted to become part of it adopted a distinctive media-related behavior. Thus, the practices of self-mediatization that we now associate with social media are part of a historical development that stretches back to the first half of the 20th century. Moving beyond "class," "elite," or "celebrity," the paper outlines the key features of high society by revisiting the extraordinary life of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Firstly, Gabor's often belittled career exemplifies how social status in the 20th century developed within specific media constellations (press, film, radio, television) and was connected to constantly changing media and performance skills. Alongside race, class, gender, and nationality, age and the body therefore came to the fore as central categories that structured society. Secondly, her journey from Hungary to the United States, her transnational relationships, and her sweeping fame raise the question of high society’s global reach and the connectedness of the mass media and its publics.