(1) By successful criminality, e,g, Dick Turpin who supposedly escaped hanging by riding to York and obtaining an alibi there (the jury could not believe he could have gotten himself so soon after his misdeed). The fact that the ride was done (in 1739) by someone else has never been allowed by the Great British Public to besmirch his reputation
(2) By becoming a successful self-publicist, e.g. Ben Franklin
(3) By becoming outstandingly useful, e.g. Sam Johnson who in 1755 published the first decent dictionary, which gave everyone who could buy or otherwise access it a means to “correct” their spelling
(4) Through outrageous sex, e.g France’s transvestite diplomat-spy, the Chevalier d’Eon or a little later in the century, the Duchess of Devonshire who won Charles James Fox his parliamentary seat by offering to kiss anyone voting for him (no secret ballot to hide one’s choice!).
(5) Through entertainment, e.g. David Garrick, actor manager of Drury Lane’s Theatre Royal in the 1760s-70s, or Sam Richardson’s realization that women were an almost untapped market for sexy novel writing (his first success, Clarissa, coming out in 1748)
BUT ABOVE ALL:
(6) Sport. If a stallion can be a person, then “Whistlejacket” the most famous racehorse of the age in his 1762 portrait by Stubbs still holds the pride of place in London’s National Gallery that Paris gives to the Mona Lisa, Amsterdam to Rembrandt’s Night Watch and Madrid to Velasquez’s Las Meninas: and you cannot have greater celebrity than that!.
Categorized | Affiliate Marketing 101
How Could A Person Become A Celebrity During The Time Of 1765?
Posted on May 22, 2013.
There was no such thing as a celebrity then. To be a celebrity , a lot of people have to be aware of your activities. Considering that most people couldn’t even read in 1765, they wouldn’t have known about anyone outside of their community at all. And they didn’t have the leisure to sit around thinking about other people – most of them worked hard from dawn until dusk. The concept of celebrity was unknown in this era.
Great question to ask on the LGBT category!
Perhaps you might learn to read and follow directions to get the reference section instead.
Oops probably not. You could write the first English dictionary as Mr. Ben Jonson did, although it was a decade or 2 earlier. He was not on the TV talk-show circuit, so in those days it took a while to hit the top 10.
Or, you could be John Milton and dictate the 12 books of “Paradise Lost” to your daughters while drinking way too much red wine. Harvard University has promised to give a law degree to anyone who can recite all 12 books (chapters, really), but so far their students would rather pay $100,000+ instead of memorizing poetry.
They didn’t have celebrities back then. The king and queen of England were famous. A mass murderer would have been famous. An inventor would could have been famous.
First you get a facebook and twitter account, so you can self promote yourself – then, invent a time machine and go back to 1765 and show people how many friends you have…. surely that will impress the legions of peasants.