ABSTRACT
Active media fandom is so widely assumed to be a contemporary phenomenon that students look at me quizzically when, in teaching reception studies research methods, I broach the subject of studying historical audiences and past fandoms. They ask how can we analyze fans and the relationships that they formed, decades ago, with film, radio, television or other media objects, if we cannot directly observe or interview enthusiastic viewers? Some scholars approach the research exclusively through a theoretical lens of film spectatorship, through teasing out fans’ fervor from the media objects themselves. While cultural theories always play a major role in analyzing and extrapolating from the evidence we can uncover, that is not the only avenue for the study of past fandoms.
