Katherine Fusco

Katherine Fusco, an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, discusses her book on Hollywood’s unconventional stars. She delves into the complex relationships between early cinema, race, and gender, highlighting how atypical stars like Lon Chaney challenged audience perceptions. Fusco explores Shirley Temple's career against the backdrop of child labor laws and analyzes how marginalized identities were navigated within the star system. Her insights reveal the limits of empathy in film and the ways the industry managed audience attachments.