The entertainment industry has existed through time but whereas centuries ago it might be its workers were a wretched lot, and subject to the whim of their employers, those involved in modern times are the elite of society, wearing the latest clothes and the finest shoes, owning wonderful homes, formerly the estates and grand mansions of the industrialists and landed gentry.
The early entertainers were found in circuses and the courts of the rich and powerful. In Rome, gladiators were effectively slaves whose life expectancy was limited as the crowds attending expected blood to be spilt.
Training was hard and even that was dangerous. A gladiator got his upkeep but rarely survived long enough to obtain his freedom which was a reward for a successful career. He was faced by equally desperate opponents and increasingly wild animals, lions and tigers which were starved to ensure their anger and ferocity when entering the arena.
Circuses weren't much fun for the participants. No fine clothes and barker shoes because when the barker barked out the news that the show was in town, he had to be ready to kill or be killed.
In the modern day circus, life is still hard but for different reasons. It is a nomadic life with the skills of the performers tested in other ways. The high wire and trapeze acts rely on their skill speed and agility to perform ever more dangerous moves, the animal trainers work in an environment when they can never totally relax, wary that a wild animal can revert to type at any time.
Other forms of entertainment, stage and screen and the sporting arena provide huge rewards for the successful. The movie industry was the first to bring entertainment to a mass audience and with television following on, faces were immediately recognizable. While initially it was the movie mogul who was rich, gradually it was the stars of the screen that enjoyed the benefits of wealth just as much. The latest fashions, barker shoes, expensive watches, yachts, even private planes, this new generation of rich people emerged.
In sport the change was equally dramatic. The soccer player of decades ago was no better off than the working man whose attendance at the local match was his main form of entertainment, relaxation from the hours of toil in the factory or shipyard. Attendances were high but admission cheap. Football Clubs were not rich as such and their workers were poorly paid.
Several things changed that but no more than satellite television and society's access to sport. The fees satellite companies were willing to secure sporting rights were astronomical and salaries rocketed as a result. It did not need a barker to announce a match was on, everybody knew and watched.
Multinational companies selling their cars, electronics, their fashion and watches, their perfumes and finance were ever eager to reach the mass market satellite television brought to our screens, and were willing to pay the price to fund sporting rights.
The era of the superstar had arrived and the fame and the wealth that goes with it.
