June 17, 2024: Simpson Trial Figures: O.J. Simpson

[On June 17th,1994, O.J. Simpson was arrested by the LAPD. The subsequent trial featureda number of individuals whosestories have a great deal to tell us about America, then, now, andoverall, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of Simpson trial figures.Leading up to a special weekend post from one of my favorite youngAmericanStudiers!]

On how OJreflected celebrity culture, how he changed it, and what can’t be captured bythat frame.

At thetime of his 1994 arrest, O.J. Simpson was likely best known to many Americansfor his supporting role as DetectiveNordberg in the popular Naked Gun comedies;the third and final such film, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The FinalInsult (1994) had been released in theaters just a few months beforethe arrest. Simpson wasn’t the first famous athlete to act in a comedy from the filmmakersresponsible for the Naked Gun series,nor was he the first famous football player (or even running back) to parlaythat sports success intoan acting career. Indeed, if the rise of celebrity culture was a central elementof American society in the second half of the 20th century, sportscelebrities, and more exactly athletes who crossed over into other culturalmedia and broader overarching fame, were quite representative of that trend. Inthat sense Simpson in the 1980s and 90s was just an example of a much largerset of trends, and likely not one who would have particularly stood out fromthe crowd were it not for everything that happened in and after 1994.

When thoseshocking 1994 events transpired, however, O.J. Simpson’s brand of celebritychanged, and I would argue that this story likewise changed celebrity coverageand culture overall. The infamous white Bronco chase is anespecially telling case in point: this wasn’t a celebrity appearing on screen intentionally,in projects like films or TV shows that reflect choices and career and contributeto a crafted image; these were raw, unfiltered videos of a celebrity fleeingaccusations of (and arrest for) having committed a heinous crime, pursued bylaw enforcement, threatening his own life, surrounded by gawkers and paparazzialike, chaotic glimpses into the hardest and darkest realities of life to whichany of us might be connected. Of course there had been celebritycriminals and trials before, and public obsessions with figures like Bonnie& Clyde or Wild West outlaws.But this was perhaps the first 24/7cable news celebrity crime story, and so again I would argue that in thesemoments Simpson became and remained a distinctly different form of celebritythan we had ever seen before.

That newform of celebrity unquestionably influenced the trial as well, as I’ll continueconsidering in later posts in this series. But the Peoplev. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) TV show, which I recentlyrewatched with my sons due to the American Legal class connection you’ll hearmore about in the weekend post, starts with clips from a very different newsstory and its cable news coverage: the Rodney King beating,the acquittal of the officers involved, and the resultingLA riots. And I would agree with the show’s implication there (and willexplore layers to these themes in my next couple posts), that a great deal of whatunfolded in the Simpson trial had more to do with those contexts of race,justice, and community than it did with celebrity culture. In a justifiably famous moment from the show,O.J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) exclaims, “I’m not Black! I’m O.J.!” Buthowever famous Simpson had become, he was also still Black, and at the veryleast we can’t separate his celebrity from those communal contexts.

Nextfigure tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Simpson trial figures or stories you’d highlight?