Among the casualties of the Great War were old money and the old aristocracy; out of the ashes rose consumerism and marketing and a new, more equitable American star system featuring rags-to-riches heroes: Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Clara Bow, and Rudolph Valentino. Their ascendance from lower stations, palpable need for public approbation, personal tragedies, and failings—and, critically, their triumphs over those tragedies and failings—affirmed the animating principle of the American dream.
