What is it about?
This chapter offers a critical reflection on Looking for Archie, a walking tour of Cary Grant’s Bristol, speaking to the themes of “fandom communities and engagement” and “embodied experiences”. The first section outlines the tour and its relationship with my wider curatorial practice as director of the Cary Comes Home Festival, situating it within the context of cinematic tourism, fan practices and star studies. The chapter draws these strands together to explore the concepts of “emplaced interaction” and “magic moments”. The chapter then examines the festival’s online audience engagement via the website, mailing list and social media and how it relates to wider online Cary Grant fan communities and the ways in which his image circulates more generally in the digital sphere. Finally, the chapter explores what propels visitors to move beyond this virtual “communitas” to actually visit the location of Grant’s birth and “walk in his footsteps” through an analysis of audience feedback from various iterations of the walking tour and an evaluation of its impact on participants’ understanding of both Grant and Bristol.
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Why is it important?
The Looking for Archie walking tour has contributed to the wider audience development for the Cary Comes Home Festival, attracting visitors to the city of Cary Grant's birth, Bristol UK which could be a model for other researchers and practitioners seeking to use stardom as a stimulus for screen tourism.
Perspectives
Gives an insight into developing a compelling visitor experience based around stardom, and critical reflection on the differences between an in-person experience and an online virtual tour.
Charlotte Crofts
University of the West of England
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Walking in Cary Grant's Footsteps, December 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003327585-6.
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