Starring women : celebrity patriarchy and American theater 1790 1850 Women performers played a vital role in the development of American and transatlantic entertainment celebrity culture and gender ideology. Sara E. Lampert examines the lives careers and fame of overlooked figures from Europe and the United States whose work in melodrama ballet and other stage shows shocked and excited early U.S. audiences. These women lived and performed the tensions and contradictions of nineteenth century gender roles sparking debates about womens place in public life. Yet even their unprecedented wealth and prominence failed to break the patriarchal family structures that governed their lives and conditioned their careers. Inevitable contradictions arose. The burgeoning celebrity culture of the time forced women stage stars to don the costumes of domestic femininity even as the unsettled nature of life in the theater defied these ideals. A revealing foray into a lost time Starring Women returns a generation of performers to their central place in the early history of American theater Between Stock and Star: Theater and Touring in the United States 1790 1830 (Dis)Obedient Daughters and Devoted Wives: The Family Politics of Stock and Star The Promise and Limits of Female Stage Celebrity: Fanny Kemble in America 1832 1835 Bringing Female Spectacle to the Western Country 1835 1840 Danger Desire and the Celebrity Mania: Fanny Elssler in America 1840 1842 The American Actresss Starring Playbook 1831 1857 Conclusion.