Historical heartthrobs:

Popular dreamboats from times gone by

FRANZ LISZT // Beatlemania might be seen as the peak of teen fandom, but Hungarian composer and musician Franz Liszt was driving young people into a frenzy more than a century before the Fab Four were born. Not only was Franz hugely talented, he was also a dreamboat with truckloads of charisma who toured Europe as a teenager, building a dedicated following with his flowing locks and electric performances. (You might think of him as the proto-bieber.) The term ‘Lisztomania’ was even coined to describe the frenzied response to his music, making Franz’s admirers almost as famous as him. Though tour merch had not yet been invented, fans took their own keepsakes from his performances, fighting over handkerchiefs he threw into the crowd, scrambling for locks of his hair, gathering broken piano strings to make bracelets, and even carrying glass vials just in case they got the chance to collect his coffee dregs. Supposedly, one lucky lady nabbed his cigar stumps from the gutter and had them set in a locket, surrounded by diamonds and his initials. Sweet, but we’ll stick to band tees, thanks.

BEAU BRUMMELL // Thought influencers were a 21st-century phenomenon? Think again. George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell proved you could be famous for being famous long before wi-fi was invented. Considered the original dandy, the arbiter of male fashion, and the most famous man of 19th-century London, his astronomical rise as a public figure was the result of his impeccable style. Beau started life solidly middle class, but became one of the first ‘commoners’ to break into the royal set when he befriended the Prince Regent and future King George IV. No one minded that he wasn’t a blue blood, though – they were too obsessed with his fashion to care. Perhaps inspired by the fact he couldn’t afford the wigs, powders and jewels the upper crust favoured, his personal looks celebrated tailoring and simple elegance. Enamoured gentlemen would scramble to visit his dressing room and learn how to correctly knot a tie or polish their boots with champagne. (Considering it took him five hours to get dressed most mornings, there were plenty of opportunities to witness him in action.) Beau’s trendsetting extended beyond clothes, as well. He made it fashionable to brush your teeth, bathe every day and wash your duds. So, we can all thank him for that.

CORA PEARL // These days, the media names a new ‘It Girl’ most weeks. But Cora Pearl – a British-born, Parisian courtesan who lived in the mid-19th century – may well have been the first partygirl sensation. Labelled the “scandal and toast of Paris”, she was famous for her charm and talent for making a scene. Though Cora counted princesses and dukes among her many admirers, no one took a liking to her quite like the press. They followed her every move, and boy, there was a lot to cover. She served herself up nude at dinner parties, bathed in champagne, danced naked on beds of orchids, and appeared in a theatre production dressed only in diamonds. French, British and North American publications shared gossip about Cora and the trends she began. A big fan of cosmetics, she mixed her own illuminator from silver and pearls, frequently dyed her hair to match her carriages, and even tinted her dog’s fur to go with her outfits. Everyone wanted a piece of Cora, but very few could afford it. A single night with her would set you back 10,000 francs. Not bad, considering the average French wage at the time was less than 1000 francs a year.

RUDOLPH VALENTINO // In the 1920s, Rudolph Valentino’s ‘Latin lover’ persona established him as one of cinema’s early sex symbols. Technically he was Italian, but the ‘lover’ part stood up – he attracted a huge, primarily female fan base playing romantic mystery men, antiheroes and villains. In fact, he made a living wooing women before he’d even landed in Hollywood: emigrating to New York in 1913, Rudolph was a babe-for-hire at nightclubs, paid to dance with rich society ladies. Things really amped up a notch or 10 when he hit the silver screen, though. Fans would swarm Rudolph’s movie premieres, sometimes mobbing the actor and literally tearing his clothes off. When he died suddenly at the age of 31, Valentino devotees around the world entered an intense period of mourning. Over 80,000 fans turned out for his funeral, some becoming so emotional that police were worried they’d riot. Newspapers also reported a slate of alleged suicide attempts by heartbroken admirers. A full century later, Rudolph is still a hit: his crypt at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles is permanently covered with lipstick prints.

SESSUE HAYAKAWA // Though Rudolph Valentino is often credited as the first real heartthrob of the silver screen, that title belongs to Sessue Hayakawa: an achingly handsome Japanese star who made waves in silent-era Hollywood. Like Rudolph, the leading man – who stumbled across acting after a humiliating dismissal from the Japanese naval academy – often played beautiful but dangerous foreign men with a talent for seducing white women. Movie-going dames went wild for him, and he soon became one of the most successful stars of the day, with a rabid fan base, according to some. Women would reportedly lay their fur coats across puddles to keep his feet from getting wet. At the height of his fame, Sessue was known for throwing wild parties and zooming around Los Angeles in a gold-plated car. (Clearly, he was an understated sort of bloke.) Unfortunately, public opinion turned on Sessue after World War I, as anti-japanese sentiments rose in the press. His story has a happy ending, though: after spending decades working in less threatening environments, he returned to Hollywood in the 1950s to star in a string of lauded ‘talkies’ that saw him nominated for an Oscar.

LORD BYRON // History shows that people can’t resist a bad boy – and they don’t come much ‘badder’ than Lord Byron. In fact, the 19th-century English poet was famously called “mad, bad and dangerous to know” by one of his exes. Thanks to the publication of his 1812 poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Byron became an overnight sensation; the public couldn’t get enough dirt on his endless trysts, excesses and eccentricities. (The man did walk his pet bear on a leash like a dog, after all.) With much of his work focusing on love and the anguish it causes, Lord Byron drew particular attention (and countless love letters) from starstruck admirers who saw him as a romantic and complex figure. And it wasn’t just the ladies, either: the poet was openly bisexual, supposedly stating that “men were cleverer, but women kissed better”. Over time, his reputation soured and Byronmania began to fade as stories of his escapades darkened: namely, reports of spousal abuse and an affair with his half-sister. Byron was eventually forced into exile in Europe, though he couldn’t escape his fame: in the final years of his life, fans would dress up as chambermaids to sneak into his room and catch a glimpse of the literary icon.

SARAH BERNHARDT // Of all the heartthrobs on this list, no one cultivated a fan base quite like Sarah Bernhardt. The canny French actress was well aware of ways to cause a fuss, courting scandal and taking on gender-bending roles way back in 1899. Her success was largely due to her commitment to her legion of followers, though: Sarah spent years touring the world so they could see her perform in person, and embraced new media like photography to ensure anyone could take a piece of her home. She also understood the power of the press, sending newspapers letters to print and feeding them personal gossip. Her name alone was thought to have kept many publications afloat, with Sarah Bernhardt-themed articles guaranteeing mass sales. Her wild popularity had a dark side, though: stalkers supposedly threatened to throw acid on Sarah during live performances, and obsessive fans wound up in asylums over delusions she’d marry them one day. When she died in 1923, half a million people lined the streets of Paris to say goodbye, as the city fell into mourning for the iconic “Divine Sarah”.