A mechanism or tactic · 1950 · Fan mail
The fan club
A formal organisation with membership, dues, an elected president, a newsletter and rules. Not a spontaneous thing that happened to fans - a structure somebody built for them and that fans then ran themselves.
The first institutional form, and the origin of nearly everything downstream including the paid tiers. The important part is that fans built a lot of it themselves, which is the strongest evidence that the impulse is real and the structure is optional.
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