Celebrity Management and the Struggle for Power: The Case of Marshal Tito

During the Cold War, major and minor individuals were elevated to a position of celebrity thanks to their role in the great East-West confrontation that characterised those years. Unsurprisingly, Cold War celebrities that had fallen into political disgrace with their own side typically faced substantial demotion and oblivion, if not the desecration of their public image. By contrast, the most important case of Cold War celebrity that escaped this framework is unquestionably that of Marshal Tito, the founding father of the Non-Aligned Movement that succeeded in aligning with and seceding from both Cold War Blocs, and the only Cold War celebrity who succeeded in overcoming several political shifts and the related desecration processes, even turning them into tools for fostering his notoriety and building a new and stronger public image of himself. The study of the history of Tito’s public life, focusing on Tito’s management of his celebrity as a tool to foster his political career, is therefore an interesting case of undisputable political success, as well as an opportunity to reflect on the tight interrelation between celebrity and power established during the Cold War that has been a key issue in the political game ever since.