After reading Fuller’s two chapters about movie fan magazines, the two themes that I found to be the most noteworthy were the shift of the idea of what a “fan” was, and the importance of consumerism throughout the evolution of culture and the magazines that fostered them.

In examining Motion Picture Story Magazine, Fuller describes a change in content that occurred in the late teen/early 20’s.  The magazine that used to be filled with technical descriptions of filmmaking, behind-the-scenes looks, and large sections dedicated to fan participation started to disappear and were replaced by stories about actors and actresses and even things like “Ladies fads and fancies.”  This shift seems relevant to me because it shows two different types of film fans, the technical, sophisticated, and somewhat pretentious fan versus the simpler, more consumer driven fan.  I think that today both fan still exists.  With the first type of fan being the one who follows film blogs, reads very specific magazines, and participates in group activities related to fandom whether that be online or at festivals/conferences.  The other type of fan is maybe more likely to read gossip magazines about what celebrity lives are like.  What I found interesting about the shift of Motion Picture Story Magazine was that while I know that there is a market for both types of fan (as is made clear by present times) the magazine editors found the latter type of fan to be the one that could make them more money.  This theme of heavy consumerism amongst fans was further illustrated in Fuller’s next chapter about Photoplay magazine and how it ended up being a very influenced by advertising (and vise versa how advertising was affected by the introduction of film fan magazines).