Cirrus@Austlit

'The Popular Culture Association (PCA) has such a distinctive personality and devotion to long‐lasting friendships that its losses are keenly felt. Early members in the heady days of revolutionizing an entirely new field of study have been the memory of the organization, reminding us of our mission and purpose. It may be hard to imagine a time when the study of popular culture was relatively unknown and even despised, when faculty members could not get funding from their institutions to attend the annual PCA meeting, when the national press ridiculed the field for leading to classes on roller coasters, and when PCA members understood themselves as a Midwestern vanguard for the people’s culture, positioned outside what Ray Browne considered the east coast world of the elites. With a fifty‐year history, the PCA has now seen several generations of scholars in its conference halls, bringing new energy to the field while preserving the legacy from the days when color television was still rather new.' (Editorial introduction)