In one of my online college music courses, I once had a student who said that Michael Jackson would be remembered for all time. I wrote back asking the student if he knew who
Eddie Cantor and
Georgie Price were, and of course he said he'd never heard of them before. They were both child stars of the early 20th century, who grew up and became well-known singer/dancers in the 1920s and 30s, and influenced the performers after them--just like Michael Jackson. Only historians of early popular music remember them now, and the same will be true of Wacko Jacko in a generation or two.
I was a fan of Boardwalk Empire. Eddie Cantor played a small part of the story.
I was surprised when my wife did not know who he was. She worked for 25 years as a radio news anchor, listening to music for four hours a day, six days a week. She knows modern music (’55-2010) but doesn’t know much before Glen Miller.