ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a critical reflection on Looking for Archie, a walking tour of actor Cary Grant’s Bristol, UK, speaking to the themes of “fandom communities and engagement” and “embodied experiences.” The first section outlines the tour and its relationship with my wider curatorial practice as the director of the Cary Comes Home Festival, situating it within the context of cinematic tourism, fan practices, and star studies. The chapter draws these strands together to explore the concepts of “emplaced interaction” and “magic moments.” The chapter then examines the festival’s online audience engagement via the website, mailing list, and social media, and how it relates to wider online Cary Grant fan communities and the ways in which his image circulates more generally in the digital sphere. Finally, the chapter explores what propels visitors to move beyond this virtual “communitas” to actually visit the location of Grant’s birth and “walk in his footsteps” through an analysis of audience feedback from various iterations of the walking tour and an evaluation of its impact on participants’ understanding of both Grant and Bristol.
