The chapter discusses the question of a ‘deep time’ of fandom – searching for long term practices that were appropriated in the field of theater (such as religious practices or aristocratic customs) while at the same time arguing that theater and its celebrated protagonists in return became models for practices in the new formation of nineteenth-century consumer culture. Starting with Garrick and the construction of his persona in the shadow of Shakespeare, the chapter traces various practices up to the beginning of the twentieth century.