Also remember: 1946, the first year of the Baby Boomers, was 71 years ago now. The mean life expectancy in this country is around 75. We have a boatload of old people reaching their natural expiration dates.
@jmyrlefuller Good point about 1946. Most people,even in cities,didn't have tv's OR tv stations until the early 50's. I grew up in a medium-sized city surrounded by other medium-sized cities with no "country" to speak of between the borders,and we were the first family in our neighborhood that got a tv. IIRC,this was in 1953,and CBS was the only channel being broadcast.
Therefore,there WERE no aged stars to speak of dying off for people to notice before the 1950's. Yeah,there may have been a few Broadway or movie stars dying,but not many because there wasn't as many of them to start with.
Plus,for whatever reasons,people seem to think they "know" the tv stars that appear in their homes at least once a week,while the movie starts that only "show up" once or twice a year on the movie screen was treated like someone they had just heard of.
Probably by the time the current 20-something generation is in their 70's,nobody will even care when movie and tv stars die off because of the different perspective.
I still think music fans will take the deaths of musicians as personal losses,though.
