History of the Hollywood Star System Essay

First, Hollywood’s star system can be effective promoting of the studio. The studio has a stable number of audiences which were the fans of studio’s movie stars. Star system is a way that sustains successful movie star’s popularity. These studios tried to give similar roles to those movie stars and suit their public image. For an example, Don Lockwood, who was a male main character in the Singin’ in the Rain, was a successful silent movie star in the film. He acted as a handsome, charming and young star who was dreamboat of the female audiences. Don’s studio always gives a similar role to him such as a hero who saves a princess in The Dueling Cavalier. And the fans were following

Author Peter Hays wrote that Mayer “cherished the puritan values of family and hard work”. Even though Mayer Wanted to have his stars portray what he say as American values he goal was still to make movies provide a form escapism for people by entertainment and optimism. With MGMs domination of the Film industry at the time Mayer’s values soon began to seep into mainstream American values. American culture was greatly influenced by Mayer as MGM defined Hollywood as it was still in its infancy and to this day MGMs Leo the Lion Logo remains recognizable to many. Mayer’s star system provided Hollywood with many of its stars and many of which were huge household names at the time like Joan Crawford or Elizabeth Taylor.

The Golden Age of Hollywood was a time when Hollywood hit its peak successfully and economically, starting with the late 1920s, and met its decline due to corruption in the late 1950s. One would ask the question: “Where did the name Hollywood come from?” The name came from Harvey Henderson Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, who were owners of a small ranch west of Los Angeles. According to u-s-history.com, “Daeida, who, while on a train trip east met a woman that described her country home in Ohio, that had been named for the Dutch settlement of Hollywood. Liking the name, Daeida christened their ranch 'Hollywood,' upon her return.” (History of Hollywood, California) Movies during this time period became a vital form of entertainment for all Americans during this time period. By the 1910s, Hollywood was combined into its neighboring city Los Angeles, and many motion-picture studios began to open. Moviemakers rushed to Hollywood, and competition started to become widespread between directors and producers. By 1910, the first motion picture was made in Hollywood, titled In Old California, and soon enough, Los Angeles became second to New York in producing films also because of it’s quintessential weather for movies to be made in all year long during this time. As Hollywood began to industrialize, filmmakers began to work on the image of a “star”; they would continuously use these highly-paid actors in order to achieve a form of comfort for the general audience of the movies. Seeing

The drive to be included leads men to and the subsequent affect of not being included has a lasting ripple effect, that spans through time. The affects can be felt. The allure of hollywood attracts all sorts of people that are desperate to be included. Not just actors, not just studio heads, agents or writers, sometimes hollywood attracts gangsters, and politicians.

Thomas Schatz cites the 1950’s as the inevitable end of the Hollywood film studio system, with the signs appearing as early as the height of the second World War (472). However, the seeds of discontent and disintegration within the system were apparent as soon as the late 1930’s, exemplified in such films as Destry Rides Again (1939, George Marshall) and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939, Frank Capra). The production of these two films and the paths down which they led their star (James Stewart), directors (at least Frank Capra), and studios (Universal and Columbia, respectively) are evidence of the decline of the studio system. The

Robert Downey Jr was born 1965. From 1996 through 2001 Downey was arrested numerous times on drug-related charges including cocaine, heroin and marijuana and went several times through drug treatment programs unsuccessfully, saying this in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I've got a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal." He says his relapses by claiming to have been addicted to drugs since the age of eight, due to the

During the 1920s, American Film was at the peak of its glory. 1920s Film was the biggest form of entertainment and a weekly pastime for millions of Americans, regardless of race and social background. Silent films continued to improve and innovate the film industry. Hollywood established themselves as an American force and produced hundreds of silent films. Also, Hollywood became the birthplace of “movie stars” such as Janet Gaynor, Rudolph Valentino, and Charlie Chaplin. Movie studios such as Warner Brothers Pictures, RKO, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, and 20th Century Fox owned thousands of theaters and received public acclamation for hundreds of films produced. The 1920’s American film industry is the epitome of the ascension of Hollywood and the innovation era of film.

Hollywood has influenced American history since it began. It boosted and shaped the morale of a nation for almost a century. But Hollywood has not only been the influencing American society, it has been influenced by American society. In the 1920s, American society was booming; people were getting rich, spending and borrowing money, and they thought life was looking good. Then in October of 1929 the stock market crashed. Many people lost all they owned. People had invested all their money into the banks before the Crash. After the Crash, the banks had nothing. People were destitute. They had no money to pay for their houses, electrical bills, and food. It became the Great Depression. Likewise, Hollywood was impacted by the Great

In the late 1960s, the “New Hollywood” era approached a new style of filming geared towards different generations of people. Leading up to new Hollywood, the 1960s brought devastation to the film industry. With the massive production of televisions along with the migration of millions to suburbs away from the cities, movie theaters lost their popularity very quickly. Fewer films were being made, thus hurting Hollywood in every way possible. However, as the late 1960s approached, the new Hollywood era arose with new ways to attract movie-goers once more.

In 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera (Nopal field), named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished. The area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north.

Furthermore, the market functions are what forms their most important aspect of all; increasing economic advantages. The market and the industry are part of the labour that produces and distributes; both factors interrelate with each other. However, stars contribute themselves into making commodities; both labour and what labour produces. Dyer (2005) argues stars as commodities are distributed in several stages. Firstly, successful commodities are created from stars with a reputable image, as 'the work of fashioning the star out of the raw material of the person, varies in the degree to which it respects what artists refer to as inherent qualities of the material; make-up, coiffure, clothing, dieting and body-building can all make more or less

When sound was introduced new genres like: the musical, horror film and film noir were born. Social and technological factors also contributed to the formation of new genres. In the mid 1940’s Hollywood started to experience a decline due to the talent and audience drain and the Paramount decision that eliminated vertical integration. The audience was more selective than ever and Hollywood was trying their best to make films that would appeal to the audience. As a result Hollywood tried everything they possibly could, “With greater competition for the entertainment dollar, the major firms gave nearly all genres a higher gloss” (Bordwell and Thompson 341). Genre became a big factor when making movies, Star Wars takes many genres to create an

Since the times of ancient Greece the stars have been looked at with wonder. It was in the stars that they told stories and in the stars that they found their gods. And still today, it would seem,the stars shine awfully bright. Today the stars blind us. The form seemingly perfect constellations. But these constellations hold dead stars light years away. Our stars, our celebrities have been put on a pedestal higher than we think. These people are worshipped like deities, there is a strive to match the perfection that they seem to contain. Through the years there has always been the idea of celebrity culture from the extravagant kings and queens to the presidents to the the ancient pharaohs, the concept has always been there. But in recent

Over the years the studio system has changed faces multiple times. Beginning in the early twentieth century with competition between the independent filmmakers and the Motion Picture Patents Company, to the studio system’s peak times of production, profit and theatres, the film industry adapted an organization of the studio system, saw it rise to a golden age, and saw its decline.

just like stardom charisma requires to be established in the particularities of the ideological structures to which it belongs, so also essentially all sociological studies of stardom disregard the particularities of another point of view of the phenomenon – the audience. (Assumptions about the audience as a generalised, homogenous collectivity abound in writings on stars) The importance of conflicts as stars relying on audience in regarding the stardom phenomenon are indicated by Andrew Tudor and Edgar Morin to the influence that specifically strong star-audience relationships happen amongst teenagers and women. They suggest some observational evidence for this aspect. These parties all share an especially strong degree of identity/role contradiction