STACK December 2016 Issue No. 146

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28 DECEMBER 2016
EXTRAS
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his own inimitable way, the studio system of
manufacturing celluloid entertainment for the
masses when he said, “ We have our factory,
which is called a stage within a studio. We
make a product, we colour it, we title it, and
we ship it out in cans.”
The production, distribution and exhibition
of motion pictures was originally handled
separately, but as the industry rapidly grew,
these functions became vertically integrated.
These powerful studio executives could
now maximise profits by distributing and
exhibiting their movies into theatres they
now controlled in practically every major city in
America.
By 1930 there were eight corporations that
totally dominated the US motion picture
industry. “The Big Five” – Paramount, MGM,
Fox, Warner Bros. and RKO – owned substantial
production facilities in California, a worldwide
distribution network and an extensive theatre
chain. These five corporations would rule and
monopolise Hollywood for the next three
decades. And then there were “The Little
Three” – Universal, Columbia and United Artists
– who maintained only the production and
distribution parts of the system. They lacked a
sizeable chain of theatres – one of the crucial
elements of vertical integration – to be a
major player, and consequently had to depend
primarily on independent theatre owners to
show their pictures.
Another integral part of Hollywood’s studio
system was its “star system”.
All the major studios had a talent
department whose personnel would scour the
country, attending entertainment venues such
as Broadway shows, vaudeville houses,
regional theatre productions, nightclub acts
and beauty pageants in search of young people
with charisma and potential star quality. Those
with the necessary photogenic credentials
received an all expenses paid trip to Hollywood
to take a screen test, followed by a sound test.
If approved by the studio executive, they were
signed to a seven-year contract with options,
which simply meant that the studio could drop
them at the end of each six month interval of
the contract period if they did not generate
interest from the moviegoing public.
Studio bosses such as Louis B. Mayer
(MGM) and Darryl F. Zanuck (20th Century
Fox) had definite ideas about how a star
should look and refashioned their new talent
accordingly. Now contractually bound and
literally owned by the studio, the newcomers
were exposed to an elaborate star development
apprenticeship. They were taught to walk, talk,
sing, and dance. Teeth were fixed, hair and eye
colour adjusted, false biographies were written
for them, and those with mundane names
had them changed to fit their new image:
Archibald Leach became Cary Grant, Frances
Ethel Gumm became Judy Garland, Issur
Danielovitch Demsky became Kirk Douglas,
and so on. The studio’s casting director would
now cast these fresh young actors into either
small parts in A productions or star them in a
B picture and await the public reaction, usually
gauged by the amount of fan mail the actor
received.
Although this system gave the newcomers
job security, if they ever reached “full star
status” their contract contained many terms
that were highly unfavourable and detrimental
to the actor. With relatively little control over
the roles they were cast in or the movies they
made, the actors could even be loaned out to
other studios without their consent. A studio
could terminate the contract at will but the
actor could not. If they refused to appear in
movies they believed was typecasting them,
they were immediately suspended and their
contract extended to make up the lost time
whilst on suspension. Also, following the
Roscoe Arbuckle sex scandal in 1921,
all actor contracts customarily contained
morality clauses that gave the studio extensive
and often intrusive control over the star’s
private life.
Actors as employees became valuable
commodities and Hollywood created the myth
that stars weren’t made, they were born, when
in fact the studios manufactured their own
homegrown movie celebrities as a mechanism
for selling movie tickets. Publicists, marketing
departments and the Hollywood press joined
together to create this incredibly successful
celebrity industry. Through its movie stars, the
studios would show an idealised America and
the glamour that became synonymous with
Hollywood.
By 1939 the Hollywood studios,
having gathered together the most
accomplished collection of creative talent in
the history of the movies, were at the height
of their power and productivity. With American
moviegoers buying tickets at the rate of 80
million a week, what could possibly go wrong
with this integrated movie money machine?
To be continued...
We have our factory,
which is called a stage
within a studio. We
make a product, we
colour it, we title it, and
we ship it out in cans
Louis B. Mayer with two
of his “homegrown”
stars: Judy Garland and
Mickey Rooney
Darryl F. Zanuck with his most
famous movie star, Marilyn Monroe
continued