Hollywood Studios: Star System

The classical Hollywood studio system consisted of the "Big Five" studios, MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO, which were all fully integrated and the "Little Three" studios, Universal, Columbia, and United Artists, which were only partially integrated. However, I believe that the most important aspect that lead Hollywood to becoming internationally recognized was their use of contract talent and the star system.


The classical Hollywood stars were first discovered and then contracted with a studio.  These famous stars were considered tangible objects to the studios; the studios were often very proud of the amount and quality of the stars the were able to sign (Classical Hollywood lecture, R. Colin Tait). But other talents was also contracted to the studios such as directors, writers, technicians, and other staff that were needed to produce a film. Also, the star system was how the studios first started using the popularity of the stars themselves to promote their own movies, which in return was promotion for the studio (Media Now, Ch 7).


The star system affected the genres of movies the studio produced since many of the stars had a certain genre associated with the general character they played. Also, many stars had a consistent set of character traits they portrayed in every movie. For example, Judy Garland was signed with MGM and always played the role of an innocent, naive young girl who could be expected break out in song every so often; which lead the audience to generally expect the same character portrayed and the basic layout of a film that starred Judy Garland (Classical Hollywood lecture, R. Colin Tait).