A long time ago, Hollywood movie studios developed a method to hire actors for a long-term period,
with the goal of guaranteeing success for their movies, this was called the Star System, and those
contracts were huge and complex, ending up controlling the actor’s life.
And how did it work?
Well, let’s check the background first, in the 20s sound was first introduced to film, and
the industry was booming.
The Patent War against Edison encouraged the producers to move to California, which gave
birth to Hollywood, a place where they intended to produce films in high scale and develop
a production standard pipeline.
That pipeline was created by the owners of the "Big Six" companies: Paramount Pictures,
20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal Studios and the disappeared RKO.
This also inspired on the Broadway method to develop actors in theater in the 19th century,
and was named the Studio System.
It had a lot of success and kicked off the Golden Age of Hollywood, it was based on the
principles of business efficiency, economic rationalization and hiring employees for a
long-term period under exclusivity contracts.
If an actor was signed, it meant that he or she was introduced to the Star System, which
meant really changing his or her life forever.
Examples here are actors like Audrey Hepburn, Greta Garbo, and Rock Hudson.
After an actor was hired, the studio crew began to work with the actor to develop them
into true celebrities.
The intention was to spread an idealized image of the actor to the audience.
Back then, a movie success depended on the popularity of the cast much more than on the
story itself, for that reason, studios wanted to have a cast with demigod fame in their
movies, to use them as the primary tool to promote their film.
This is when names of actors started appearing prominently on movie posters.
Florence Lawrence was the first actress signed for that purpose and audiences began to flock
the cinemas to see her.
Companies used to come up with background, or origin stories for their stars, and even changing
their names, like the case of Michael Landon, born as Eugene Orwitz, and Norma Jeane Baker
was renamed to Marilyn Monroe.
The company monitored the actor’s life and public behavior to keep the preferred reputation.
Women were expected to behave like ladies and have a neat appearance with stylish clothes;
men were supposed to act like gentlemen in public spaces.
Also, the studios arranged sham dates between single celebrities, and then gossip columns
and tabloids were tipped off about it, so a lot of photographers went there to capture
the romantic moment.
It was free advertising!
All this because the audience didn’t to expect a great story on the screen, they
just wanted to watch their stars reflecting their reputation in their movie role.
For example, Joan Crawford often played roles of hardworking young women who found romance
and success, so her public life had to reflect that too.
Same with Michael Landon, his roles as Joe Cartwright in Bonanza and Charles Ingalls
in Little House in the Prairie had something in common, it’s about a good-natured family
countryman, his community and his noble job, so the actor’s lifestyle should fit into that.
Another significant example was Monroe and her roles as a femme fatale.
Same with Greta Garbo, Marlon Brando.
We can spend hours showing examples.
Charlie Sheen comes to my mind when we talk about actors which behavior reflects their roles.
The case of Robert Downey Jr. and his Ironman role is an excellent example of the Star System
in the most recent age.
If an actor failed against a the morality clause and was caught on drug use, divorce, adultery,
or drinking problems (hello again Charlie Sheen); the companies used to fix the problem by
paying hush money to the witnesses and promising future exclusive stories to the gossip journalists.
Casting put more emphasis on their image rather than their acting skills.
The contract included acting, singing and dancing lessons, and after a few years, studios
had shaped a team of triple-A actors working exclusively for that studio.
Under this system, legendary movies like "The Wizard of Oz" were developed.
Also "It’s a Wonderful Life", probably the best rated Christmas movie ever.
The cult film "Casablanca" was produced by Warner Bros. and won three Academy Awards, including
Best Picture in 1944, and "Citizen Kane", made by the mythical Orson Wells, is considered
by many critics, filmmakers and fans to be the best film ever made.
Studio companies also used to swap workers, actors included, for upcoming prestige productions,
however, stars that pursued exchanges by themselves, or were selective about their movie roles
were censured and punished by the studio.
Olivia de Havilland eventually won a lawsuit against her studio to break free of their
gag orders, and Marilyn Monroe conditioned her comeback to 20th Century Fox only if the
company yielded on her contract demands.
Those incidents fostered the idea among actors that a free-agent system would be more beneficial
to them, rather than the suffocating way to work.
This led the Star System to its decline in the 60s and mostly disappearing in 70s, thanks
to the changes occurred in entertainment, culture, labor, and news.
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