The Hollywood star system and its role in developing studio advertising strategies

Star System and its Contribution to the Development of Hollywood PR and Advertising Strategies

The Hollywood star system was developed prior to the 1920's, but perfected by the 1930's as a way to develop a studio 'brand,' and keep people coming to the cinema week after week. By finding, training, developing and promoting talent, Hollywood's studio moguls were able to control product and insure on-going success.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the star system was created, and how it contributed to Hollywood's enduring success. This contrasts with European cinema, which tended to be far more personal, director- (rather than star-) driven and less oriented to developing a 'brand,' other than for the specific director.

Advertising and PR were intimately connected to the star system -- without "promotional offices" and advertising, the film industry as we know it would never have developed.

The Impact of the Star System on Film

The star system is so intimately intertwined with Hollywood of the pre-World War II era that celluloid and stars cannot be separated. Indeed, the Star System is what created an American dominance in a medium that was, after all, developed by the French and Germans, and in which the Americans were relative latecomers to the genre.

The Star System is about more than the actors who played in Hollywood films. The stars were those special beings who created a link with their audiences. In many cases, and particularly during the silent movie era, the stars' draw was universal: Charlie Chaplin (a British native but naturalized American) was a universal "brand," known as Charlie around the world (and "Charlot" in the French-speaking world), equally powerful in Berlin or Miami.

There is only one Hollywood in the world. Movies are made in London, Paris, Milan and Moscow, but the life of these cities is relatively uninfluenced by their production. Hollywood is a unique American phenomenon with a symbolism not limited to this country. It means many things to many people. For the majority it is the home of favored, godlike creatures (Powdermaker).

Thus the star system was initially a draw for viewers to the cinema, one which propelled producers and studio moguls to riches. As this paper will demonstrate, it also created the incentive for those same moguls to make the stars "their property," which would insure that the drawing power of those stars stayed with the studios. The studios 'invested' in their stars, creating a back-story, an on-going set of publicity 'stunts,' and feeding the growing fan magazines and their readers. The studios recognized the power of the star system, and used their power to create, promote, and sometimes destroy, stars of their creation.

1920's: Rise of Star Power

Some movie stars became so popular that they were able to wrest negotiating control away from the studio moguls. In the 1920's, some of the most popular stars in the world included Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. Tired of the 'cut' taken by the studio owners, and the encroachments on their freedom to make movies, these three stars combined with DW Griffiths, one of the best-known directors of the time, to form United Artists. Mary Pickford, who had married Douglas Fairbanks in 1920, was the business dynamo behind the creation of a new studio. She had long insisted on not "bundling" her films with other films, which increased distribution (but took away studio power). These stars, who were not under tight contracts to their studios, were able to use their star power to ensure that they could draw in customers to their theaters even without marketing and distribution support from the established studios (Bellanger).

As a result of United Artist's success, the studio owners took drastic action. They Went on a buying binge, purchasing existing studio chains and adding to them. This practice was stopped decades later on anti-trust grounds, as it ensured that studios could show only their films, and block out independent films from distribution.

Tightened the contracts of their 'stable' of stars, in order to insure that it would be difficult for those stars to leave the studio. The seven-year and 'lifetime' contracts became de rigueur for studios in the 1920's and 1930's.

Started a strategy of finding unknowns and growing them into studio stars.

This became the archetypal "star system," in which the Jack Warner's and Louis B. Meyer's of the studio world "owned" their stars.

1930's: Decade of Studio Power, Heyday of the Star System

The studios were able to weed out the independents through the above-named actions. They were helped by the environment and technology as well. Specifically, the coming of the 'talkies' in 1927 made it more expensive for studios to produce competitive films. This helped to weed out the less-competitive independent studios. Secondly, the Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Depression had a negative effect on weekly film attendance, making it more difficult for less widely-distributed or financially weaker films to survive. As a result, the studios were able to consolidate their movie-making and -distribution strategies, and to increase their bargaining power with their stars.

There were monumental battles between the stars and their studio heads -- but only where the stars felt that they could withhold their services and do real damage to their bosses. The battles between Jack Warner (Warner Brothers), James Cagney and Betty Davis provided both an exciting and cautionary tale for other stars of the period. If an actor refused to appear in a film, as directed by their studio, their pay was docked and they fell off the 'publicity machine.' James Cagney, for example, left Warner Brothers three times from 1931 to 1936. Cagney was the best-paid actor at the time, but he complained that he was unable to share in the profits of his films that did particularly well. Cagney sued to exit his contract, and went to an independent studio -- Grand National. This studio's distribution woes and lack of capital had Cagney back at Warner Brothers (Gallagher).

The studios, comfortable with their strangleholds on 'their' actors, were in a position to 'invest' in PR and advertising in their stars. They realized that star power put viewers in theater seats, and fed a diverse PR and general-interest reading publicity machine.

As with the modern recording industry, the studio heads found it more profitable to find non-entities and make them into stars. Previous acting talent was not a prerequisite, but "star quality" was. The studios created most of the stars of the 1930's and 1940's, from Lana Turner and John Wayne to Greta Garbo (whom even the studios couldn't control for long) to Humphrey Bogart. While some stars rebelled against the studio system, most notably Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn and Clark Gable, most succumbed the studios' stranglehold on capital, film-making expertise and distribution.

In the 1930's, the most powerful studio was MGM, under the direction of Louis B. Meyer. By 1934, MGM had sixty actors in its "star system," including top-drawing actors such as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford (her real name was Lucille Le Sueur), Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Robert Montgomery, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Spencer Tracy. Thus MGM was a "star conglomerate" which could rely on a stable of ready 'commodities' who were required to appear only in MGM films. Other studios relied on a few stars, but nevertheless did very well: Fox made an estimated $20 million on Shirley Temple, while Universal had WC Fields and Abbott and Costello. David O. Selznick split off in the mid-30's from MGM and started his own studio, relying on top-quality movies to break into the studio system's hold on the business (Dinks).

Conclusion: The Breakdown of the Star System

One could argue that the star system has never left us. Even today, the drawing power of an Angelina Jolie or a Brad Pitt can make the difference between mediocre and strong box-office results. "Star Power" exists as long as stars have the ability to bring a positive impact on the results of a picture. What is different from the "star system" of the 1930's is that the stars, directors and independent producers have much more power than they did at that time.

This re-emergence from the star system came about as a result of a 1935 Supreme Court decision which started to reverse the monopoly power of the studios to control distribution. As producers, like David O. Selznick, moved away from the major studios to form production companies, the ability of the studios to control 'product' was reduced and competition increased.

The net result is that there are more films, more stars and more directors today than at any time in the past; if one includes TV production, the difference in 'product' is substantial as compared to that earlier period. As with that earlier period, however, the 'star machine' is alive and well, and the movie-watching public is still just as hungry for details on 'their' stars.