Star System in Classical Hollywood

During the Classical Hollywood era, studio systems controlled all aspects of American film production.  Studios where known to be vertically integrated, allowing them to own all stages of production, distribution, and exhibition.  I think that one significant aspect of the studio system was the star system, in which production studios contracted and used their stars to promote and sell their films.  Studios discovered this was an affective technique because they realized that people went to see their films because of the stars that were featured in it.

As studios discovered and contracted their stars, they also associated them with a specific genre.  From this point forward, studios would have their stars interpret the same type of character in different films at a time.  This in many ways affected the kinds of films studios made because the stars success in a specific film would then decide the type of genre that production studios would focus on.

One great example of the star system would be the character of Charlie Chaplin.  During his acting career, Charlie Chaplin always acted in movies by only using gestures and action.  He was well known for his visual comedy during the silent film era, in films such as, “Modern Times”, “The Great Dictator”, and “Gold Rush".  He basically demonstrated how studios used stars to represent a specific genre in their films.