A Star Is Born
The Birth of the Star System
Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. |
Up until that time, the majority of the industry’s films were being produced on the East Coast. The few studios that traveled to California to do location shooting enjoyed the favorable weather conditions of the area—outdoor filming could be done practically year-round, without the problem of the seasonal extremes that Chicago and New York experienced. In 1910 director D.W. Griffith and a group of Biograph’s actors were sent west from their New York City studio to film a melodrama. The film, a short titled In Old California, was the first movie shot in Hollywood. Four years later The Squaw Man, starring Dustin Farnum and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, became the first feature movie filmed in Hollywood. Previous to The Squaw Man, all of the movies that were being shot in the Los Angeles area, from 1908 to 1913, were shorts. The period before World War I saw the Los Angeles area quickly transition from an agricultural community to the motion picture production center of the world. What was once considered a peep show curiosity, the motion picture was now on its way to becoming a major industry.
By
1911 moviegoers were showing an increased interest in motion pictures,
supplanting the melodramatic theatrical stage performances as their popular
choice of entertainment. Audiences soon became curious and wanted to know the
names of the uncredited actors and actresses appearing in their favorite films.
Florence Lawrence, who was only known to her audiences up until then as the
“Biograph Girl,” was the most valuable film actress of the time. As a
promotional device, reports of her death in a streetcar accident were faked,
after which she reemerged working for the Independent Moving Picture (IMP) Company, now known as the “IMP
Girl,” and with onscreen credits. Francis X. Bushman, affectionately known to
moviegoers as just “F.X.B.,” became film’s first true matinee idol, often
appearing with Beverly Bayne as the first great romantic team in movies. This
was the beginning of the star system, publicity stunts, and “moviestaritis.”
The
“Popular Player Contest” appearing in the October 1913 issue of The Motion
Picture Story Magazine tallied up results
for the 100 actors appearing in the publication’s annual poll. Readers cast
over seven million votes, with the first place honors going to Romaine Fielding
(1,311,018 votes), second to Earle Williams (739,895), third to J. Warren
Kerrigan (531,966), fourth to Carlyle Blackwell (296,684), fifth to Francis X.
Bushman (252,750), sixth to G. M. Anderson (217,069), and seventh to Arthur
Johnson (209,800). Actresses were judged in a separate category, with Alice
Joyce taking first place (462,380) and Muriel Ostriche placing second
(212,276). The list included a diverse selection of film personalities; placing
Mary Pickford at #15 (130,592), Pearl White at #24 (82,209), Ruth Roland at #31
(61,780), Mabel Normand at 51 (25,527), and True Boardman at position #100
(4,982). Many of the dramatic actors appearing on the list had transitioned to
the silver screen after successful careers on the theatrical stage.
Five
years later, a poll in the October 1918 Motion Picture Magazine listed 142 actors who were voted into the magazine’s
“Motion Picture Hall of Fame,” with the top four chosen stars listed as Mary
Pickford in the #1 spot (127,832), Marguerite Clark at #2 (107,563), Douglas
Fairbanks at #3 (101,068), and Harold Lockwood at #4 (99,049). The remaining
names listed in the top ten selections included, in descending order, William
S. Hart, Wallace Reid, Pearl White, Anita Stewart, Francis X. Bushman, and
Theda Bara. Charlie Chaplin was listed at #17 (55,577) and Lillian Gish at #69
(22,006), with Roscoe Arbuckle finishing up the list at #142 (12,014). Mingled
in between the names of these well- known personalities were actors and
actresses of all statures. Throughout the magazine, the publisher gave the
lesser-known movie stars as much coverage in articles and interviews as they
did for the popular ones. This was the general trend in the majority of
fan-oriented magazines of the time.
The
newspaper determined that “the general consensus of opinion among trade
authorities seems to be that while the movies may have reached the zenith of
their popularity they have not passed it. They are at least holding their own,
and students of the industry believe they will continue to do so as long as the
standard of excellence is increased.” The three film stars referred to in the
article’s headline were Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks,
who were receiving combined earnings estimated at $3,000,000 a year. The
previous year state legislators, staggered by the size of the reputed earnings
of movies stars, started investigations to determine if an industry that could
afford to pay out enormous salaries to their contracted actors should also be
able to afford a war tax.
Preceding
World War I, movie theaters were changing their daily programs an average of
five times a week. By the early 1920s they were booking films for longer periods
of time, turning over their offerings only three and a half times a week, with
ten percent of them promoting a film for an entire week. Naturally, the quick
turnaround gave moviegoers little time to discover through word- of-mouth or
printed reviews if a current offering was good or not. Therefore, theater
owners often relied on the drawing power of the actors appearing in a film’s
limited engagement to help fill seats. Over a short span of years the matinee
idols of the past were being replaced by Hollywood’s new superstars. As
moviegoers’ tastes changed during the postwar years, actors who were popular in
the teens often found themselves being replaced by actors who had once
supported them. The overwrought telegraphic performance style of acting used by
the “scenery chewers” was being replaced by a more realistic method used by the
up- and-coming actors. By the mid–1920s the publisher of Motion Picture
Magazine promoted no more than a handful of
the top stars in their pages, a list that consistently included the industry’s
top moneymakers: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Charlie
Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Norma Shearer, Lillian Gish, and Dorothy Gish.
There was little attention given to actors working with independent studios.
Universal’s top stars of 1921. |
When
it came to promoting their actors and films, independent studios such as
Universal were unable to compete with the expensive hyperactive publicity
campaigns that larger studios developed to promote their big features and major
stars. Universal, responsible for
launching the careers of such actors as Harry Carey and Mae Murray,
producer Irving Thalberg, and director John Ford, found it difficult enough to
support the salaries of their workers once they became recognized as having
talent.
Major
studios also began using vertical integration strategies, an effort that would
have been impossible for independents to attempt to incorporate. The vertical
integration system came into use by the early 1920s when companies started to
take control of the production, distribution, and exhibition of their own
films. Adolph Zukor of Famous Players pioneered the concept when he joined
forces with the Paramount Publix circuit. The fallout caused by the
monopolizing system left studios like Universal squeezed out of the major
cities, forced to deal with the smaller rural theaters and the few big city
showcases they partnered with to show their first- run films.
Up
until 1927 the technology of incorporating sound dialogue into motion pictures
was still in its developmental stage, with most studios limiting the exhibition
of sound films to novelty shorts. On August 6, 1926, Warner Bros. had premiered
Don Juan, a nearly three hour-long film
that utilized a synchronized sound system throughout. Recognized as the first
sound feature, the movie was shot as a normal silent film with a soundtrack
added later. Its soundtrack included a musical score and sound effects, but no
recorded dialogue.
On
October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. premiered The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson, one of America’s top music
entertainers. The film’s soundtrack, mostly relying on its score and effects,
included limited sections of dialogue and musical performances. Although it
wasn’t the first to utilize live sound recorded during filming, the inclusion
of Jolson’s personality was enough to make it the first successful “talkie.” The
Jazz Singer was highly profitable, earning
a total of $2.625 million in the U.S. and overseas markets. Its success was
enough of a reason for the motion picture industry to invest in sound movies.
The
end of the silent era marked the beginning of what was to become the “Golden
Age of Hollywood,” a period which would span three decades. One of the major
studios of this period was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers (MGM), soon to be known as the
studio that had “more stars than there are in Heaven.” MGM excelled at the box
office throughout this era, creating the Hollywood star system with its top
actors and actresses. MGM employed an efficient publicity department, operated
by over 100 employees, which was responsible for sustaining the wholesome
images of the idols that the public obsessed over though the fan magazines. The
studio collaborated with the press in keeping any of the actors’ transgressions
out of print; in exchange the publications were given access to MGM’s top
stars.
Michael Zmuda © 2015
Michael Zmuda © 2015
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