Star System.

One point that stood out to me while studying the studio system was the star system.  The star system according to our book ‘Media Now’ is described as “a way film studios’ used stars’ popularity to promote their movies.”  This seemed important to me because it showed how corporations had the benefit of using the same stars for their movies and it was almost a guarantee of making money.

This affected the kinds of films made because companies were focused on using one particular actor/actress to make a lot of money for their productions.  Depending on what the actors strength was helped shape the film.  Studios could practically make movies about anything because they knew audiences would be high to support certain actors.  Another approach was using one popular star to promote another star. 

An example we used in class was MGM being a ‘Star Heaven’.  We learned about a young star, Judy Garland, who was discovered as a child (Andy Hardy Series) and she was put into many MGM productions.  The clip we watched in class was one with Garland in the production of ‘Dear Mr. Gable’.  We saw how Garland’s character referenced another MGM star, Clark Gable, as a fan who wrote letters to celebrities to her mother’s dismay. Garland sang about her love for Gable in the clip we saw in class.

Go here to see a clip I found of some MGM Stars.