The Star System of Classical Hollywood

Thanks in large part to the vertical integration used by film studios, classical Hollywood was very different from the Hollywood that exists today. As film studios gained more and more power in the 1920s, they began to employ a new system of doing things: the star system. The star system revolved around the studios use of movie stars' widespread popularity to promote all movies they would produce. Eventually it got to the point where studios could attract viewers based purely on a star's name alone. This affected studios' decisions because movies became more focused on the stars themselves, rather than the content. If a major star was known for singing, he would typically sing in every movie he was in, regardless of whether or not singing fit into the content of the movie. Studios would even begin placing the stars names above the titles of films on movie marquees. One example of this would be a movie star like Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire became a major star during the 1930s. He became famous for his dancing with partner Ginger Rogers. Once he became known for his dancing, he would continue to dance in every movie he appeared in, simply because this is what audiences expected. Studios knew that audiences would come see their movies because they loved the dancing Fred Astaire, so that is exactly what they gave them.