Studio System of Classical Hollywood

            When taking a look back at how movies were made during the Classical Hollywood period, it is obvious that things were done a little bit differently than they are now in the cinema.  One particular aspect of the studio system of classical Hollywood that proved especially important in influencing the types of movies made was the “Star System.”  In classical Hollywood production studios would actually contract talent.  In other words the actors that appeared in their films only appeared in films made and produced by that studio.  This idea of contracting talent is one of the things that helped expand the power of the big five studio power oligopoly as well as greatly influenced what type of films a studio would create.  Audiences could connect with the movie stars of the films they watched.  The stars were the only tangible and real product of the cinema, and they were the link that associated a film with a studio and set the studios reputation.

            Audiences slowly developed their favorite stars and fan bases built.  In Classical Hollywood people choose to see a film because of the actors in the film, not because what the movie itself was about.  Even the trailers for movies focused mainly on whom one could expect to see appearing in the film, never releasing much information about the actual plot of the film.  Because film studios contracted their actors they had actors that sang, others that acted tough, some that were mysterious, some could dance, and so on.  The film studios would produce a film based on the talents of the actors they had contacted.  For example, if a studio’s most famous contracted actor was a singer with great comedic timing, the screen writers would be instructed to write more musical comedy films; thereby the studio was producing several musical comedies purely because they have an actor that can draw an audience, so they are going to write more movies that he can flaunt his strengths in.  This idea of the Star System enforced the movie studio oligopoly of MGM, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and RKO, because these studios had more money than the smaller ones to contract up and coming actors (and more than one power actor), thereby automatically gaining larger audience bases.  I already stated that audiences during this age tended to view movies based on what actors appeared rather than the actual quality, so if five studios have all the most popular actors in Hollywood on contract, what studio could challenge them?

            A prime example of the infamous “Star System” at work lies in the work of Classical Hollywood actor, Henry Bogart.  Bogart was very good at portraying the anti (outside the law)- hero.  This talent led the studios to place him in that type of film, so if someone was to go see a Bogart film they could expect to see him portray a character anywhere in the range of a gangster to a police detective.  It is all the same type of role though (mysterious man, outside of the law, always tends to be more good than evil, protagonist).  Because Bogart was such a big name in the film industry, with a huge fan base, the studio under which he was contracted- Warner Bros.- became known for its production of urban crime and war films (such as Casablanca).  Warner Bros. knew that Bogart could draw a crowd, so they produced as many films of Bogart’s strengths and genres that they could.