Post 6: Hollywood Studios

I think the most important aspect of how the studio system worked back then was the method of contracting their stars to promote not only the studio’s iconic genre, but gross as much money as possible for their films. In lecture, we learned that the major studios of classic Hollywood were known for the genres that they commonly produced. For example, MGM was known for their musicals, as Warner Brothers was known for their movies centered on the idea of crime. The stars that were contracted by these studios also played the iconic roles that helped to distinguish a face for the studios.

MGM’s Judy Garland for example, promoted other MGM stars within her own movies. This could be seen as MGM using product placement to market their stars. This affected the films in a good way because in the middle of one MGM movie, audiences were reminded to see a movie by the actor portrayed as an icon to Judy Garland’s character in the film. This method of marketing brought revenue to the studio, and without the advertisement of the stars, I don’t think that studios would have had the same success.

The stars contracted by Warner Brothers helped the genre of crime gain its fame. According to Colin Tait, the genre of crime began with the gangster film. Stars like Humphrey Bogart, helped set an icon for the crime genre. In many of his films, Humphrey Bogart wore a trench coat that was carried throughout his movies, which was later on distinguished as an iconic piece of clothing in the detective film, which was an evolution in the crime genre. Even in Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart wore a trench coat. This piece of clothing helped to give the character that Bogart played a crime “scene” identity and helped the promotion of the crime film for Warner Brothers.

Stars helped to promote the genre of studios in classic Hollywood, and they gave a face to an audience of moviegoer’s. I think that celebrities today still play their iconic roles, but definitely not in the way they did in the 1930s. Classic Hollywood would not have been what it was if it wasn’t for the studios contracting their actors, and thanks to the performances of those actors, we have genres that were iconic then and have been evolved even more today.

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