The Star System

The Star System

• Stars, fans, profits• $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

• Actors & their talent• Persona• Types & Typecasting

Stardom & Mass Culture

• The Role of the Media• Playing yourself

– John Wayne– Marilyn Monroe– Jim Carey

• Public Acceptance

A Quick History

• The first predate motion pictures. – Vaudelville– Opera houses– Florence Lawrence

(1908-1909) the first star?.

– 1894 Jim Corbett (prize fighter) signed to Edison.

• 1910s Late Victorianism– Pickford– Fairbanks– Chaplin

A Quick History

• Stars of the 1920s– The Jazz Age– Having “it”

• Depression/Repression of the 1930s

• All American Kids– Shirley Temple– Judy Garland

• “Anti-Stars”– Nicholson– Eastwood

The Rise of Black Stars

• Civil Rights movement (1960s) made way for black cinema– Sidney Poitier

• Blaxploitation– 1970s– Shaft– Pam Grier

• Blaxploitation ends with “The Wiz” (1978)

• Replaced with “The Eddie Murphy Generation”– Richard Pryor– Whoopi Goldberg– Chris Rock

Watch for this in American Cinema….

• Acting persona• Star persona• Real person