Picture Personalities: The Emergence of the Star System in America

by Richard Decordova

Moving pictures existed for over a decade before anything resembling a star system appeared. Then, within the space of a very few years, American cinema went from being completely devoid of stars to being completely dependent on them. Picture Personalities is an invaluable account of this crucial development in cinema and modern culture.
 
Conventional wisdom attributes the rise of the star system to the charisma of individual performers or to the public's desire to idolize an appealing star. In Picture Personalities, Richard deCordova argues that the fledgling movie industry and the press conspired to develop the star system, along with a system of discourse to support it.
 
How actors became stars and how they began to assume public identities distinct from their fictional roles was closely tied to the journalistic discourse of the period, produced by the trade press, newspapers, general periodicals, fan magazines, publicity stills, posters, and other material. DeCordova shows how the studios worked to fabricate moral images of the stars' marriages and personal lives and how a series of star scandals in the 1920s challenged those images and brought about changes in the conventions of representing stars. A new foreword by Corey K. Creekmur enhances this first paperback edition.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

151 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting study of early star system, with extensive analysis of Florence Lawrence. Notes that motion picture stardom was a sort of narrative about the star in which the roles played in pictures were a part and the person’s life (star discourse as portrayed in print) were also a part. Ends with analysis of star scandals of the early 20s as breakdown of the “morally healthy star” image of the teens, which helped legitimize motion pictures. Doesn’t think studios opposed (except Biograph), just took them a while to catch on.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference and discussion about the conditions for and the state of movie stardom from 1900s to the 1920s.

[KrystieWonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a really good book about the emergence of the star system in America, it was really usefull for my essay. It is well written, there are a lot of examples and the contents of the book is very clear. I think it's one of the best book on this subject.