Susan's RTF Blog: The Star System in Classical Hollywood Studios

The Classical Hollywood Studios utilized the audience's captivation with movie stars to promote their films, and even certain products, making it a key aspect to the studios' success. This method, known as the "Star System" involved associating stars with specific genres or talents, giving the audience a consistency to expect and look forward to. The studios would use the stars as marketing tools, highlighting their presence in films in order to gain viewers.
Because this method was so successful in creating loyal fans and viewers, it led the studios to focus their films on the stars, rather than the plot or character development. Also, because the stars we such successful marketing tools, the studios would often insert advertisements into their films, using the stars as endorsers. The example of Judy Garland used in class shows her endorsing another MGM actor, Clark Gable, in the middle of a film she was starring in. In this way, MGM was using the popularity of one star to increase the popularity of another. This was important, as the studios competed over how many stars they had under contract; the more stars they had, the more films they could produce using the successful "Star System."
In the following movie posters, it is apparent that the stars are the entire focus of the film. Not only is the illustration a close-up of their faces, but, in some of them, the names of the stars are larger than the title of the film. Highlighting the faces of the stars rather than including an illustration more relevant to the plot shows the "Star System" in action, as it promotes the stars over the picture itself.