Studio System

Notes on the Studio System:

What is the Studio System?

• Major studios wanted to control all aspects of production/distribution/exhibition of a film to maximize profit.

  • Ex they owned theaters [until 1948ish: Hollywood Antitrust Case].

  • Vertical integration.

  • Block Booking.

  • It’s a monopoly.

• “One of the techniques used to support the studio system was block booking, a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit.” which is where we get the term B-Movie.

It kinda coincides with the Golden Age of Hollywood from about 1920’s (1927) to the 1940’s (1948). Or from talkies to United States vs Paramount aka Hollywood Antitrust Case.

5 major studios and 3 minor studios flourished in the early days of Hollywood.

Big Five:

• MGM:

• RKO:

• Paramount:

• 20th Century Fox:

• Warner Brothers:

Little Three:

• United Artists:

• Universal:

• Columbia:

These studios came to Hollywood to avoid paying patent/licencing fees. = Edison! aka The Devil! and The Trust.

Great Depression 1929 - 1939

Strategy to survive The Great Depression: The Star System and based on a novel/play (IP). The ‘dream factory’.

The Star System:

Contracted to studios. Long term. Usually 4-7yrs.

• ‘Out on loan’

• Couldn’t reject roles (if did - suspended/blacklisted). De Havilland law .

• No limit put in place on how much a star could work. Pushed to limit. Drugs.

• Lasted until Hedy Lemar lawsuit.

Controlled image

• Name change - more Anglo sounding - sound nicer.

• Change image - dye hair, plastic surgery, diets = literally had weight limits

• Backstories for their actors - PR

• Vocal training + Acting classes

• Lavender marriage: Also controlled marriages outright. [Jean Harlow + William Haines]

• Forced abortions

• Studios also hired spies

• Fixers: Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling . They were often called before police.

Scandals led to morality clauses:

• Olive Thomas: 9.5.20 - died from drinking something toxic, accident, suicide, or murder?

• Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle multilpe trials in 1922 for manslaughter and sexual assault of Virginia Rappe. He was found innocent.

• William Desmond Taylor was murdered 2.2.22, no one was ever arrested.

• William Reid died 1.18.1923, he had a morphine addiction.

• Thomas H Ince. died 11.19.24, on William Randolph Hearst's yatch... there was a lot of speculation. Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin and others were also there.

• Rudolph Valentino died 8.23.26.

Hays Code: 1934 - 1968.

• 1922: MPPDA created with William Hays in charge

• 1927: List of 11 donts and 26 be carefuls.

• 1930: Hays code created but largely ignored

• 1934: PCA created to enforce the code.

• 1968: MPAA creates rating system to officially replace Hays Code.

First Amendment 1915 - 1952

• Mutual Film Corporation v Industrial commission of Ohio = films don't get First Amendment protection.

• Joseph Burnstyn Inc v Wilson = aka The Miracle Decision, overturned ^, giving films First Amendment protection.

Moral backlash!