Research in Progress: June 2, 2021
Individualism
Either You have It or Not
Actors vs. Stars
Weber’s charisma theory applied
Luck, fate: role in making a star
Photogeneous
Hair Color
Role of Publicity (manufacturing stars)
Ideology–zeitgeist
Movie stars cannot exist in a society that celebrates individualism as a major value.
The central classic principle of the protagonist as individual and causal agent.
Stardom is a system that elevates the concept of individualism to exaggerated , all-encompassing importance.
The star system was not created with or by the movies. It had first emerged in the world of theater, ballet, and opera.
Movie stardom involves at least one paradox: A star must die to the camera, so to speak, in order to be later reborn from it.
Movie stars are often referred to as “personality or persona actors.”
The word persona derives from the Latin word mask, and as the scholar Giannetti observed, “An actor’s public image is based on his or hers previous roles, often incorporating elements from his or hers actual off screen personality, and both events and scandals from their private lives.
In the old studio system, roughly through 1960s, the studios themselves created the stars through their publicity machine. Now we the viewers wait for “a star to happen.” As casting director Heidi Levitt noted, “It’s more of a free-for-all.”
Max Weber’s Charisma Applied to Stardom
The theories of charisma of the German sociologist Max Weber are relevant tio the study of movie stardom.
The notion of charisma combines concepts of social function and ideology. Weber has defined charisma as “a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least superficially exceptional qualities (On Charisma and Institution Building, p. 329).
Weber has stressed that the personal quality of the charismatic leader may be a function of the situation rather than the individual alone.
Something about this person persuades others to follow him. This person is perceived to possess some unique or unusual qualities that distinguish him from ordinary people.
This, the charismatic leader is not stable because his leadership derives not from his office, but from the personal attributes, held to be true by his followers.
Similarly, a leader derives his power from the beliefs of his followers about his uniqueness.
Photogeneity:
A long-held belief in the Hollywood industry is that the camera “likes certain individuals and does not like others,” even though those others may be very good-looking in real life, off camera.
Prime example: Marilyn Monroe, who was highly photogenic and completely “natural” and “comfortable” in front of the camera.
Either you have it or you don’t
Lana Turner, an MGM star of the 1940s and 1950s, who was entirely created by the studio’s organization, once explains the basis of her stardom: “There were girls who were prettier, more intelligent, and just as talented. Why didn’t they make it? It’s a question of magic. You have it or you don’t, I guess, and the lucky ones have had it.”
Impossible to Define Precisely:
Richard Zanuck, head of Fox and major producer observed:
“Star quality is one of the most difficult things to describe. When someone who possesses this quality walks into a room, everyone else responds automatically, though no one can really define what they’re responding to.”
Zeitgeist and Ideology
Louis Menand:
“Stardom is the intersection of personality with history, a perfect congruence of the way the world happens to be and the star is.”
Every era has actors who accurately embody the culture taste of the times (the zeitgeist).
Stars project personified clues to the system of values that the viewers hold at a particular time.
Personality stars convey ready-made ideology, a set of values associated with the star because (and a result) of previous films and roles.
The persona often incorporates elements from the actual lives of the individual stars (Lana Turner is a good example).
John Wayne was associated with right wing ideology and politics both on screen and off; the two worlds merged.
Charisma: Magnetism
John Lahr: “Glamor agitates as it ravishes. It creates a climate of want.”
Star quality is therefore a most elusive term, having to do with that special magnetism that draws audiences to admiration. Often, that special quality is of an inherently sexual nature. But the exact nature of magnetism is hard to define.
What the great Columbia University sociologist Robert Merton has said about the social function of Kate Smith (who was not in the film industry) during WWII, could be applied to Hollywood movie stars: The star’s sincerity is a denial “of a discrepancy between appearance and reality in the sphere of human relationships.” In other words, “the star seems to be a guarantee of community in a world where it is lost.”
Charles Champlin, the former L.A. Times critic, has defined stars in terms of representation of lifestyles: “Every actor who becomes a star, and then a superstar, endures because he embodies better than anyone else a particular life-style”.
“He is a charismatic individual, vivid and unforgettable, and his is also a more general figure – a type – embodying a set of attributes and qualities which are the projection sof the audiences’s wishes and dreams.”
Stanley Kauffman, critic of the New Republic, has emphasized the relationship between the person (and personality) of the actor and his art form. How a star persona becomes his own instrument. He is like a violinist who can never change violins, like a novelist who must be personally acceptable to you before you can admire his books. All actors capitalize on their looks as a charming setting for their talents.
The Time’s film critic, Richard Schickel, in his book about Bogart, quotes the 1940s movie star (“Casablanca”) as saying, “You have to drag your weight at the box-office and be recognized wherever you go.”
Luck, Fate, Coincidence:
When Alice Faye, Fox’s big musical star, became ill-disposed to appear in Down Argentine Way, in 1940, due to appendicitis, she was replaced by Bette Grable, who’s been around for a decade. This movie catapulted Grable to major stardom, which lasted for a decade or so.
As fate would have it, in 1953, Grable herself was succeeded by Fox’s younger blonde, Marilyn Monroe. Grable and Monroe made one movie together, How to Marry a Millionaire, which co-starred Lauren Bacall.
Hair Color and Style
Hair is an inseparable part of a star’s screen image, especially women.
Jean Harlow’s incendiary glow of her platinum blond
Marilyn Monroe
Jayne Mansfield was blonde, but different rom Monroe.
Brigitte Bardot wore her long thick blond hair in lewd dishevelment, as a sexual statement (je m’en fou).
Sandra Dee was blonde
Lana Turner was blond
Rita Hayworth long brunette hair
Veronica Lake hair style
Role of Publicity:
No amount of publicity can automatically transform an actor into a bona fide movie star.
You cannot force a star on the public.
Examples:
Anna Stein
Gail Russell
Publicity machine is crucial, however, after an actor had displayed some talent, and/or had a breakthrough role
Star-Making Process:
There’s always an unknown, abstract, unpredictable part to the process of star-making.
The process involves risk-taking, taking chances, reconciling contradictory elements.
There is a treading fine line between objective business plans by the studios or agencies and subjective responses of the audience to certain stars.
Actors Vs. Stars
The sheer diversity of screen roles of 1960s and 1970s stars, such as Warren Beatty, Redford, Nicholson
The new type of actor as star, such as Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman
Overnight Stardom
How quickly they became stars? years from film debut?
Overnight Stardom:
Warren Beatty (first film)
Julia Roberts
Delayed Stardom:
Steve McQueen, 5 years
Paul Newman, a decade
Robert Redford, almost a decade
Jack Nicholson, a decade
