cbr16 bingo Fanfic
Growing up in mid-century Palm Springs, summers could be long and boring (no pool). TV options were very limited, but there was the mid-afternoon Million Dollar Movie. That was my mom’s favorite thing to watch as she did the ironing (everything was cotton – there was a lot of ironing for a six-person family) so I would get sucked in too. I can credit those summers with being familiar with all the actors in this book.
This is a very detailed look at how the studio system worked, mostly between 1930 and 1960. It was a extremely profitable factory system, churning out four to five hundred movies a year. And early on, they realized what it was they were actually selling, the stars. Plots were very much secondary. Stars were hired to fill certain niches, and the studios worked hard to find that actor’s “type”. Sometimes it took a while and a lot of false starts (Humphrey Bogart), but once it clicked, the audience got exactly what it had come to see.
This book does not take on the top tier of stars – Judy Garland and Cary Grant needed no machine. It looks instead at those just under that level. Some came in on their own terms, had as much of it as they wanted, and left on their own terms (Eleanor Powell, Irene Dunne). Some came in via the star machine, but were shrewd enough to find ways of remaining relevant long past the norm (Loretta Young). Some were versatile enough to have long careers (Dick Powell) and some burnt out way too soon. (Errol Flynn).
All and all, I highly recommend this to any fan of Classic Hollywood movies. And as for my mom, it was always James Mason. He was her guy.