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 …

In standard histories the forces which put the star system in place are reduced to the play of
personal initiative on the one hand and a reified notion of the public desire on the other. The
star system is not simply the creation of one person or even one company; nor is the desire
for movie stars something that arose unsolicited.