The American Film Industry

14. The Star as Market Strategy: Bette Davis in Another Light

The Star System in Operation 14CATHY KLAPRAT The Star as Market Strategy: Bette Davis in Another Light Bette Davis became a star in 1933, playing the sexy ingenue in ExLady . Warner touted her as the platinum blond coquette, the flirt destined to be the object of men's pursuit. Yet just two years later, in Dangerous, Davis' image had been completely changed-she became a vamp, a sexually aggressive seductress, a destroyer ofmen. What could have caused this radical change? The answer must be found in the broader inquiry into how the star system functioned in the American film industry during the 1930s and 1940s, the era ofoligopoly control. We have recently come to understand the narrative significance ofthe star in classical Hollywood cinema. What is less well understood is the economic significance. Stars established the value of motion pictures as a marketable commodity. In economic terms, stars by virtue of their unique appeal and drawing power stabilized rental prices and guaranteed that the companies operated at a profit.l To maintain this crucial economic function was the major preoccupation ofthe studio. Power flowed from the top in the studio system, and the production chiefhimselfchose the roles for his stars and made the important career decisions. Although stars may have been well compensated, they were indentured employees, placed in a subservient position by the option contract. Stars were created, not discovered, 1. Unquestionably, there are other interventions which may also account for this change in roles. For example, the Production Code intoned against such blatantly sexual representations. 351 352 Part III / A Mature Oligopoly, 1930-1948 counter to popular myths. Entire departments functioned as components of star-making machinery. The scriptwriting department created vehicles for the star's screen persona. And in promoting the pictures, the advertising and publicity departments built up the uniqueness of the star by transforming his or her personal life to match the screen persona. The star system not only characterized the production process , but was inextricably linked to vertical integration. The question should now be rephrased to ask, how did distribution and exhibition affect what was presented on the silver screen? The Economic Imperative Although the industry had become vertically integrated by 1930 dominated by five companies, many marketing problems had yet to be resolved. Curiously, the majors had difficulty at first in controlling the price of their films. Sales Management, a trade journal of the period, characterized the situation in this manner: "Picture a product distributed to thousands of dealers serving well over 50 million consumers weekly, a product without a fixed price because its value cannot be determined in advance. Imagine too that there is no preordained market for this particular product and that the product is not tangible at all, but a series of moving shadows."2 The geographic location of the theater chains owned by the majors exacerbated the problem. For the most part, these chains were located in different regions of the country. For example, Warner owned the best houses in the Philadelphia area. Because they did the lion's share ofthe business, Paramount, Fox, and the other majors would regularly book these houses.3 To achieve national distribution, therefore, the majors played one another's pictures. In other words, these companies did not compete on the exhibition level except in certain cities. Nonetheless , the major distributors and exhibitors had to bargain price. In practice, they bargained for a certain percentage ofthe box office gross. These terms, rather than flat rental, permitted the companies to benefit from the extraordinary box office results of a hit. But the question remained: How to determine the percentage? To understand how the problem was resolved, we must first analyze some relevant economic principles. Let us return to the Sales Management quote. The quote implies that the stabilization of price is 2. A. Montague, "How the Wheels Go Around in a Motion Picture Sales Department," Sales Managment 56 (January 15, 1946): 52. 3. Mae Huettig, "The Motion Picture Industry Today," in Tino Balio, ed., The American Film Industry (Madison; University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), p. 245. 14. Klaprat: The Star as Market Strategy 353 concomitant with a preordained consumer market, a market difficult to establish because of the intangible nature of film. According to Richard Caves, in his book American Industry: Structure, Conduct, Performance, product differentiation establishes a preordained consumer market for a product by creating distinguishing marks which the consumer can recognize...