PSC 2478 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Olivia De Havilland, Nepotism, Studio System
Document Summary
An elite society that shares an art form, sensibilities, political values, philanthropy, and friendships. Many intrusions in early hollywood were due to anti-semitism. Lead to lots of nepotism due to loyalty concerns, but leads to a depreciation of pure merit and for talent to place more value in connections than talent. Awards shows has made artistic films more valuable. Money began flowing towards stars, directors, writers, and musicians, rather than the studios. The value of stars started with lawsuits from edison, arguing the value of films came from artists, not from edison"s recording devices. Many studios invested in their stars because there were under contract, so their popularity helped the studios, and the studios essentially owned actors . When olivia de havilland rebelled and the courts ruled in her favored that extended contracts were illegal, the owning of actors began to loosen. The average earnings of stars is about 30 times that of 1948.
