5 - Production and the Star System

I think that the most interesting aspect of the vertical studio system was the production side, particularly the star system. To become a star, you first had to be discovered by one of the top 5 major movie studios, which included MGM, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, and RKO. Then, you were contracted to that studio for a certain amount of time. This meant that you could only work for that one movie studio. Once you became a star, you became the face of the movie studio. People were so obsessed with stars that they would go to the movies just because their favorite star appeared in it.

The star system also affected the studio system by giving each studio a genre for which they would be known for. For example, Judy Garland had a consistent set of character traits, mainly her singing, which the audience fell in love with. MGM saw this and, to make more profits, began to write more movies where Judy Garland sang, even if it was just one song. 

Another MGM star was Gene Kelly.  Because of his singing and dancing ability, MGM utilized his talent and featured him in musicals, such as Singing in the Rain. Soon, because of the star system, MGM became known for its musical genre.

Conclusively, I believe that production, more specifically the star system, is the most important and interesting aspect of the studio system because it made the studios identifiable and gave them their own genres to profit on by focusing on the actors star talent (instead of trying to come up with many different genres through one actor).