Starmaker

David O. Selznick and the Production of Stars in the Hollywood Studio System

Milan Hain

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781496846051
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496846068
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: 20th Century History

David O. Selznick (1902–1965) was one of the most prominent film producers of the Hollywood studio era, responsible for such artistic and commercial triumphs as King Kong, David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, A Star Is Born, Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, Spellbound, and The Third Man. However, film production was not his only domain. Starting in the late 1930s, he built an impressive stable of stars within his own independent company, including Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh, Joan Fontaine, Jennifer Jones, and Gregory Peck.

In Starmaker: David O. Selznick and the Production of Stars in the Hollywood Studio System, author Milan Hain reveals the mechanisms by which Selznick and his collaborators discovered and promoted new stars and describes how these personalities were marketed, whether for financial gain or symbolic recognition and prestige. Using a wide range of archival materials, the book significantly complements and reshapes our understanding of Selznick's celebrated career by focusing on heretofore neglected aspects of his creative and business activities. It also sheds light on the US film industry during the Golden Age of Hollywood studios and in the postwar period when the established order began to break down. By structuring the book around Selznick and his role as a starmaker, Hain demonstrates that star production and development in the Hollywood studio system was a highly organized and systematic activity, though the respective strategies and procedures were often hidden from the public eye.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue: A Star Is Born as the Quintessential Hollywood Myth
• Introduction
• 1. The Construction of Naturalness: Ingrid Bergman and Intermezzo: A Love Story
• 2. Producing Prestige: Loan-Outs of Selznick’s Female Stars in the First Half of the 1940s
• 3. While They Were Fighting: The Development of Male Stars during World War II
• 4. From Model Teenager to Teenage Mother: Shirley Temple as Selznick’s Contract Star in the 1940s
• 5. Selznick (Goes) International: Selznick’s Studio and International Stars after 1945
• 6. The Most Faithful of Them All: Jennifer Jones after The Song of Bernadette
• Conclusion. The Selznick Brand: In the Tradition of Quality and Prestige
• Appendix: Selznick’s Star Stable in Numbers
• Archive Collections Used
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author