Independent Stardom : : Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System / / Emily Carman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Carman, Emily,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Texas Film and Media Studies Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (220 p.)

During the heyday of Hollywood’s studio system, stars were carefully cultivated and promoted, but at the price of their independence. This familiar narrative of Hollywood stardom receives a long-overdue shakeup in Emily Carman’s new book. Far from passive victims of coercive seven-year contracts, a number of classic Hollywood’s best-known actresses worked on a freelance basis within the restrictive studio system. In leveraging their stardom to play an active role in shaping their careers, female stars including Irene Dunne, Janet Gaynor, Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, and Barbara Stanwyck challenged Hollywood’s patriarchal structure. Through extensive, original archival research, Independent Stardom uncovers this hidden history of women’s labor and celebrity in studio-era Hollywood. Carman weaves a compelling narrative that reveals the risks these women took in deciding to work autonomously. Additionally, she looks at actresses of color, such as Anna May Wong and Lupe Vélez, whose careers suffered from the enforced independence that resulted from being denied long-term studio contracts. Tracing the freelance phenomenon among American motion picture talent in the 1930s, Independent Stardom rethinks standard histories of Hollywood to recognize female stars as creative artists, sophisticated businesswomen, and active players in the then (as now) male-dominated film industry.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Independent Stardom Is Born -- One. 1930s Hollywood The Golden Age for Talent -- Two. The [Freelance] Contract in Context -- Three. Labor and Lipstick Promoting the Independent Star Persona -- Four. Independent Stardom Goes Mainstream -- Appendix One. Key Freelance Deals of Independent Stardom Case Study Stars, 1930–1945 -- Appendix Two. Motion Picture Archives and Library Materials Consulted -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index