Independent Stardom
Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System
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- $32.99
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- $32.99
Publisher Description
Bringing to light an often-ignored aspect of Hollywood studio system history, this book focuses on female stars who broke the mold of a male-dominated, often manipulative industry to dictate the path of their own careers through freelancing.
Runner-up, Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association, 2016
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Debut author Carman, a film studies professor at Chapman University, upends conventional wisdom in this valuable and informative historical study of the business practices of freelance actresses during the 1930s. Contrary to the popular narrative that portrays Hollywood starlets of the era as studio playthings at the whim of powerful producers and A-list directors, the author relies on a broad range of research materials that suggest the opposite was often true. This compact and focused academic analysis concentrates on several notable talents, including Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Irene Dunne, and Miriam Hopkins, who were able to negotiate lucrative freelance contracts with salaries that matched those of their male costars. These independent working women also regularly made their own business decisions, which included choosing particular film roles as well as selecting the directors, producers, and stylists they wanted to work with, in a concerted effort to shape their own public personas. It's difficult to quibble with Carman's well-argued conclusion that women played a much more important role within the Hollywood star system than they've previously been credited for.
