The Appearance and Development of the Star System in the American Society and its Subsequent Image in the Romanian Society

• Author: Dinu (Stan), E.L
• Position: Ph.D. student, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest
• Pages: 55-62

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Vol. 5 (54) No. 1 - 2012

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law

THE APPEARANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

OF THE STAR SYSTEM IN THE

AMERICAN SOCIETY AND ITS

SUBSEQUENT IMAGE IN

THE ROMANIAN SOCIETY

Elena-Lidia DINU (STAN)1

Abstrac t: The paper aims at clarifying as much as possibl e th e

signifi cance of the “star system ” c oncept. It is noteworthy th at, in the

contem porary me dia socie ty, gene ralization of the concept has l ed to the

distort ion of its expl icative field. Sub sequently, I broug ht to attention the

Hollyw ood entertainme nt industry that ha s always been a volat ile and

unpredi ctable business. Despite all these facts, the sociology of the s tar

system has known a n unprecede nted develop ment in our country.

Key wo rds: star system, st ars, media i ndustry.

1 Ph.D. student, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest.

1. Intr oduction

The name of Hollywood city i s related

mainly to the cinematographic industry

and to the activity of the big studios in

which the stars we re hired to entert ain

the public. “An entire network has b een

organized: «talent scouts», castings,

small rol es, promotion as a starlet, big

roles, recognition as a leadin g actor, and,

at last, the star”, says Ga briel Thoveron

[16].

Invented in 1 890, the cine ma offered to

the masse s the cheapest form of

entertainment and developed as a b ig

industry f or the filmmakers. It was

assumed t hat the advanced tech nology

would allow the p roducers to cr eate “the

best motion picture made w orldwide”

[8].

In this respect, Geoffrey No well-Smith

[12] wrote: “the movi es become vehicles

for th e presen ce of their stars”, their

image becomes vendi ble, i n ord er to be

transfor med in merchandise for

consumer ship.

“Concei ved to study m otion” [11, p. 7],

cinemato graphy presents a worl d of star s

as i t was cr eated and submitted to

analysis as a modern myth.

The French sociologist E dgar Mori n

reminds us that the appearance of the star

coincides with th e appearan ce of new

film heroes “interpret ed by anonymous

and po or actors”, on this occa sion the

age of “mo vie st ars” s uperseding t he

“star-films” age [11, p. 17].

In the given co ntext, the tr ansition

from the silent mot ion picture and sound

motion p icture to the contempor ary