The stars (1962)

FOREWORD This book is an impressionistic rather than an exhaustive history of the institution of movie stardom. Literally hundreds of men, women, children and animals have, at one time or another, received billing above the title of a film and are thus entitled, by the broadest possible definition, to the appellation "star." Our criteria in the selection of names to be included in this study have been, perforce, much narrower than that. In general, we have striven to give most space to that handful of people who have been superstars, personalities who have dominated the screen for long periods of time and who, by the force of their presence, have altered the nature of screen content. Of those stars whose course was briefer, but whose light was sometimes more intense, we have tried to include people who were peculiarly representative of the nation's mood at a given moment or who answered some particularly pressing socio-psychological need. At this level our choice was wider and we were guided partly by the availability of good photographs and partly by personal taste. It is especially true of this subject that individuals develop strange attractions to unlikely performers, equally inexplicable dislikes for others. Both author and designer have tried to keep the expression of their own eccentricities of taste to a minimum. But it is only fair to say that in those instances when everything else was equal, we chose to include the actor or actress we had — or have— a sneaking fondness for. As to our general purpose, the book itself should make that clear. We believe that the picture-book form is peculiarly suited to this subject and, however frequently the form has been misused in the past, we believe that it is possible to make serious statements through the intelligent use of it. Though we believe the book to be both beautiful and amusing, we also hope, through the use of the star as metaphor, we have said something useful about the social history of our times and, certainly, about the history of a medium that has been the most important purveyor of popular culture in this century. Indeed, we hope that we have redressed an imbalance that has existed for a long time in serious writing about the films. Most critics have concentrated on the contributions of the director to the developing aesthetic of movies. This is, of course, the best way to approach European films, as well as American films made before the rise of the studio system in Hollywood. It may again become, in this day of independent production, the best way of dealing with American film history. But from, roughly, 1920 to 1950, American films, for the most part, have been tailored to fit the special talents of their stars. The presence of those stars together with the commercial judgment of the producers — a judgment that, to say the least, is not always sound— has, more than any other single factor, determined what we see. It is the specific nature of this influence that we attempt to demonstrate in this book. The careful reader will be aware of the author's debt to several critics and commentators. So that there can be no doubt as to his intellectual mentors, he would like to list them here and pay tribute to their benign influence on his thinking and writing. They are: James Agee, Manny Farber. Parker Tyler, Kenneth Tynan and Robert Warshow. On specific points each and all of them have guided me, but more important, their shared attitude, which is one of love for the movies, not cultural superiority toward them, has been of great comfort to me. The Stars could not have been produced without access to two fine collections of stills, one belonging to the Museum of Modern Art and the other to Culver Pictures. ^ e wish to thank these institutions and their dedicated employees for their aid. Thanks are due also to several private collections whose aid has been invaluable to us. The author's special gratitude is directed toward his wife, Julia \^ hedon Schickel, who not only did the major share of our basic picture research, but also undertook dozens of the essential chores of fact-finding and organization, served as a sounding board for ideas and, most important of all, bore with patience, fortitude and a sense of humor, the writers grumpy manner of working. She has always loved the movies almost as much as I do. I hope she still does. Richard Schickel New York