The Stars Appear: Volume 3 Tapa dura - 1992

The first thirty years of motion pictures were a major turning-point in American culture. With all its idiosyncrasies, wildness, charm, and freshness, this period still had its seriousness, conscious of being new, yet largely unsure of its goals. Hollywood was the 20th century's new frontier, fortified with values and attitudes from the 19th century. At the heart of it all were the unpredictable, hardworking, lively, beautiful people who were chosen to appear on the screen. Most of them were there, not for art, but out of dire necessity. The women especially, poor and often lacking a male parent, discovered how things worked and learned to reap wealth from popularity. The American people have always wanted stars like themselves to love. The really big boxoffice stars, while they certainly range from the boy and girl next door to more sophisticated types, have usually represented the common traits of an ideal democratic society: moral strength, a tilt toward generosity and social responsibility, and more than a trace of self-deprecation and humor. The performers who were most likely to have these qualities were those who had made their way on their own, took their chances, worked hard, and never forgot either their struggle for fame of the public that rewarded them with success. Success was no myth for Douglas Fairbanks. By the time he chose to play Robin Hood (1922), he could snap his fingers and have built for him the biggest set since Intolerance. The set was no myth and neither were the millions that came in at the boxoffice. In the 1920s, certainly, such personalities seemed to many people more alive and genuine and worthy of emulation than the Presidential leaders of that decade.Acquaintance with these famous and influential people is essential for the student of American history and culture. It would be a curious foreshortening of American civilization to study only the intellectual or political or literary events of the time and leave out the movie stars.