The symbiotic relationship between film studios and fan magazines ensured the cinema-going public was fed a diet of Hollywood glamour and celebrity gossip
From press junkets to gossip blogs to the Forbes list, celebrity culture seeps into every corner of the modern film business. Star worship, like almost everything else in Hollywood, was born as a studio boss’s cynical wheeze. It all began in 1910 when the name of the Biograph Girl was released to the public. The Independent Moving Pictures studio boss, Carl Laemmle, went so far as to spread a rumour that the Girl had been killed in a traffic accident, before taking out adverts in newspapers calling the story a lie and announcing that she was, in fact, alive and about to play the lead in a film made by his company, which had lured her away from its rival, Biograph. And by the way, her name was Florence Lawrence.
From press junkets to gossip blogs to the Forbes list, celebrity culture seeps into every corner of the modern film business. Star worship, like almost everything else in Hollywood, was born as a studio boss’s cynical wheeze. It all began in 1910 when the name of the Biograph Girl was released to the public. The Independent Moving Pictures studio boss, Carl Laemmle, went so far as to spread a rumour that the Girl had been killed in a traffic accident, before taking out adverts in newspapers calling the story a lie and announcing that she was, in fact, alive and about to play the lead in a film made by his company, which had lured her away from its rival, Biograph. And by the way, her name was Florence Lawrence.
- 1/26/2016
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
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