As early as January 1909, in response to viewer demand, the Kalem production company sent theaters posters and postcards promoting specific actors. On April 3, 1909, Moving Picture World, a film magazine, profiled a film actor for the first time.

	Thinking Points
	Can you think of a character from a current film that is presented as an idealized personality? If so, what technical aspects of the film, such as lighting effects and camera angles, are used to affect that star's image?

Their two-page article featuring actor Ben Turpin marked the initiation of fulfilling the public's appetite for information about their screen idols. Entitled "Life of a Moving Picture Comedian," the article included inside dirt on the business from Turpin himself.

It was producer Carl Laemmle, in 1910, who originated the "publicity stunt," thus changing the movie marketing system dramatically. Laemmle had hired actress Florence Lawrence to his IMP production company from Biograph, where she had started to gain recognition as "The Biograph Girl." Although accounts vary, most agree that Laemmle first announced to the papers that Lawrence had died in a streetcar accident in St. Louis, and then after her "death" had created a sufficient stir, he placed a full-page ad in the paper to deny the story. In fact, the ad stated, the vicious rumor had been started by rivals who wished to discredit the star. He promised that an escort would accompany her to the premiere of her film in St. Louis; her appearance there caused a near-riot by eager fans. Consequently, "Flo Lo" gained instant recognition.

Framing the stars
Once stars became identifiable, the public's curiosity about them grew insatiable. Fan magazines arose in reaction, publishing photos, interviews, behind-the-scenes stories and movie plot summaries. Motion Picture Story began in 1911 as a publication for theater owners, but within a year,

Photoplay

Cover of the December 1921 Issue of Photoplay, featuring the actress Lillian Gish.

it hit the stands for public consumption. By 1914, circulation had grown to over 270,000. Following in rapid succession were Photoplay in 1911, which at first published only film synopses, but soon moved into biographies; and Motion Picture Stories in 1913.

As the publicity departments grew, the language of cinema also evolved. Initially, movies looked like filmed plays, with their subject framed in a long shot (a stationary camera shooting from relatively far away) in the center of the screen, but soon special filmic shortcuts developed. Now, one scene would be broken up into several shots, some photographed from far away while others were shot from close up. In addition, new lighting techniques, art direction and camera angles were used to signal different moods. Each of these new techniques became star-making devices.

The ability for the medium of film to create a movie star, and the way in which audiences relate a star to an ideal, has been studied extensively by film theorists. New cinematic styles and techniques were able to transform actors into the viewer's ideal, positioning the actor as an eroticized and fetishized icon. The close-up shot, for example, could simultaneously make the actor appear larger-than-life (the idealized idol) and close enough to touch (the friend next door).

Writer Christian Metz, for instance, states that this predilection represents a regression to infancy, a time when we believed that our own image was faultless. He proposes that we crave onscreen icons that harken back to that ideal self-image. ts that we watch movies voyeuristically, making the film star, or onscreen subject, an object of our desire, whose persona becomes blurred with that of the person playing the role. Later, Laura Mulvey asserted that that desirous gaze of the viewer is almost always positioned as male, looking at visions of female passivity. Other theorists have since challenged and added to Mulvey's commentary, suggesting the possibility of a female gaze, or at least a dual response for female viewers, that allows them to identify both with the female and the (typically more active) male.

The movie screen inspires these complex psychological reactions because it possesses a unique ability to create the illusion of close, personal relationships between the star and the audience. Movie stars immediately commanded more fervor and loyalty than any previous celebrities. In the darkened theater, with no distractions from the fantasy fodder of a flawlessly made-up, one-dimensional persona, the viewer could imagine that the figure onscreen was as familiar and beloved as a real friend, as erotic as a lover or as villainous as an arch enemy.

Although fans were amenable to gossip and inside information about their idols, at this point no one wanted to hear about the stars' flaws and foibles. Scandals flourished later in the 1920s, but at the turn of the century, viewers seemed to prefer celebrities who were, in essence, perfected versions of themselves, someone they could consider a friend.

The burden of the star system lies in that dichotomy--idols must appear simultaneously identifiable and close enough to be attainable, yet idealized and far away enough to seem flawless. The movies' highly courted audience--a large viewer base with huge buying power--also tended to be fickle, embracing a personality for often only a short time. As a result, the early star system provided a classic double-edged sword, affording great fortune but also strictly limiting the actor's ability to be a real person, flaws and all.