History MediaNotes / TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood

A key part of the studio system was a practice known as "block booking", in which they would sell a year's worth of films to the theaters as a unit. Blocks would include a number of particularly attractive, big-budget films, which would be used to entice theaters to buy the whole block, as well as a mix of lower-budgeted [[BMovie B-Movies]]. Block booking was all too often used by the studios to cover for releases of mediocre quality -- although many classic movies were made during this era, and even some of the {{B Movie}}s are now considered excellent works by film historians. Anger at the practice of block booking first began to boil in 1938, following the blockbuster success of Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', an animated film that was not made by the major studios (though it was distributed by RKO) and did not employ their stars.

Early on, this era had a wealth of content variety for the cinema goer far beyond the feature film, with {{newsreel}}s and [[ShortFilm short subjects]] like {{film serial}}s, animation (much of the early animation from both Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/WarnerBros animation was composed of shorts), musicals, and comedies like ''Creator/LaurelAndHardy'' and ''Film/TheThreeStooges''. You can see examples in such programming such as the feature selections in select Creator/WarnerBros dvds of classic films of the era. Alas, by the 1940s this was gradually replaced by the double feature programming, which helped create the above complaints of the dreck that theater companies had to show thanks to block booking.

A 1947 Supreme Court Anti-Trust decision effectively divested the Studio System from its distribution arm. This paved the way for the rise of independent theater chains (at least until the Multiplex era) but spelled the beginning of the end for the Studio System, with many different players like agents becoming more involved in movie production in the 1950s. However, despite the "de-facto" ending of the studio system, it continued in spirit until the mid-sixties if only because many of the independents who had come into existence wanted to StartMyOwn and become as successful as the big five, and the wealth and prestige of the major studios was such that they actually cashed in on many trends in TheFifties as well as introduce fads like widescreen theaters ([=CinemaScope=], [=VistaVision=], Cinerama and so on) and the distinctly Hollywood genre of the EpicMovie. As such many of the symbols one associates with the Golden Age [[NewerThanTheyThink actually came after the period when the studio system ended]]. Many American towns still have a [[StillWearingTheOldColors Paramount or Fox Theater]] long since repurposed as a local performing-arts venue (the other studios not seeming to have branded so blatantly).

A major part of Hollywood was of course the "star system". This was the Golden Age version of the HollywoodHypeMachine and so the TropeMaker and TropeCodifier. Under the star system, actors were contracted to work by the studio. The contracts were generally restrictive and favored the studio and producers over the actors. A key part of the mystique of the star system, something worked into the studio publicity itself, was the idea of "discovery". That is, the idea that agents and producers could take anyone off the street and make these people into stars by giving them new images, new names, and entirely new personalities for makeovers. The idea was almost that the studios put out stars from something like an assembly line. There is some truth to this legend. Some promising, good-looking young actors were given brand new public images, sometimes changing their names (Archie Leach became Creator/CaryGrant, Lucille [=LeSueur=] became Creator/JoanCrawford, Constance Ockleman became Creator/VeronicaLake, Harriet Lake became Creator/AnnSothern) and even getting them plastic surgery (which is how Margarita Cansino [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17501_5-celebrity-careers-launched-by-ethnic-makeovers.html became]] Creator/RitaHayworth, and how countless Jewish actors (such as Creator/LaurenBacall, who changed her name from Betty Perske since it was considered too "Jewish-sounding") became [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]]) in order to make them more marketable. TypeCasting was the typical outcome of this molding process.

The Golden Age also coincided with Jim Crow and segregation and the Hays Code was intended to be a national code that ensured that their movies could play in every US State, including the DeepSouth, which proved to be the most active state censorship bureau during MediaNotes/ThePreCodeEra. As such African-American actors and actresses had very limited roles, often playing maids, servants and sidekick characters, or in the case of Stepin Fetchit, a stock character stereotype of lazy shifty men who are helpless without white handlers. Actresses such as Lena Horne or Creator/DorothyDandridge managed to get more important roles than their fellow African-American actresses, but leading roles for them were limited to all-black productions, as the Hays Code forbade romances between a white person and a black person. Otherwise, they were pretty much consigned to relatively small supporting roles (in Lena Horne's case, getting one musical number in a film that was otherwise dominated by white actors). American films made in this era perpetuated the "[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Lost Cause]]" myth and on account of this, a number of films made in this era suffer from DatedHistory and ValuesDissonance. A number of notable Jazz and Blues singers did, however, appear in these golden age films often in cameos and brief appearances (such as Nat "King" Cole in ''Film/TheBlueGardenia'', Louis Armstrong in ''Film/HighSociety'', Duke Ellington in ''Film/AnatomyOfAMurder'', where he also composed the score). Some more broad-minded producers and directors, sympathetic to African-Americans and anti-racist causes, tried to work around these restrictions resulting in a GoldenMeanFallacy; the uniquely weird genre known as the "all-black film", i.e. an inverted MonochromeCasting genre peopled entirely with African-American performers that appeared to be set in a ConstructedWorld without whites, which more or less codified segregation into a film genre (examples include: ''Film/{{Hallelujah}}'', ''Film/CabinInTheSky'', ''Film/CarmenJones'', ''Porgy and Bess'' and others). Of course, a number of these movies were [[FairForItsDay fair for the time period]]. They were certainly a far cry from the {{Blackface}} of ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', let alone ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915'', and if nothing else they are valuable documents showcasing the artistry and potential of great African-American artists. There were also a handful of genuinely anti-racist films made in this time that critics celebrate for their ValuesResonance, such as ''Intruder in the Dust'' (produced by Creator/{{MGM}}, of all studios) and Creator/JosephLMankiewicz's ''No Way Out'' (1950), the latter of which was Creator/SidneyPoitier's first major film role.

The Golden Age of Hollywood encompassed UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, which not only occasioned a slew of films aimed at boosting morale on the home front, but also helped bring to Hollywood a great contingent of exiled or expatriated Europeans who had previously made their careers in France, Germany and Austria, including actors such as Creator/PeterLorre and Creator/ConradVeidt, writers such as Creator/BertoltBrecht and Franz Werfel, directors such as Creator/FritzLang, Creator/OttoPreminger and Creator/BillyWilder, and composers such as Music/ErichWolfgangKorngold, Miklos Rozsa, Arnold Schoenberg, Music/IgorStravinsky, Franz Waxman and Music/KurtWeill.

Some of these films -- ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''It's A Wonderful Life'', ''Citizen Kane'', ''Vertigo'' in particular -- were commercial failures only to be VindicatedByHistory, proving that the afterlife of these films, and the value they have to later generations, is not mere nostalgia. A number of films of this era are considered to be ahead of their time. Some of the most valued Hollywood films of this era such as [[Franchise/UniversalHorror the modern horror genre]], FilmNoir, the BMovie were considered disposable low-culture even by the studios, but many are now considered great trailblazing films that have inspired not only mainstream filmmakers but also arthouse and experimental filmmakers, as well as novelists, painters, musicians, and comics artists, in addition to a host of people from a variety of fields. The anarchist LGBT filmmaker Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder best encapsulated the appeal of Hollywood in this era, noting that, "What I would like is to make Hollywood movies, that is, movies as wonderful and universal, but at the same time not as hypocritical."

[[folder: Contract System]]

[[folder: Legacy]]

The Golden Age as we know it is traced to the origins of the "studio system", which began during the latter half of [[UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood Silent Age]] but truly took off when sound arrived. The studio system was a model of vertical integration -- the "Big Five" studios (Creator/{{MGM}}, Creator/{{Paramount}}, Creator/WarnerBros, Creator/{{RKO}} and [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Fox]]) all had controlling stakes in their own theater chains, ensuring that their films would get distributed. There were a number of situations where one studio would control all of the theaters in a town or city -- perhaps the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this was when Paramount owned every theater in UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, enjoying a monopoly on film distribution in one of America's largest cities. The "Little Three" studios -- Creator/{{Universal}}, Creator/ColumbiaPictures and Creator/UnitedArtists -- would never own more than small theater circuits, and relied on independent theaters to carry their movies; the "Poverty Row" B-studios -- [[Creator/AlliedArtists Monogram Pictures]], Republic Pictures and Producers Releasing Corporation -- ranked still lower in power and prestige.

This was also the era of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, enacted in response to both [[MediaScaremongering moral panic]] over indecency in early film and a perceived number of immoral people within the industry itself (Creator/FattyArbuckle being the most infamous), as well as the [[MoralGuardians National Legion of Decency]], a largely Catholic censor group that could effectively destroy a film's profitability by declaring it "morally objectionable" (basically, imagine the Parents Television Council, but Catholic, movie-focused and far more powerful). This placed extremely strong censorship on films in addition to the demands of the executives. The combination of these two factors meant that StrictlyFormula, more often than not, ruled the day when it came to filmmaking, though as noted by Martin Scorsese in his documentary ''A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Film-making'', several directors became "smugglers", who managed to criticize, subvert and secretly issue {{Take That}}s to the censors and America's moral majority, with several little-known radical films made in this system anyway, often in genres that were BeneathSuspicion.

The Golden Age also coincided with Jim Crow and segregation and the Hays Code was intended to be a national code that ensured that their movies could play in every US State, including the DeepSouth, which proved to be the most active state censorship bureau during UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra. As such African-American actors and actresses had very limited roles, often playing maids, servants and sidekick characters, or in the case of Stepin Fetchit, a stock character stereotype of lazy shifty men who are helpless without white handlers. Actresses such as Lena Horne or Creator/DorothyDandridge managed to get more important roles than their fellow African-American actresses, but leading roles for them were limited to all-black productions, as the Hays Code forbade romances between a white person and a black person. Otherwise, they were pretty much consigned to relatively small supporting roles (in Lena Horne's case, getting one musical number in a film that was otherwise dominated by white actors). American films made in this era perpetuated the "[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Lost Cause]]" myth and on account of this, a number of films made in this era suffer from DatedHistory and ValuesDissonance. A number of notable Jazz and Blues singers did, however, appear in these golden age films often in cameos and brief appearances (such as Nat "King" Cole in ''Film/TheBlueGardenia'', Louis Armstrong in ''Film/HighSociety'', Duke Ellington in ''Film/AnatomyOfAMurder'', where he also composed the score). Some more broad-minded producers and directors, sympathetic to African-Americans and anti-racist causes, tried to work around these restrictions resulting in a GoldenMeanFallacy; the uniquely weird genre known as the "all-black film", i.e. an inverted MonochromeCasting genre peopled entirely with African-American performers that appeared to be set in a ConstructedWorld without whites, which more or less codified segregation into a film genre (examples include: ''Film/{{Hallelujah}}'', ''Film/CabinInTheSky'', ''Film/CarmenJones'', ''Porgy and Bess'' and others). Of course, a number of these movies were [[FairForItsDay fair for the time period]]. They were certainly a far cry from the {{Blackface}} of ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', let alone ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915'', and if nothing else they are valuable documents showcasing the artistry and potential of great African-American artists. There were also a handful of genuinely anti-racist films made in this time that critics celebrate for their ValuesResonance, such as ''Intruder in the Dust'' (produced by Creator/{{MGM}}, of all studios) and Creator/JosephLMankiewicz's ''No Way Out'' (1950), the latter of which was Creator/SidneyPoitier's first major film role.

The UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem more or less ended the star system and contracted players for good and the period of TheFifties was actually one that showed greater creative control to actors/directors/screenwriters/independent producers. It was also in this period where the likes of Creator/OttoPreminger, Creator/EliaKazan, and Creator/BillyWilder mounted a committed a series of ultimately successful challenges to the censors that eased censorship -- and eventually ended it altogether.

As early as 1919 (a decade before the official start of the Golden Age), Creator/DouglasFairbanks, Creator/CharlieChaplin, Creator/MaryPickford and Creator/DWGriffith founded Creator/UnitedArtists in order to subvert the studio system and have greater control over their work and their lives. Later, during the '30s, [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood Hollywood's main unions]] formed to protest the low wages and grueling work schedules experienced by actors, directors and writers. At the time of United Artists' founding, the head of [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer Metro Pictures]], Richard A. Rowland, described it as "[[RunningTheAsylum the inmates taking over the asylum]]." In time, however, UA's model [[VindicatedByHistory would come to be the standard for Hollywood]], especially once [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem the Golden Age studio system began to fall apart]]...

Exactly when the era ended is difficult to pinpoint. While 1930 (or 1934) is the generally agreed-upon starting point, there are a number of claimants for the ending date: 1947 (vertical integration -- the economic foundation of the studio system -- declared unconstitutional); 1952 (a US Supreme Court decision held that films were entitled to First Amendment protection, removing much of the rationale for censorship); 1953 (Hollywood cinema starting to feel heavy competitive pressure from television); 1954 (Creator/MarlonBrando and his revolutionary style of MethodActing, which ushers in a new age of realism); 1955 (Creator/MarilynMonroe, the biggest actress of the era, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere walks out on her contract with Fox]], attends the Actors' Studio in New York, and returns to Hollywood demanding a new contract and more creative freedom, thus helping to usher in the era of actors as ''auteurs''); 1956 (UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode liberalized to allow freer depiction of once-taboo subject matter); 1960 (era of the modern "slasher" film heralded by ''Film/{{Psycho}}''); 1968 (UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode finally scrapped for good and replaced by the MPAA rating system); or 1969 (when Creator/SharonTate was murdered by members of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson's "family"). The late '50s and the '60s were a period of transition in which many of the actors and great stars died (for instance, Creator/HumphreyBogart in '57, Creator/ClarkGable in '60, Creator/GaryCooper in '61, Creator/MarilynMonroe in '62, Creator/MontgomeryClift in '66), retired and/or faded away.

The classic Hollywood star idea was challenged increasingly by more working-class and ethnic actors who challenged the general [=WASPy=] All-American look common to the Golden Age. Younger filmmakers influenced by European and Asian films also challenged the conventional film narrative of the Golden Age. By the 70s, the Golden Age ended and American cinema entered the period known as UsefulNotes/NewHollywood which was in many ways seen as a brief, DarkerAndEdgier "golden age" in its own right.

For information about the animated side of the industry during this time, see UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation.

The Golden Age. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_HFWdcO0c In the popular imagination]], this is a glitzy era stretching from 1927 to 1969; that is, essentially Hollywood cranked up to eleven with HollywoodCostuming and GorgeousPeriodDress (although CostumePorn was actually present in the films made at the time). Sure, there were some really great movies made during this era, but obviously SturgeonsLaw and NostalgiaFilter apply, right.

The Golden Age. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_HFWdcO0c In the popular imagination]], this is a glitzy era stretching from 1927 to 1969; that is, essentially Hollywood cranked up to eleven with HollywoodCostuming and GorgeousPeriodDress (although CostumePorn was actually present in the films made at the time). Sure, there were some really great movies made during this era, but obviously SturgeonsLaw and NostalgiaFilter apply, right?

Exactly when the era ended is difficult to pinpoint. While 1930 (or 1934) is the generally agreed-upon starting point, there are a number of claimants for the ending date: 1947 (vertical integration — the economic foundation of the studio system — declared unconstitutional); 1952 (a US Supreme Court decision held that films were were entitled to First Amendment protection, removing much of the rationale for censorship); 1953 (Hollywood cinema starting to feel heavy competitive pressure from television); 1954 (Creator/MarlonBrando and his revolutionary style of MethodActing, which ushers in a new age of realism); 1955 (Creator/MarilynMonroe, the biggest actress of the era, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere walks out on her contract with Fox]], attends the Actors' Studio in New York, and returns to Hollywood demanding a new contract and more creative freedom, thus helping to usher in the era of actors as ''auteurs''); 1956 (UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode liberalized to allow freer depiction of once-taboo subject matter); 1960 (era of the modern "slasher" film heralded by ''Film/{{Psycho}}''); 1968 (UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode finally scrapped for good and replaced by the MPAA rating system); or 1969 (when Creator/SharonTate was murdered by members of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson's "family"). The late '50s and the '60s were a period of transition in which many of the actors and great stars died (for instance, Creator/HumphreyBogart in '57, Creator/ClarkGable in '60, Creator/GaryCooper in '61, Creator/MarilynMonroe in '62, Creator/MontgomeryClift in '66), retired and/or faded away.

Exactly when the era ended is difficult to pinpoint. While 1930 (or 1934) is the generally agreed-upon starting point, there are a number of claimants for the ending date: 1947 (vertical integration -- the economic foundation of the studio system -- declared unconstitutional); 1953 (Hollywood cinema starting to feel heavy competitive pressure from television); 1954 (Creator/MarlonBrando and his revolutionary style of MethodActing, which ushers in a new age of realism); 1955 (Creator/MarilynMonroe, the biggest actress of the era, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere walks out on her contract with Fox]], attends the Actors' Studio in New York, and returns to Hollywood demanding a new contract and more creative freedom, thus helping to usher in the era of actors as ''auteurs''); 1956 (UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode liberalized to allow freer depiction of once-taboo subject matter); 1960 (era of the modern "slasher" film heralded by ''Film/{{Psycho}}''); 1968 (UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode finally scrapped for good and replaced by the MPAA rating system); or 1969 (when Creator/SharonTate was murdered by members of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson's "family"). The late '50s and the '60s were a period of transition in which many of the actors and great stars died (for instance, Creator/HumphreyBogart in '57, Creator/ClarkGable in '60, Creator/GaryCooper in '61, Creator/MarilynMonroe in '62, Creator/MontgomeryClift in '66), retired and/or faded away.

Well, this period was a time of actors like Creator/CaryGrant, Creator/JamesStewart, Creator/GretaGarbo, Creator/HumphreyBogart, Creator/RobertMitchum, Creator/JamesCagney, Creator/MarilynMonroe, Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, Creator/ClarkGable, Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JoanCrawford, Creator/BetteDavis, Creator/JoanBennett, Creator/JudyGarland, Creator/GeneKelly, Creator/FredAstaire, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/JamesDean, all more or less contemporaries working at the same time. In addition to directors like Creator/JohnFord, Creator/KingVidor, Creator/CecilBDeMille, Creator/WilliamWyler, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Creator/OrsonWelles, Creator/GeorgeCukor, Creator/BillyWilder, Creator/VincenteMinnelli, Creator/NicholasRay, Creator/EliaKazan, Creator/SamuelFuller, Creator/DouglasSirk, Creator/JosefVonSternberg, Creator/ErnstLubitsch etc. Few film historians would dispute that it is the greatest collection of talent gathered in one place at one time in film history, which inevitably led to an incredible outpouring of creative energy. This leads to ArchivePanic since the plethora of films made at the time, meant that newer film-makers and new classics are being rediscovered constantly.

* Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''[[Film/NineteenFortyOne 1941]]'' ("The night [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan the rising sun]] fell on Hollywood.")

The Golden Age. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_HFWdcO0c In the popular imagination]], this is a glitzy era stretching from 1927 to 1969; that is, essentially Hollywood cranked UpToEleven with HollywoodCostuming and GorgeousPeriodDress (although CostumePorn was actually present in the films made at the time). Sure, there were some really great movies made during this era, but obviously SturgeonsLaw and NostalgiaFilter apply, right?

This was also the era of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, enacted in response to both [[YouCanPanicNow moral panic]] over indecency in early film and a perceived number of immoral people within the industry itself (Creator/FattyArbuckle being the most infamous), as well as the [[MoralGuardians National Legion of Decency]], a largely Catholic censor group that could effectively destroy a film's profitability by declaring it "morally objectionable" (basically, imagine the Parents Television Council, but Catholic, movie-focused and far more powerful). This placed extremely strong censorship on films in addition to the demands of the executives. The combination of these two factors meant that StrictlyFormula, more often than not, ruled the day when it came to filmmaking, though as noted by Martin Scorsese in his documentary ''A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Film-making'', several directors became "smugglers", who managed to criticize, subvert and secretly issue {{Take That}}s to the censors and America's moral majority, with several little-known radical films made in this system anyway, often in genres that were BeneathSuspicion.

The Golden Age also coincided with Jim Crow and segregation and the Hays Code was intended to be a national code that ensured that their movies could play in every US State, including the DeepSouth, which proved to be the most active state censorship bureau during UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra. As such African-American actors and actresses had very limited roles, often playing maids, servants and sidekick characters, or in the case of Stepin Fetchit, a stock character stereotype of lazy shifty men who are helpless without white handlers. Actresses such as Lena Horne or Creator/DorothyDandridge managed to get more important roles than their fellow African-American actresses, but leading roles for them were limited to all-black productions, as the Hays Code forbade romances between a white person and a black person. Otherwise, they were pretty much consigned to relatively small supporting roles (in Lena Horne's case, getting one musical number in a film that was otherwise dominated by white actors). American films made in this era perpetuated the "[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Lost Cause]]" myth and on account of this, a number of films made in this era suffer from DatedHistory and ValuesDissonance. A number of notable Jazz and Blues singers did, however, appear in these golden age films often in cameos and brief appearances (such as Nat "King" Cole in ''Film/TheBlueGardenia'', Louis Armstrong in ''Film/HighSociety'', Duke Ellington in ''Film/AnatomyOfAMurder'', where he also composed the score). Some more broad-minded producers and directors, sympathetic to African-Americans and anti-racist causes, tried to work around these restrictions resulting in a GoldenMeanFallacy; the uniquely weird genre known as the "all-black film", i.e. an inverted MonochromeCasting genre peopled entirely with African-American performers that appeared to be set in a ConstructedWorld without whites, which more or less codified segregation into a film genre (examples include: ''Film/{{Hallelujah}}'', ''Film/CabinInTheSky'', ''Film/CarmenJones'', ''Porgy and Bess'' and others). Of course, a number of these movies were [[FairForItsDay fair for the time period]]. They were certainly a far cry from the {{Blackface}} of ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', let alone ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915'', and if nothing else they are valuable documents showcasing the artistry and potential of great African-American artists. There were also a handful of genuinely anti-racist films made in this time, that critics celebrate for its ValuesResonance, such as ''Intruder in the Dust'' (produced by Creator/{{MGM}}, of all studios) and Creator/JosephLMankiewicz's ''No Way Out'' (1950), the latter of which was Creator/SidneyPoitier's first major film role.

The UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem more or less ended the star system and contracted players for good and the period of TheFifties was actually one that showed greater creative control to actors/directors/screenwriters/independent producers. It was also in this period where the likes of Creator/OttoPreminger, Creator/EliaKazan, and Creator/BillyWilder mounted a committed a series ultimately successful challenges to the censors that eased censorship -- and eventually ended it altogether.

The classic Hollywood star idea was challenged increasingly by more working-class and ethnic actors who challenged the general [=WASPy=] look common to the Golden Age. Younger filmmakers influenced by European and Asian films also challenged the conventional film narrative of the Golden Age. By the 70s, the Golden Age ended and American Cinema entered the period known as UsefulNotes/NewHollywood which was in many ways seen as a brief, DarkerAndEdgier "golden age" in its own right.

As such, it was noted that each of the different studios produced films with distinct looks and feels that others did not share. They also specialized in particular genres. MGM Studios was renowned for being the most "family friendly" of the studios, and were particularly noticeable for being highly controlling of their stars' images and personal lives. Warner Bros. was the studio that specialized in crime movies, RippedFromTheHeadlines real-life stories and were more gritty than others. Universal found fame for their horror films. And so on. This standardization. however, did co-exist with some room for flexibility. Many artists managed to find more wiggle room, and hire prominent agents such as Leland Hayward, and later Lew Wassermann, who negotiated contracts in their favor. Likewise, studio bosses and producers occasionally would loan out actors, directors, technicians to other studios for certain projects -- for a price and a cut on the receipts of course. Others were shrewd enough to be un-contracted and operate as a free agents (Creator/HowardHawks and Creator/BarbaraStanwyck were the most notable instances) who, owing to their high demand and recognizable name, managed to work for a number of studios and several great movies without ever being bound to any one producer or studio.