The “Golden Age of Hollywood” began in the late 1920s as silent films centred around comedy and romance and action served as popular escapism for audiences living through the Great Depression. As theatres closed, cinemas took over, and studio systems were created to profit off what was becoming a very popular, commercial source of entertainment as it advanced through colour, sound, etc.
5 main studios arose and dominated the industry, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros and RKO. These studios were vertically integrated, so owned every stage of the production process and employed everyone involved in it. They contracted the editors, writers, directors and stars, owned the cinemas, cameras, etc. This led to the rise of the ‘star system’ alongside the ‘studio system’. Similarly to the studios, these stars became extremely wealthy and powerful, many driving a films entire box office success. February 5, 1919, some of these influential stars unionised and formed Artists United, and the stars who formed it were Charlie Chaplin, D.W Griffith, Marie Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. It served as a major investor in and distributor of independently produced films in the U.S.
The Art Deco aesthetic rose to popularity in Hollywood, and the industry was monopolised by the extremely powerful and influential film studios. Actors were fought over by studios be be contracted, as they could make or break a movies box office success.
Finley Cairns A-Level Film Studies Blog 
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