The Hollywood studio era of the 1930s and 1940s was remarkable for its abundance of glamorous stars. In this paper, we investigate whether the vertical structure of the Hollywood studios, by ensuring studio claims to “star capital,” spurred higher levels of investment in discovering stars...

The Hollywood quot;studio systemquot; - with production, distribution, and exhibition vertically integrated - flourished from the late teens until 1948, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its famous Paramount decision. The Paramount consent decrees required the divestiture of affiliated theater...