Inside the Golden Age Studio System

Between roughly 1930 and 1960, the major studios contracted stars to exclusive deals and produced hundreds of films a year. MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Fox, and RKO controlled production, distribution, and exhibition alike.

Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, and Katharine Hepburn rose through this system. Casablanca 1942 and Gone with the Wind 1939 marked its peaks.

A 1948 Supreme Court ruling forced the studios to divest their theater chains, and the system faded as independent production and television grew into new forces..