Movie-Struck Hollywood

This chapter looks at female star narratives of the 1920s and 1930s, from The Extra Girl (1923) and Souls for Sale (1923) to Alice in Movieland (1940) and Star Dust (1940), discussing their historical if increasingly anachronistic basis in the problematic figure of “the movie-struck girl.” This was the figuration of the female fan of the silent era who went to Hollywood in search of economic, emotional, and sexual independence. The contradictions raised by the “movie-struck girl” were inherent in the institutionalization of female stardom. Thus, these tensions structure early star narratives, which equate Hollywood with stardom. But far from simply catering to fan girls as a means of reinforcing their investment in Hollywood stardom, these backstudio pictures feature strong, active, and desiring young women set in counterpoint to the manipulative or paternal-minded men running the industry and for whom female stars are commodities.