Class, stardom and film: how early film stars were portrayed in The Red Letter

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the way that early female film stars from both Britain and America are portrayed in the popular magazine The Red Letter. It argues that even in 1920, there was already a common pattern to notions of female stardom that essentially revolved around ideas of class, and that rather than being newly minted, these notions of the female star were in several ways appropriated from the music hall, a form of entertainment that was firmly established by this time.