Movie studios had selected promising young actors and glamorise and create personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds.
It was common, for example, to arrange sham dates between single (male) stars and starlets to generate publicity.
Silent film was thought of as mere pantomime and one of theatre actors' main skills was the command of their voice.
Also, precedents set by legitimate theater encouraged film to emulate the star system of the Broadway stage.
The main practitioner of the star system on Broadway was Charles Frohman, a man whom Zukor, Lasky, Goldwyn, Laemmle, Mayer, Fox and the Warner Brothers emulated and who later perished in the Lusitania sinking.
According to Danish film historian Casper Tybjerg Valdemar Psilander was one of the world's first and biggest movie stars.
[3] From the 1930s to the 1960s, it was common practice for studios to arrange the contractual exchange of talent (directors, actors) for prestige pictures.
In one instance, Jane Greer negotiated her contract out of Howard Hawks' hands over the roles she felt were inappropriate for her.
In 1959, Shirley MacLaine sued famed producer Hal Wallis over a contractual dispute, contributing further to the star system's demise.
Packaging gained notoriety in the 1980s and '90s with films such as Ghostbusters, Tootsie, Stripes, and A League of Their Own (two of which star Bill Murray).
This practice continues to be prominent in films today such as Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, and Billy Madison (all of which star Adam Sandler).