February 4, 1999

Announcements:  The first exam is Tuesday, Feb. 9.  There is a review session Feb. 5 from 1 - 2:30 and on Feb. 8 from 7-    8:30.  They are both in 113 Carnegie.

Lecture Notes:

I.  Package Unit System

• Paramount Decision
• The government forced studios to separate production and distribution facilities because they were too monopolistic
• Studios had to release stars and directors out of their 7 year contracts
• Stars and directors now had more leverage and could demand their prices
• Jimmy Stewart netted 10% of the profits of one movie because he held out for this rather than accept an initial salary
• Package Unit System broke up the studio system due to the Paramount Decision

II.  Typecast Stars:  Marilyn Monroe

• She was defined on the basis of gender and sex appeal
• She usually played actors, singers, secretaries -- very feminine parts
• Many times she didn't even have a name in movies, she was just the "girl"
• She felt pressure to live up to the way studios typecast her so she took every role to the extreme and played them up
• First cover girl for Playboy magazine
• This made Playboy a legitimate publication
• She was characterized as the girl next door, but at the same time was confined to being a fantasy for men

• A businessman's wife and kids go away for the weekend and he has the apartment to himself.  He finds out that Marilyn Monroe lives in the apartment above him.  One day she pays him a visit.  While she is there a maintenance man stops by and the businessman tries to keep him out of the kitchen, where Marilyn is.  The maintenance man asks, "Who's in there, Marilyn Monroe?"
• This shows how Marilyn Monroe the star was tied to Marilyn Monroe the actor

III.  Racist Stereotypes

• Actors' roles were designed to conform to audience's expectations of that role
• Stereotypes were a form of shorthand communication -- the audience could easily assume what the character would be like
• Legitimized double standard treatment of the person being stereotyped
• Uncle Tom
• subservient black man
• Coon
• Buckwheat
• object of amusement
• incapable of operating with independence
• Mammy
• white female lead's best friend
• large black woman whose husband is usually the Uncle Tom
• considered a creature of the Earth, because she is so nurturing
• Mulatto
• mixed race
• very tragic life
• Buck
• muscular, over sexed black man
• lusts after white woman
• endangers white civilization
• In the 1980s Mr. T could be considered Buck.  Especially in Rocky 3 when he threatens Adrienne.
• The NAACP went about trying to outlaw these stereotypes
• Sidney Portier became a star because he represented the new integrationist idea
• He was the first black star that could attract white audiences
• He started losing popularity when black nationalist movies started coming out
• These movies showed the black rise to integration through violent overthrow of whites
• Attracted black audiences
• In the '80s Eddie Murphy became an integrationist hero
• In 48 Hours he sacrifices his freedom for Nick Nolte
• Hollywood only invested in a handful of black actors

• Sidney Portier and Tony Curtis
• They are two men trying to escape the chain gang by jumping on a moving train.  Sidney makes it on but Tony can't get on so Sidney jumps off.
• Sidney is sacrificing his freedom for his buddy, who is white
• There are traces of Uncle Tom in Sidney

IV.  Hollywood Shuffle

• Film made by Robert Townsend
• It was a critique of the dominant white culture of Hollywood
• Parody of black stereotypes