Exploitative Casting Services on the Margins of the Hollywood Studio System, 1915-1937

This project explores the rise of exploitative third-party businesses and middlemen in the decades when Hollywood was establishing itself as the global centre for filmmaking (ca 1915-1937). Businesses that targeted film actors and that centered around the casting process, such as casting and talent agencies, actor directories and other listing or pooling services, are especially interesting to explore as they provide insight into the exploitation of a workforce with little or no labour protections during these formative years of the US film industry. They also offer a way into understanding Hollywood as a major creative industry, or “dream factory,” that not only attracted aspiring actors to go west in search for fame and success, as explored in previous research (see e.g. Hallett 2011), but a multitude of con artists and opportunistic individuals looking to profit from the ambitions of those seeking to make it big.

While there is some research into the broader labour situation of actors in Hollywood during these early decades (see e.g. Clark 1995; Holmes 2000; Slide 2012; Fortmueller 2021), there has not been much written about the growth of these types of fraudulent businesses and entrepreneurs that operated on the margins of the studio system. This project traces the early history of predatory casting services with the aim of better contextualising their role in the continuous exploitation of creative labour.