Hollywood’s Golden Age also overlapped with the industry’s need to concoct Golden Age-worthy names.
Rock Hudson. Doris Day. Cary Grant. John Wayne.
Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake.
(Roy Scherer, Doris von Kappelhoff, Archie Leach and Marion Morrison, respectively)
Back then, having the right sounding name meant plenty. And the studio system knew it. So Archie Leach was forced to take a fake name by the suits at Paramount and, voila, Cary Grant was born.
Today, Hollywood works in a different fashion. For every Will Smith there’s a Giovanni Ribisi or Elisha Dushku.
Stars still play fast and loose with their names – just google “Winona Ryder’s real name” to find a current star who chose a second surname. But it’s a sign of, dare I say, diversity, that the movie going public doesn’t blink when an unconventional name fills a marquee.
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But it’s a sign of, dare I say, diversity, that the movie going public doesn’t blink when an unconventional name fills a marquee.
It’s a sign that the majority of Hollywood profits are coming from over seas. Not only don’t they care about American names, they don’t care much about American ideas, either.
With the success of movies like “Taken”, I’m surprised the Euro film makers don’t fill the gap and cut Hollywood off at the knees for the US movie market.
That’s a good part of it as well, K. But I think the American public is far more accepting of unconventional names, too. We don’t need a star named Lance Jones or Grace Note to make us buy a ticket.