Don Freeman (1908-1978)
Plights of Stardom 1935
lithograph, with green block 14 3/8 x 12 1/4, signed; ed. 75
Mary S. Collins Prize, Print Club of Philadelphia, Jan. 1936
UAM 1992.98

Like Soyer's Casting Office, Don Freeman's Plight of Stardom focuses on women and the film world. Freeman examines women's dreams of stardom in an imagined scene from the filming of Becky Sharp, a 1935 film starring Miriam Hopkins. Here we see Selznick reviewing the ongoing production, while the star, attended by her hairdresser and maid, masters the necessary histrionics under the tutelage of the director. Freeman subtly points to the claims Hollywood made for being artistic by posing the star as if she were Goya's Maja Clothed or (considering that her maid is black) Manet's Olympia, but undercuts the claim with the hectic confusion surrounding the star. Stardom's "plight" is also Hollywood's: how do you make anything great out of such chaotic collaboration?