ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the origins of a trend towards fetishising juvenile star performance that developed in early Classical Hollywood Cinema from approximately 1930 to 1940. This trend emerged in response to increasing ideological conservatisation within Hollywood, and was manifest in the rise to popularity of childish musical stars Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland. The fetishisation of juvenility in film stars of classical cinema, then, has functioned to 'contain' aspects of female performance and representation that might otherwise threaten a traditionally gendered politics of viewing predicated on active/male spectatorship and passive/female objectification. Female musical performers in particular may be seen to have enjoyed a far greater degree of narrative agency in early musicals than in films by the 1930's end. This was a direct result of Hollywood's tightening of self-censorship policy under the Production Code Administration (PCA) in 1934, which was intended to implement self-censorship policies already in place if not practised by studios.
