On this day in 1965, actress Sandra Dee ends her contract with Universal.

Dee, a child actor and model, appeared in her first film during her teens and became best known for fluffy teen movies, including Gidget (1959). In 1960, she married teen idol and singer Bobby Darin. After her contract ended, she made only three more movies, the last in 1971.

Dee was the last major star to be under an exclusive contract with a studio. When her contract ended, it marked the close of the “studio system,” which dominated the movie business from the 1920s and began fading in the 1950s. During the studio system era, big studios like Universal and MGM controlled every aspect of the film industry. Studios produced their own films, used their own writers and actors on contract, then distributed those films to theater chains owned by or affiliated with the studio. Studios groomed stables of starlets, selecting a few to become movie stars, and operated tight control over their images and behavior. These repressive conditions led some stars to start insisting on more independence and control over their movies.

In another blow to the studio system, in 1948 the Supreme Court ruled that studios could not legally own movie theaters, cutting the studios off from a strong stream of revenue. Increasingly, actors began working with agents and controlling their own careers, and the studio system died out.

(With thanks to History.com)