This is obviously not a new insight, but recently I came across an article 
in THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD, from March 26, 1910; titled, “GODS AND GODDESSES.” Almost 100 years ago the author of the 
article was dealing with the questions as to whether audiences should know the names of the players in motion pictures.
There was a difference between the stage door “Johnnie” who could “fall in love” with the living and attractive presence of an actor or actress on a stage seeing them move and talk and smile and the motion picture fan (fanatic), “falling in love” with moving picture actors seen on the screen, black and white, silent and two dimensional. How could someone “fall in love” with a 
picture of a person? And yet, Vitagraph Studios feared that people were doing just that as they were receiving requests and letters from persons wanting to find out the names of the players and asking for introductions to the “stars” on screen.
These were after all only pictures, still pictures shown one right after another, tricking the eye to simulate movement, not real people doing real things in front of an audience. The moving picture exhibitions found that people wanted to get information about the personalities so the acting must have been pretty good. The moving picture players started to have a following (fans) that asked to see more of them on screen becoming besotted, obsessed with their work. So Vitagraph and other studios started to name the players. 
And so it was that we started to have a cast of players and today we have stars. If you are interested in this pivotal moment at the dawn of film history, my friend, William M. Drew has a whole website dealing with the importance of 1910.
