As the name implies, Hollywood Star Playhouse featured movie stars, as did a number of other old-time radio programs. A news brief announcing the premiere broadcast noted that the program would feature "a different top screen personality each week in original stories of mystery and adventure by leading Hollywood writers." Those stories were what distinguished this program from others, according to radio historian John Dunning. He wrote that the stories were "tense, original suspense plays well suited for the half-hour." Writers usually created scripts for specific stars. One story, The Six Shooter, broadcast April 13, 1952, starred Stewart and later was turned into a series by that same name in which Stewart starred.
As indicated in the table below, Hollywood Star Playhouse ran on three networks during its almost three years on radio, with two sponsors during that span. Although many radio programs took the summer off, with replacement programs filling their time slot, Hollywood Star Playhouse continued. An account executive at the advertising agency that handled the program said, "Our agency believes the huge amount of out-of-home listening in car radios and other secondary sets makes radio an excellent buy during the warm weather season."
The period of sponsorship by Bakers of America -- an umbrella group comprising the American Bakers' Association, The Bakers of America and Quality Bakers of America -- produced an unusual situation with regard to commercials. Sponsor magazine reported that Bakers of America asked local bakers not to buy commercial time adjacent to Hollywood Star Playhouse's time slot in order to emphasize the industry as a whole. A news brief in the magazine called that decision "nique among institutional air efforts," adding that normally local advertisers bought time in station breaks or immediately before or after a program "to capitalize simultaneously" with the national advertising. That request came in sharp contrast to a comment made earlier by the director of Bakers of America. The January 28 issue of Sponsor reported that Walter H. Hopkins, the organization's director, "said radio presented tremendous opportunity for local tie-ins by bakers."
Adaptation
A version of Hollywood Star Playhouse was available via syndication for television stations. It was included among a number of programs available from MCA in an eight-page ad in the trade magazine Broadcasting.
