In the 31 July 1928 issue of the "New York Daily News", the newspaper's film critic Irene Thirer began grading movies on a scale of zero to three stars. Three stars meant 'excellent,' two 'good,' and one star meant 'mediocre.' And no stars at all 'means the picture's right bad,'" wrote Thirer. Carl Bialik speculates that this may have been the first time a film critic used a star-rating system to grade movies. "The one-star review of "The Port of Missing Girls" launched the star system, which the newspaper promised would be 'a permanent thing.'