Stars rose and fell as Hollywood hit repeat
HOLLYWOOD loves its remakes. But there IS one classic that has been done several times — A Star is Born.
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HOLLYWOOD loves remakes, particularly of its classics. Some have been remade multiple times, such as the 1937 movie A Star Is Born.
A new version of which opens in cinemas today stars Lady Gaga as young, aspiring singer Ally who is helped to stardom by Jackson Maine, played by Brad Cooper, an alcoholic veteran of the music industry.
The original movie starred Janet Gaynor as Esther Blodgett, the waitress dreaming of being a Hollywood star, and Fredric March as Norman Maine, the alcoholic fading matinee idol who helps her win an Oscar. It was remade in 1954 starring Judy Garland as Esther/Vicki and James Mason as Maine; then again in 1976 with Barbra Streisand playing Esther Hoffman, a young singer who meets declining rock star John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) and is given a leg up to win a Grammy as John selfdestructs.
It is a common motif in films about young talents getting their break from a star on the wane, but A Star Is Born made that idea famous. What few people know is that the 1937 version was virtually a remake of a 1932 film called What Price Hollywood?
Originally titled The Truth About Hollywood, it originated with producer David Selznick, who commissioned a gritty script about what life was really like in Hollywood as a star vehicle for actor Clara Bow, to help revive her flagging career.
He chose a story written by gossip columnist Adela Rogers St John about a waitress and wannabe actor who were discovered by a drunken, ageing director whose career was in decline. St John partly based the story on the stormy relationship between actor Colleen Moore and her producer husband John McCormick, who resented Moore for being more famous than him and descended into alcoholism before
the couple split. Screenwriter Louis Stevens also had some input before it was shaped as a screenplay by writers Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Ben Markson and Jane Murfin.
Selznick found it hard to get RKO studio executives to green light the film. They were wary of movies about Hollywood, which had mostly bombed in the past. By the time he convinced them to make the film, Bow was committed to another movie. Instead Constance Bennett was cast as waitress Mary Evan who was aspiring to be an actor. Lowell Sherman played the drunkard director Max Carey. It was directed by George Cukor.
When it was released in 1932 it was critically praised but fell short of making back production costs. Arguably Bennett’s finest film, it made her a big star in the ’30s. Sherman, on the other hand, gave up acting to concentrate on directing but died of pneumonia in 1934.
A few years later, after leaving RKO to form his own production company, Selznick wanted to try another behind-the-scenes in Hollywood film; this time in Technicolour to prove audiences would go to see stories about the movie industry. He came up with a story titled It Happened In Hollywood which, with some input from writers including satirist Dorothy Parker, evolved into A Star Is Born.
Selznick asked Cukor to direct, but Cukor turned it down because it was too similar to What Price Hollywood? William Wellman took the job and also later took some credit for the story.
When A Star Is Born premiered in 1937 RKO threatened to sue Selznick for plagiarising their film, but never went ahead.
A Star Is Born was a huge success, did well at the box office and earnt Wellman an Oscar for Best Original Story. It also gained nominations for best film, best director and best male and female leads.
Playing the alcoholic has-been Maine did no harm to March’s career, some of his best films followed A Star Is Born.
But the film, meant to revive Gaynor’s career, in decline since her Oscar win in 1929, merely gave her a brief boost. Gaynor only made three more films.
In 1952 Hollywood producer Sid Luft asked Cukor to direct a new musical version, as a vehicle to save Luft’s wife Judy Garland’s career.
Released in 1954, audiences loved the film but it lost Warner Bros a fortune. Garland was nominated for an Oscar but, unlike her character in the film, she didn’t win. She had also been notoriously difficult during the shoot and only made three more films.
Her co-star James Mason continued going strong up until his death in 1984, despite having played a fading star.
When Hollywood decided to have another go at A Star Is Born in the ’70s, with the music industry as a backdrop, both Marlon Brando and Neil Diamond were considered to play the fading rocker to Streisand’s starlet who wins a Grammy.
The director also considered Elvis Presley who, despite not having been in a film since 1969, was still selling out concerts. But Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker was not keen on his client playing a has-been and pulled out.
Instead, they settled on country singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson
Streisand won both a Grammy and an Oscar for her song Evergreen from the film.
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