A Star Is Born (1937)
🎵 I’ve got a beach house in Malibu, and I’m probably gonna hurt your feelings🎵
Greetings readers, and welcome back to I’d Like To Blank The Academy! Step into the glitz and glitter of The Golden Age of Hollywood and witness the birth of a star. No, not an actual star, she’s actually just a simple farmgirl from the middle of nowhere specific, dying to make a name for herself amid the oceans of other fresh-faced starlets-to-be. “Oh you’re finally covering La La Land, I loved that movie!” you might be thinking. Nope, try again. “Hmm … is it A Star Is Born, the one with Lady Gaga?” Close! (And stay tuned for our next post.) “It’s another really old movie, then, isn’t it?” Correct! Read on to learn all about the original A Star Is Born!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: At the time Gilmore Girls season six aired, Lorelai informed me that there were three versions of this movie. And spoilie alert: someone walks into the ocean! Who? Why? When? Let’s find out!
Tyler: I had a real “Who’s on first?” back-and-forth with my mom about these movies after seeing the Bradley Cooper-led iteration, with her being confused about why a movie from the 70s with Kris Kristofferson (or the 50s with Judy Garland?) was back in theatres, only for us both to realize that the actual original one is this 1937 version. Time to see the one that started it all!
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
The neon lights of our credit sequence give way to the bright stars over the Blodgett Family Farm, where Esther Victoria Blodgett1 and her younger brother return from a movie starring Norman Maine. Though her father is largely clueless and her Aunt Mattie is outright hostile toward the idea, Esther dreams of becoming a star herself. Esther’s grandmother, however, who is rocking pigtail braids with bows in them, sees Esther’s dream as a reflection of her own adventurous spirit that brought her out West in a “prairie schooner.” She bequeaths Esther all of her savings to make her dream come true and sticks her on a train to that metropolis of make-believe: Hollywood!
Tyler: I know it’s a movie, but she seemed to peace out of her hometown pretty quickly as soon as she got that cash. Like, she got on a train that night. Aunt Mattie seems like a bitch, but don’t you have things to do? Reason #1937 that I would not be good at leaving at a moment’s notice.
Ellen: You think Granny stopped and thought before she made the trek out West??? Yes, probably, for many, many days before and after, I imagine.
Esther arrives at the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard without seeing a single off-brand Elmo, but her luck pretty much ends there, as Central Casting declares that they have sixteen times as many extras as they can use every day. After a month of no prospects, Esther’s money is running out to pay for her $6/week2 room in the boarding house3. The manager has a soft spot for her, however, and introduces her to Danny, an assistant director. They’re fast friends, and at the Hollywood Bowl one night, they spot a clearly-buzzed Norman Maine with his snooty-looking date. Esther’s rather disenchanted4. Danny has just the thing to cheer her up though: a job! … for one night… as a waitress. She can’t really afford to turn it down.
Tyler: She should have just applied for a job at Regal to get her start in the movie business.
Ellen: The first time she and Danny hang out at a bar, he makes a comment like “nothing like rum to take away the milk flavor.” What are they drinking??
Tyler: I found that an odd mix too! The internet tells me there are several options, but the first question in the “People also ask” section of the Google search result is “Is it OK to mix rum and milk?” so our confusion seems reasonable.
Since it’s an industry party, Esther tries her best to show off her “acting” skills as she doles out hors d'œuvres. While all she succeeds in doing to this author is make me cringe so hard I’m developing wrinkles, she does catch Norman Maine’s eye, much to the chagrin of his shoulder-pad-wearing date. Norman, who arrived via stolen ambulance and is pounding scotch and sodas like it’s going out of style, follows Esther into the kitchen. They eventually abscond together, and he drops her off at her apartment. He gives her a peck and departs, but so entranced is Norman that he asks to look at her one more time. Still drunk and elated, Norman cradles a giant champagne bottle in bed and calls his longtime producer and friend Oliver Niles and insists Esther get a screen test, which is set for tomorrow.
Tyler: The goodnight kiss, while on the lips, was shockingly respectful for a man of the time. After some of the forced, unearned, and awkwardly prolonged smooches we’ve seen in movies past from this era, this was borderline polite!
Ellen: And from a drunken scoundrel no less, who, by the way, looks a heck of a lot like Bradley Cooper in profile.
The screen test is a smash, and Oliver signs Esther that day! Gotta do something about that name, though, so Victoria becomes Vicki and Esther becomes Lester, and thus: Vicki Lester! After an interview with press agent Matt Libby where he libby-raly embellishes on Esther’s life story, we get a montage where Esther becomes Vicki, getting a whole new look, practicing elocution, and walking around with books on her head: classic stuff. Later, as Esther practices her 1 (one) line in the commissary, Norman comes in all aflutter, and not just because he’s hungover5. They just can’t find a female lead for his next pictures and - hey wait a minute! Next thing you know, they’re at an advanced screening for The Enchanted Hour starring Norman Maine and introducing Vicki Lester! Though most of the crowd think Norman is just whatever at best, they agree that Vicki stole the show!
Tyler: I must admit, one of the first notes I wrote down while watching this was that “Esther Blodgett is an aggressively unattractive name.” Given how many stars use stage names, it was a clever and interesting peek into how an otherwise normal name gets sanitized.
Tyler: Also, I found it odd that even after her screen test, we still haven't seen her actually act, we're just left to assume that she's talented. Unless those impressions she did as a waitress earlier in the movie count, in which case … well she’s lucky she’s pretty.
Ellen: I do hate when movies or shows just tell you that a person is great at something: show me, cowards!
Norman very casually proposes at a boxing match, and Esther just as casually refuses. They get serious when he offers to give up drinking, and the couple elopes with Danny as their witness! Libby is furious, feeling he’s been betrayed out of the press event of the decade. The couple takes what I suppose is intended to be a charming honeymoon in a tiny trailer of terrible construction. Upon their return, Norman takes Esther around to what are now their luxurious homes when Oliver comes to visit. He sums it up as such: no one wants Norman, everyone wants Vicki! They try to turn things around for Norman with the next few pictures, but they end up being such flops that Oliver releases him from his contract. Not being able to drink or work, Norman literally putts around the house and attempts to learn cooking, creating massive what appear to be Salisbury steak sandwiches. Meanwhile, Esther is thriving! She wins the Academy Award for Best Actress, but ruh-roh: a drunken Norman appears, demanding a statue for worst performance of the year and accidentally smacking Esther in the process.
Ellen: I’d like the record to show that Norman’s real name is canonically Alfred Hinkle.
Tyler: A fun fact that got cut from Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat? because of space (and it seems a bit of a stretch): the last name is thought to be an inside joke of sorts. “Henkel” was the real last name of silent film star Agnes Ayres, and not too far from Norman Maine-portrayer Fredric March's real last name, Bickel.
Ellen: A note on Esther: there’s no hint that she’s annoyed or embarrassed by Norman’s interruption to her acceptance speech, just that she’s worried about him. Maybe I’m too cynical, but being that selfless is not exactly relatable.
Norman undergoes a stint at a sanatorium to help with the alcoholism, but a confrontation with Libby, who always hated Norman, at a racetrack leads to a backslide that becomes a four day binge. He’s arrested for drunk driving (and presumably for wearing the world’s shortest tie). Esther appears and pleads with the judge to put him under her care. At the house in Malibu, Norman overhears Esther telling Oliver that she plans to quit acting to focus on helping her husband get well full time. Norman tells her he’s going wading, asks her for one last look, and walks into the Pacific Ocean.
Ellen: The funeral scene is probably one of the most effective ones in the movie, as Esther leaves the service, flanked by Oliver and Danny (which is very sweet!), people are yelling at her to just forget Norman and asking for autographs, treating her like an object rather than a person. It’s too bad they don’t really dig into that feeling aside from the stricken look on her face.
Norman’s ill-conceived plan to save Esther’s career backfires, because now she really wants to quit, to the point where she’s giving their housekeepers their severance and packing everything up. What ho: Granny appears! Under no circumstances will she hear of her granddaughter giving up on her dream, even if her heart is broken. After a tough love speech and a reminder of how much Norman loved her, Esther decides to stay. At the premiere of her next film at the Chinese Theatre, when Esther is asked to say a few words into the microphone to her many fans listening across the world, she announces “Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine.”
Tyler: Ending the movie at the Chinese Theatre was a nice full-circle moment for Esther, but it also made me miss The Great Movie Ride even more.
Ellen: R.I.P. to a real one, and I do not mean Norman Maine.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … the dream of ✨Stardom✨!
Looking to escape the humdrum life on your family’s farm in [redacted]? Wishing to be adored by millions and then cast aside when you’re no longer shiny and new? Hoping to be treated as much like an object as the golden statue you someday plan to win? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then the dream of Stardom may be for you!
Mention ILTBTA* when you finally get an appointment with Central Casting and receive three stage name suggestions absolutely free!
*ILTBTA holds no responsibility for if and when your dream becomes a nightmare and will disavow you as needed.
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
A Star Is Born’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
A Star Is Born was directed by William A. Wellman, who also directed the subject of our second ILTBTA post: the first ever Best Picture winner, Wings. During World War I, Wellman joined the French Foreign Legion and became a fighter pilot, recording several confirmed kills and earning the nickname “Wild Bill.”
Ellen: He had to get a nickname to escape the shackles of “William Wellman,” yikes!
Prior to his “Wild Bill” days in the skies over Europe, Wellman often found himself in trouble in his Newtonville, MA hometown. He was expelled from his high school for dropping a stink bomb on his principal’s head, and was also arrested and placed on probation for stealing a car. Ironically enough, his mother was a probation officer who even once addressed Congress on the issue of juvenile delinquency.
Some believe that the marriage of film star Barbara Stanwyck and actor Frank Fay served as inspiration for the ASIB story: Fay’s successful Vaudeville and Broadway (Vaude-way?) career didn’t translate to the screen, while Stanwyck became a star in Hollywood. Actors Norman Kerry and John Bowers are also said to have been inspirations for the character of Norman Maine.
Titular “star” Janet Gaynor, whom we first met in 7th Heaven, seemed to embody both main characters in A Star Is Born. After rising through the studio ranks as an extra, she became one of Hollywood’s leading actresses by 1927 and the top box-office draw in the early 1930s. In the scene in which Vicki Lester wins an Oscar, Gaynor is actually holding her own Oscar that she won at the first Academy Awards in 1929.
Ellen: How many people are able to be like “oh don’t bother with a prop, I’ll bring mine from home!”
However, after being typecast in several movies, her commercial appeal faded by the mid- to late-30s, with Gaynor dropping to the 24th ranked box-office draw. Producer David O. Selznick convinced her to do A Star Is Born by offering her a leading role, and it paid off: it was a massive hit and revitalized Gaynor’s career. Gaynor decided to retire from film acting just two years after the release of A Star Is Born (at the ripe age of 33), opting to focus her time on her family, her 250-acre cattle ranch in Brazil (because why not), and her oil painting hobby.
Tyler: More like Ruiningtheplanet Gaynor: cattle ranching in Brazil accounts for 80% of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest!
ASIB has famously been remade for the screen three times and once as a television adaptation. The four movies have earned twenty-five Oscar nominations, but only three wins: the 1937 version earned Best Original Story, while the 1976 and 2018 adaptations won for Best Original Song.
Tyler: You could say the A Star Is Born trophy case is quite … shallow.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role6. And the nomnomnominees are:
A drink of milk and rum with a new friend
Some hors d’oeuvres at a director's big party
A scotch and soda … followed thirty seconds later by another scotch and soda
A comically large bottle of champagne to cuddle with in bed
A single salted egg yolk to cure a hangover
A sandwich that's too big for your mouth
And the Oscar goes to … the comically large bottle of champagne! Unfortunately, we drank it celebrating our first wedding anniversary the other day, so Basil will accept this award on its behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to present The Academy with some hors d'œuvres and a slightly off-putting accent. I don’t have a lot of big feelings here. I enjoyed watching it and didn’t have more than some small nitpicks, but it just kind of washed over me. Neither character really changed or grew: Norman was a tragic alcoholic who remained that way, and Esther was a sweet girl with a dream who remained sweet when it came true. She stayed guileless in a way that surprised me, but didn’t really interest me, because her struggles were all based in Norman’s issues rather than her grappling with fame and the changes she had to undergo to achieve her dreams. I’m interested to see how the next iteration stacks up!
Tyler: I’d like to ironically serve The Academy a sandwich that’s too big for its mouth. I say “ironically” because, as Ellen alludes to above, there isn’t a whole lot of there there when it comes to the story. It’s relatively straightforward, and while mostly entertaining, doesn’t involve a whole lot of notable character growth from our lead. I agree with Ellen’s earlier comments (Guys, marriage is easy!) in that it also missed some opportunities to dive deeper and make Esther a more interesting character by untethering her from Norman. The very beginning and ending shots of the film’s screenplay were also an odd stylistic choice, until I realized the director also co-wrote it, which just made it feel self-congratulatory too.
I get the impression it was assisted by (among other things) The Academy having ten nominees for Best Picture. Having only seen one other from this year (the excellent Lost Horizon, which I can’t wait to cover), I can already confidently say that even between those two, ASIB was the inferior film.
Let The Credits Roll
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
Having now watched the original, we will conclude our month of A Star Is Born (Star-cember?) by watching the other Best Picture-nominated adaptation: the Bradley Cooper-directed version from 2018. Starring Lady Gaga and the aforementioned Bradley Cooper (also known as “Cradley Blooper” in our house), A Star Is Born (2018) is pretty much A Star Is Born (1937) but modern and set in the music world7 (such is the nature of remakes).
If you’ve got $3.99 plus tax burning a hole in your virtual wallet, why not spend it on a couple hours of an Oscar-nominated movie with some hot people singing killer music?
Until then, be careful what you wish for!
I promise her full name matters.
That’s about $520/month in today’s rent!
Tyler: The rental agreement says “No cowboys” which I can only assume means that the manager is an Eagles fan. #GoBirds
Sound like my ex-wife!
Tyler: This guy would make a good drinking buddy of the borderline-alcoholic lead duo from The Thin Man.
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
Ellen: Now if this version tries to get away with not showing me that Lady Gaga can sing, I will simply have to riot.