A Star Is Born (1937) is a film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring actress who travels to Hollywood to become a movie star.

She meets an actor, Norman Maine, played by Fredric March and they marry but soon after his career develops difficulties while hers flourishes. Some cinematic theorists believe that the marriage of Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay was the film's real-life inspiration. John Bowers has also been identified as inspiration for the Norman Maine character and the dramatic suicide by drowning scene at the end of the film (he drowned during November 1936).

The film also has some similarities to the earlier film What Price Hollywood?, whose creators actually mulled suing, though never did.

Other members of the cast include Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine and Lionel Stander.

The film contained several inside jokes, including Gaynor's brief imitations of Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo, the "Crawford Smear" (referring to Joan Crawford's lipstick), and the revelation that the glamorous Norman Maine's real last name was Hinkle. (Hinkle was the real last name of silent film star Agnes Ayres).

It was filmed from October to December 1936 with an estimated budget of $1,173,639, and premiered in Los Angeles, California on April 20, 1937.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning the award for Best Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (March), Best Actress (Gaynor), Best Assistant Director, and Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay. It won a special Academy Award for its Technicolor cinematography for W. Howard Greene.

A Star Is Born has been remade twice, in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason, and in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The financial and critical failure Glitter heavily borrowed plot elements from this film.

The scene in the film where Menjou offers the fading star a supporting role was added at the suggestion of George Cukor, who directed the 1954 remake.

A Star Is Born is a 1954 musical remake of the original 1937 film, directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Musical highlights included "The Man That Got Away" and the "Born in a Trunk" sequence.

In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In 2006, this film ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. The song The Man That Got Away was ranked number 11 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list. The movie ranked #43 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions list in 2002.

Garland had not made a movie since she had been humiliatingly dropped from her MGM contract in 1950, and this film was heavily promoted as a triumphant comeback. She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her tour-de-force performance and was heavily tipped to win. NBC, which was televising the awards, even sent a crew to the hospital room where Garland was recuperating after giving birth to her son Joey, to carry her acceptance speech live if she won. However, she lost to Grace Kelly (The Country Girl) in a shock result that famously prompted Groucho Marx to send Garland a telegram stating it was "the biggest robbery since Brinks".

The film was re-edited several times. Premiering at 181 minutes, the studio (Warner Bros.) cut the film by 30 minutes despite the objections of director Cukor and producer Sid Luft (Garland's husband). The cuts were made because theater owners complained the film was too long, limiting the number of daily showings. In 1983, all but 5 minutes of the cut footage was found and reinstated, but some of the footage had to be reconstructed using production stills. Most of the original multi-track stereophonic sound was also restored. This was shown in many theaters and then released on home video. Columbia Records released all of the songs in stereo; the recordings were later reissued by Sony on CD.

The premiere of the 1954 film at the Pantages in Los Angeles was a major event with Garland, Mason, studio head Jack L. Warner, and Jack Carson (who emceed), and dozens of A-list stars attending. As the celebrities arrived at the theater, it was televised live and a kinescope film has survived.

Despite the film's success, Warner Brothers cancelled Judy Garland's contract and refused to make any further films with her. In her autobiography, Doris Day admitted that both she and Garland battled "nervous breakdowns" in dealing with the studio. It was 1961 before Garland again appeared in a film, playing a crucial, dramatic supporting role in Judgment at Nuremberg.

A Star Is Born is a 1976 rock music film telling the story of a young woman, played by Barbra Streisand who enters show business, and meets and falls in love with an established male star, played by Kris Kristofferson, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline. It is a remake of two earlier versions - the 1937 version was a drama starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and the 1954 version was a musical film starring Judy Garland and James Mason.

Talented rock star John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) has seen his career begin to decline. Too many years of concerts and managers and life on the road have made him cynical and the monotony has taken its toll. Then he meets the innocent, pure and very talented singer Esther Hoffman (Barbra Streisand). As one of his songs in the movie says "I'm gonna take you girl, I'm gonna show you how." And he does. He shows Esther the way to stardom while forsaking his own career. As they fall in love, her success only makes his decline even more apparent. A love story for the time - and a great film it is. Written by A. Lloyd Adams [aadams@airmail.net]

Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of alcoholic star Norman Maine, is given a test, and is caught up in the Hollywood glamor machine (ruthlessly satirized). She and her idol Norman marry; but his career abruptly dwindles to nothing Written by Rod Crawford

Norman Maine, a movie star whose career is on the wane, meets showgirl Esther Blodgett when he drunkenly stumbles into her act one night. A friendship develops, then blossoms into romance before tensions increase as Esther's career takes off while Norman's continues to plummet. Written by Col Needham