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Essentially a plagiaristic reworking of RKO's 1932 picture What Price Hollywood, William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born, written by Wellman, Robert Carson and Alan Campbell, with imput from the estimable Dorothy Parker, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Janet Gaynor (a major Academy Award-winning star at the time) stars as the North Dakota ingenue whose ascent to Hollywood fame and fortune is in direct proportion to the descent of her movie star benefactor and husband (Frederic March) into a morasse of alcohol-fueled irrelevance. Released to positive reviews, the film is a box-office hit, and wins Wellman an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The Judy Garland-James Mason remake from 1952 retains the story's Hollywood setting, while the 1976 Kris Kristofferson-Barbra Steisand and the 2018 Bradley Cooper-Lady Ga Ga versions relocate the narrative to the contemporary rock milieu.
