whataboutbobbed
saw the original 1937 version of A Star Is Born tonight (as a part of Film Forum’s mammoth William A Wellman retrospective), and absolutely loved every single minute of it. didn’t hurt that Janet Gaynor was the Star that was Born, because we could stare at her adorable face for all the minutes left in our lives. never have seen the Judy Garland version, but we almost don’t want to ever bother. that’s how great the ‘37 edition was!! (you can watch the whole film here)
interesting little tidbit that we learned from Colleen Moore’s autobiography, Silent Star – her dear friend Adela Rogers St Johns wrote the original short story on which A Star Was Born was based on (she also purportedly ghost wrote Moore’s book!). The short story loosely resembles Moore’s up and mostly down marriage to producer and terrible alcoholic John McCormick, and St Johns even used a line she overheard Moore speak in support of her troubled husband, ’This is Mrs John McCormick speaking’, in the key final scene where the windowed star proudly proclaims ’This is Mrs Norman Maine’
amazing