Critics love A Star is Born, which opened this past weekend to satisfied audiences. The story of the relationship between a rising star and a alcoholic has-been is an enduring tale. The first movie titled A Star is Born came out in 1937, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. It was remade in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason, again in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and in 2018, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. But first, there was the 1932 movie What Price Hollywood? which told the same story. A true story.
But the central partnership of What Price Hollywood?—that of the director and his newfound star—was modeled after the marriage of the silent film star Colleen Moore and John McCormick, the one-time publicity chief and later production head of First National Pictures. It was McCormick who turned Moore from the saccharine heroine of a string of forgettable pictures into the No. 1 box office star of the Jazz Age, with a Dutch bob and short shorts. (“I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once declared of the 1923 film. “Colleen Moore was the torch.”) But as Moore’s career soared, McCormick’s cratered as his binges grew worse. Moore nursed him through hospital stays and covered for him at the studio before finally divorcing him in 1930.
Each iteration of A Star is Born after that kept the basic plot, while reflecting elements of real people and adding modern touches. Read the history of A Star is Born at the Atlantic.