Welcome to my first posting at AutisticArtCritic.com. There will be many, many more but I thank you for your support already.
I really started this site at the perfect time, given that the latest version of A Star is Born was about to come out. Being someone often called an encyclopedia for movies and TV, I know the full history of the film-what years the previous versions came out, how the original differed from the remake which differed from the second remake and what the name was of the original original.
If you’re wondering what I mean by that-well, a little background. My life as a film buff really began at the age of 10, when I saw a book called All Time Favorite Movie Stars lying around my house. Two years later I received a book on Oscar history that taught me about the two classic versions of A Star is Born that existed and I also received a movie guide that told me the third one existed and that the first one was based on What Price Hollywood?
It was a few years later we got internet access and life would never be the same for someone like me always seeking to fill his head with assorted information. Especially regarding filmed entertainment-I considered IMDB to be one of the best things to happen to humanity, ha ha.
It was from there I learned that What Price Hollywood? was reportedly based on a real life couple, although different sources told me a couple of different ones.
I decided that my first project for my blog would be a series of posts-one apiece about every version of A Star is Born, including What Price Hollywood? I planned to start from the beginning and work my way up to the present day and then decided to take it a step further. Before any film version came the real-life stories and those will be my focus today.
This wound up being a bit more complicated than I realized, as there are many people considered to be inspirations for the characters. Shouldn’t be surprising though, as celebrities rising high in show business only to become undone by its excesses are sadly common.
My thoughts on the various people considered bases for the lead characters in What Price Hollywood? and/or the original A Star is Born.
Lowell Sherman-The actor who actually played the male lead in What Price Hollywood? Never actually heard of any of his other movies as an actor or director though. IMDB says he was known to be an alcoholic but even his premature death was unrelated to that-he succumbed to pneumonia. For my thoughts on how he did in What Price Hollywood? read my next blog post.
Marshall Neilan-Apparently he was a top director in the silent film days but his work certainly hasn’t stood the test of time.
Tom Forman-Ditto regarding work standing the test of time. I suppose if someone struggles with demons it can be hard to create classic films.
John Bowers-Same thing although he had a bit of a dramatic fall in that he was one of many stars whose career died due to the advent of sound and his actual death might be the most direct inspiration for climactic scenes in the first two A Star is Born versions.
Norman Kerry-Now this guy was something else. He played one of the main roles in each of Lon Chaney Sr.’s two most famous starring vehicles-the original, silent versions of The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. These films and others popular silent movies led to his eventually receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not sure why I’ve seen him listed as an inspiration for What Price Hollywood? or A Star is Born though, other than the former having a male lead character with a homophone for his last name and the latter having a male lead character with his first name.
John Barrymore-By far the most interesting of all these cases. Although Drew is the only Barrymore to succeed in acting over the past two generations, her grandfather and his brother and sister formed the best one-two-three punch among siblings in Hollywood history. Yet the two character actors fared much better. John was the matinee idol and known as “The Great Profile” but he not only died far before his older siblings he never won Academy Awards like they did (he was never even nominated although Ethel alone was four times) and he never had a performance nearly as enduring as Lionel’s when he played Mr. Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life. John is best known for his self-destruction due to alcoholism and in that regard would have actually been perfect for the male lead in A Star is Born. It’s appropriate that he was originally supposed to play it but he wouldn’t accept his lines written out on a blackboard, a condition the filmmakers had insisted on so the drunkenness wouldn’t keep him from remembering said lines. Film lovers can only wonder what might have been.
Although some of these men might have inspired the main male character in A Star is Born/What Price Hollywood?, the central concept is the ingénue rising while the man she loves plummets. Thus the inspiration most likely came from a couple. Here are the contenders I’ve seen mentioned:
Bernard Durning/Shirley Mason-Neither one was particularly famous and his premature death was caused by typhoid fever; I’ve seen no mention of alcoholism. It seems like this couple is mentioned as an inspiration simply because Durning was a mentor to William Wellman, the director of the first A Star is Born.
John Gilbert/Virginia Bruce-He was one of the top stars of the silent era (even rivaling the legendary Rudolph Valentino at one point) and they got married as he was in the midst of an alcohol-fueled decline and she was just starting out in Hollywood. Other than a prominent role in the 1936 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Great Zigfield, she never had much of a career though. I’d heard her name before writing this post but only because as a teenager I read a fun-filled movie history book which said she had the best pre-Hays Code lingerie the screen had seen. If only I could remember what movie…
Edit: I Googled it and it looks like the movie was Winner Take All. Oh my!
John McCormick/Colleen Moore-The couple most cited as the inspiration for What Price Hollywood? specifically. She was a leading star during the “Flapper” era and he was a producer whose alcoholism disrupted her career. However, they divorced, he lived decades after that, and the fact that they were married at all differs their story from the one in What Price Hollywood?
Frank Fay/Barbara Stanwyck– The couple most cited as the inspiration for A Star is Born specifically. It’s true that they married when he was a major star and she was an unknown and his alcoholic behavior led to his downfall. It also led to a divorce though. He remained alive and obscure for decades while she became one of the top stars of her era and the lead in many classics, including Stella Dallas and Double Indemnity, two of my absolute favorites.
The long and short of it is that although some real people might have provided screenwriters with a little inspiration, the captivating story of a couple meeting while the woman is rising and the man falling AND their love enduring even as he decides he doesn’t want to burden her and she wants to continue to honor him is the product of screenwriters’ imagination. What a story it is. I look forward to writing about each incarnation in my subsequent posts.
Let’s start with the first incarnation!
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