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    A Star Is Born
    A Star Is Born
    A Star Is Born
    Ebook143 pages1 hour

    A Star Is Born

    By Dorothy Parker, Robert Carson and Alan Campbell

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    About this ebook

    I'm going out and have a real life.
    I'm going to be somebody.     - Esther Blodgett

    Few Hollywood films have had the impact of the original version of A Star Is Born. Released in 1937 and starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two (for best original story and best cinematography). Since then, the movie has been remade three times, attesting to its continued allure. But none have matched the genius and wit of the original.

    A Star Is Born speaks to the longing for fame and its costs. Young Esther Blodgett leaves her home in North Dakota to make her way as an actress in Hollywood. She attracts the attention of cinema heartthrob Norman Maine, who not only falls in love with her but sees her star potential. He shepherds her through to acclaim.

    In the meantime, Norman Maine’s career plunges in the opposite direction. He was once a favorite leading man, but his alcoholism plunges him into escapades that embarrass the studio and destroy his talents as an actor. Esther’s love for Norman is undying, but in the end she cannot protect him from himself.

    This magnificent and poignant story illumines the ups and downs of celebrity—its pains, its pleasures, its glamor, and its uncertainties. We experience the splendor of Hollywood at the height of its Golden Age. We are also see the heartbreaks and tragedies that accompanied it.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMaple Spring Publishing
    Release dateSep 3, 2024
    ISBN9798350501148
    Author

    Dorothy Parker

    Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) wrote short stories for The New Yorker for 30 years. She was married to Edwin Pond Parker II, once, and to Alan Campbell, twice. Upon her death she left her estate to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She also provided that in the event of his death, her estate would pass on to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

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      Book preview

      A Star Is Born - Dorothy Parker

      In the moonlight, we see a long expanse of snow. In the background, the isolated house of the Blodgetts in North Dakota. We hear the melancholy howling of the wolf.

      Inside the Blodgett house, Aunt Mattie opens the door for Esther and Alec.

      AUNT MATTIE

      Well, home from the movies at last.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Looks like it, Aunt Maddie.

      AUNT MATTIE

      Huh?

      ALEC

      Hello, Dad.

      MR. BLODGETT

      (voiceover)

      Hello, son. Well, daughter, how was the moving picture tonight?

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Mm, lovely.

      Esther, Alec, and Aunt Mattie go into the living room, where Mr. Blodgett is sitting.

      ALEC

      Mush. That’s what it was. Just a lot of mush. There wasn’t anybody killed in the whole thing.

      Mr. Blodgett is looking through one of those old photo viewers.

      MR. BLODGETT

      Oh, well, then I’ll stick to these; these don’t talk.

      ALEC

      And that big cluck, Norman Maine, was in the picture tonight. Never does anything but kiss a lot of girls.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Norman Maine is one of the best actors in pictures.

      AUNT MATTIE

      You and your movies. That’s all you think about. You shouldn’t be allowed to go to them at all, if you’re asking me.

      Grandmother Lettie Blodgett comes in from the dining room.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      Too bad, I was so busy in the kitchen, I didn’t hear anybody asking you.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Well, hello, Granny.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      Hello, darling.

      AUNT MATTIE

      But of course, no one ever listens to me.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      They do if they’re within 10 miles of you.

      AUNT MATTIE

      Gathering around picture shows. Household cluttered up with movie magazines. And the other day I caught her talking to a horse with a Swedish accent!

      MR. BLODGETT

      Well, sis, we’re only young once, you know.

      Aunt Mattie sees Esther paging through a movie magazine.

      AUNT MATTIE

      Ah, Hollywood! You’d better be getting yourself a good husband and stop moaning about Hollywood. Do you know what she wants to do? She wants to go to Hollywood. I’ve known it all along. I’ve seen her making faces in the mirror and talking to herself. That’s what comes of your movies.

      MR. BLODGETT

      Why? What would you do if you did go to Hollywood?

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      I’d be an actress. I would, I tell you, I’ve always known I could.

      ALEC

      Guys, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a movie star in a family? Oh, Miss Blodgett, may I have your autograph?

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      You may not know it, Alec, but you’re practically on your way to bed.

      ALEC

      Oh, Miss Blodgett, you’re my favorite actress; won’t you tell me the secret of your success?

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Oh, let me alone.

      Grandmother Lettie takes Alec off to bed.

      MR. BLODGETT

      Why, Esther, what’s come over you?

      AUNT MATTIE

      I’ll tell you what’s come over her. She’s just a silly little girl whose head has been turned by the movies. And the soon as she forgets the whole thing, the better off she’ll be.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Why will I be better off? What’s wrong with wanting to get out and make something of myself? What do you do that’s so much better? Just because you’re satisfied to sit here all your life, you think you can laugh at me? Well, someday you won’t laugh at me. I’m going out and have a real life. I’m going to be somebody.

      Esther dashes upstairs.

      MR. BLODGETT

      You know, if it was spring, I’d say give her a good dose of sulfur and molasses.

      Esther is crying in her bedroom. Grandmother Lettie comes in.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      I thought I’d find you up. Ah, stop that. Now, stop crying. That isn’t going to do you a bit of good.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Oh, I’m crying because Aunt Mattie and Alec make me so mad.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      Well, Alec and Aunt Mattie, they’re not important. You are the only one that counts. Esther, everyone in this world who has ever dreamed about better things has been laughed at; don’t you know that?

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      I suppose I do, but …

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      But there’s a difference between dreaming and doing. The dreamers just sit around and moon about how wonderful it would be if only things were different. And the years roll on, and they grow old, and by and by, they forget everything, even about their dreams.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      I don’t want to be like that; I want to be somebody.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      Oh yeah, oh yeah. You want to be somebody, but you want it to be easy. Oh, you modern girls give me the pain. When I wanted something better, I came across those plains in a prairie schooner with your grandfather. Oh, everyone laughed at us as they did at all the other pioneers. They said this country would never be anything but a wilderness. We didn’t believe that. We were going to make a new country. Besides, we wanted to see our dreams come true.

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Oh, Granny, it must have been wonderful.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      It was wonderful. But don’t you think for one single minute that it was easy, Esther Blodgett. We burned in summer and we froze in winter, but we kept right on going, and we didn’t complain because we were doing what we wanted to do. Can you understand that?

      ESTHER BLODGETT

      Yes, I can.

      GRANDMOTHER LETTIE BLODGETT

      Could you do it? Could you do it even if it broke your heart? Because remember, Esther, for every dream of yours that your make come true, you’ll pay the price in heartbreak. Oh, I know what I’m talking about. You may not believe it, but I was a young girl once, and a very pretty young girl. A lot prettier than you are. And I was in love with your grandfather. And when some Indian devil put

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