A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration (12 page)

From "Born in a Trunk": father and daughter (Jack Baker and Garland) sing "When
My Sugar Walks Down the Street," after the death of the mother.

Esther says goodbye to the piano player
(Toni Noonan).

Norman leaving for location.

Norman being pulled from the ocean.

The "Trinidad Coconut Oil Shampoo" commercial.

Esther as a carhop (Chick
Chandler in car).

Norman at home with the "lovely
Lola Lavery" (Lucy Marlow).

The proposal scene on the
sound stage.

ABOVE AND BELOW: Norman Ands Esther
in a cheap rooming house.

The "Lose That Long Face" sequence.

While Zanuck, Skouras, Warner, et al. tugged and pulled at the shape and
depth of the screen, down in Palm Springs Moss Hart was finishing the
outline of his rewrite of the picture.

He had altered the beginning of the story considerably. The United
States had changed complexion greatly in the fifteen years since the original
was written and was now largely urban rather than rural, so the North
Dakota farm sequences were jettisoned, as was the character of the grandmother. Hart now introduced the two leads almost simultaneously in his
new opening sequence, which took place at a gigantic benefit for the
Motion Picture Relief Fund in Hollywood. Norman is the big attraction
that night, and Esther Blodgett is just a singer with the Glenn Williams
Orchestra. When he staggers into her act, thinking it's his turn to go on,
she earns his gratitude by saving him from making a drunken fool of
himself. Later he hears her singing in an after-hours musicians' hangout and
is impressed enough to offer to have her screen-tested. On the strength of
his promise she quits the band, waits, but never hears from him. He's off
on a distant location and can't remember where she was staying. She takes
odd jobs to survive, including singing a jingle for a shampoo commercial
with puppets. Norman hears this on his return and tracks her down in a
cheap rooming house; he makes good on his promise and she is signed by
his studio. From that point on, Hart's screenplay follows the structure of
the original very closely.

In mid-January, Hart journeyed up to Los Angeles with his rough outline
for discussions with Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin at the latter's home
in Beverly Hills. Hart explained the approach he was taking and the whys
and wherefores of placing the songs and the type of song each spot required.
Hart's outline had places for seven songs:

I. Benefit show-Esther and orchestra

2. "Dive" song-Esther and small group

3. Movie rehearsal song (happy type), partial; reprised complete at preview

4. Song on recording stage (marriage proposal with interruptions)

5. Honeymoon song in motel; to be reprised later

6. Malibu beach house song (funny song; she tries to cheer Norman up)

7. Reprise of 5, probably sung over suicide or at end.

After the meeting with Hart, Arlen and Gershwin started right in, working
on the first song in the story, which would be sung by Esther at the benefit
show. It needed to be a catchy, up-tempo piece-"the kind of song you can
never hear the lyrics to," as Hart put it, much to Gershwin's amusement.
It took almost two weeks to complete this first song, "Gotta Have Me
Go With You." Once they had it, Arlen and Gershwin began work on
the important "dive" song, so called because Esther sings it in an afterhours joint, a "dive." Hart felt it was crucial to the rest of the story that
Norman (and the audience) realize at once that Esther is an extraordinary
singer with a definite dramatic flair. "When inspiration or something
else worthwhile hits Arlen," recalls Gershwin, "it is the beginning of
something at some time worth mulling over, and onto an envelope or
into a notebook it goes. These snatches or possible themes he calls
`jots.' " In Edward Jablonski's biography of Arlen, Happy With the Blues,
this practice of his is elaborated on in the writing of the second song for
A Star Is Born.