A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration (55 page)

Since 1903, movies have been designed, directed, and produced to be
exhibited on large screens. In part this was due to economics: the more
people that could see a film at one sitting, the more money could be taken
in. But an anonymous congregation sitting in the dark being engulfed by
larger-than-life images shares a collective emotional and visceral experience.
This is one of the intangibles that give the movies their particular power,
their magic. This power and magic is diluted considerably when the circumstances of the viewing are not ideal. The video revolution has been a boon
in many areas for the film business and for devotees of older films, but it
has largely eliminated the opportunity to experience these films as they
were meant to be experienced-and this is a psychological and cultural loss.
Over and over again during the theatrical tour of A Star Is Born, people
would come up and say that the experience of seeing the film in a theater
on a huge screen made it an entirely different movie from the one they had
known on television. The revival theater movement, which flourished
briefly in the 196os and 1970s, has largely died off, because of video and
because of the reluctance of exhibitors to pay high rental and transportation
prices for spliced, scratched, and faded prints. (Distributors feel that it is
economically unwise to spend $5,000 to $10,ooo to make a print that might
not return the cost in rental fees.)

So the situation is, ironically, little better than it was in the 194os and
1950s. Until a method is devised for projecting video tapes or discs onto
theater screens with image quality equal to that of film, film will be the
dominant method of projection, as it has been for nearly a hundred years.
As long as commercial theater owners refuse to believe that properly presented older films could be a viable commercial undertaking, it must be the
responsibility of the nation's museums and universities to keep older films
alive, to give them the status they deserve as an art form, and to exhibit
them in the manner, style, and technological form in which they were
designed to be viewed. This last is particularly important, for the anamorphic and 7omm stereophonic sound formats are crucial to the visual and
aural effectiveness of many films made after 1953. Unless proper respect
and attention are given to the technology with which these films were
produced, the craftsmanship suffers and the art form is diminished. To do this, to make state-of-the-art prints from all eras of film history available,
will take commitment and funds from the motion picture industry, which
so far has refused to consider its "product" as anything more than that. It
is time that this attitude changed. A concerted, cooperative effort must be
made by the studios, the distributors, and their service organization, the
Motion Picture Association of America; working with accredited institutions, they should develop a national program and policy for preservation
and exhibition. The expense of preserving, maintaining, and exhibiting this
most perishable of all arts is a responsibility that must be shared equally by
the industry that has produced it and by the institutions that identify and
define it. Technology and the proper theaters are both important in the
presentation and appreciation of motion pictures. Without these, it is
impossible to do justice to the preservation efforts of the past and of the
future. The movies, and the audiences they were made for, need and
deserve this respect.

Director:

George Cukor

Producer:

Sidney Luft

Associate Producer:

Vern Alves

Screenplay:

Moss Hart

Based on the screenplay by

Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell,
and Robert Carson

From a story by

William A. Wellman and Robert Carson

Art Director:

Malcolm Bert

Set Decorator:

George James Hopkins

Production Design:

Gene Allen

Cinematographer:

Sam Leavitt

Photographed in
CinemaScope and Eastmancolor
(1954-55 prints by Technicolor)

Special Visual and Color Consultant:

George Hoyningen-Huene

Editor:

Folmar Blangsted

Costumes:

Jean Louis and Mary Ann Nyberg

Costumes for

"Born in a Trunk":

Irene Sharaff

Assistant Directors:

Earl Bellamy, Edward Graham,
and Russell Llewellyn

Dance Director:

Richard Barstow

Songs:

"Born in a Trunk"

Leonard Gershe

"Gotta Have Me Go With You,"

"The Man That Got Away,"

"Here's What I'm Here For,"

"Someone at Last,"

"It's a New World,"

"Lose That Long Face"

Harold Arlen (music) and
Ira Gershwin (lyrics)

Musical Director:

Ray Heindorf

Orchestral Arrangements:

Skip Martin

Vocal Arrangements:

lack Cathcart

Additional Choreography:

Eugene Loring

A Warner Bros. release of a
Transcona Enterprises Production

Premiered at the RKO Pantages Theatre,
Hollywood, California, Thursday evening,
September 29, 1954

Original running time: 181 minutes

(In order of appearance)

AT THE SHRINE AUDITORIUM

Autograph Seekers:

Jerry DeCoe, Wayne Taylor, Melvin Pogue,
Janet Stewart, Sylvia Arslan, Colette
McMahon

knnouncer:

George Fischer

Ass't. Announcer:

Jim Hyland

Lola Lavery:

Lucy Marlow

Oliver Niles:

Charles Bickford

Matt Libby:

Jack Carson

Woman Announcer:

Joan Shawlee

Stage Manager:

Sam Colt

Musician:

Jay Johnson

Glenn Williams:

James Brown

Norman Maine:

James Mason

Danny McGuire:

Tommy Noonan

Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester:

Judy Garland

Reporters:

Tom Kingston, George Kitchell,
Robert Dumas, Duff Whitney

Graves:

Irving Bacon

Doorman:

Louis Mason

AT THE COCOANUT GROVE

Bruno:

Frank Puglia

Agent:

Michael Hathaway

Starlet:

Havis Davenport

Pasadena Girl:

Elmera Smith

Chef:

Jack Pepper

Driver:

Dub Taylor

Director:

Louis Jean Heydt

Cameraman:

Don Richards

Eddie:

Bob Jellison

Director (TV):

Don Shelton

Boom Man:

Robert Stevenson

Man in Car:

Chick Chandler

Landlady:

Kathryn Card

Woman:

Geraldine Wall

Rooming House Women:

Nancy Kulp, Mary Young

ist Makeup Man:

Alan DeWitt

znd Makeup Man:

Rudy Anders

3rd Makeup Man:

Joe Dougherty

Photographer:

Ross Carmichael

Miss Markham:

Lotus Robb

Miss Fusselow:

Blythe Daly

Director:

Leonard Penn

Cameraman:

Eddie Dew

Ass't. Director:

Charles Conrad

Ass't. Director:

George Becwar

ist Cashier:

Charles Halton

and Cashier:

Joseph Mell

Charley:

Olin Howlin

Producer:

Dick Simmons

ist Agent:

Joe Greene

and Agent:

Joe Hamilton

3rd Agent:

Phil Arnold

Father:

Jack Baker

Mother:

/la McAvoy

Esther (age 6):

Nadene Ashdown

Esther (age 3):

Heidi Meadows

ist Night Club Man:

Jack Kenney

and Night Club Man:

Dick Ryan

Sound Men:

Ted Thorpe, David Armstrong,
Bob Hoy, Larry Rio

ist Vagrant:

Al Thompson

and Vagrant:

Oscar Blank

Justice of the Peace:

Emerson Treacy

Malibu Party Guests:

Ruth Bradee, Shirley Whitney,
Jean Engstrom, Almeda Fowler,
Mae Marsh, Arlene Karr,
Paul Levitt, Rodney Bell,

Richard Bauman,
Marshall Bradford

Butler:

Eric Wilton

Libby's Secretary:

Hazel Shermet

Male Secretary:

John Monaghan

ist Signboard Man:

Louis Tomei

and Signboard Man:

Carey Loftin

Express Man:

Strother Martin

Artie Carver:

Grady Sutton

Emcee:

Rex Evans

Susan Ettinger:

Amanda Blake

Wallace:

Richard Webb

Nigel Peters:

Steve Wyman

Price Waterhouse Man:

Tom Cound

Makeup Man:

Mort Mills

Hairdresser:

Kay Ridhl

Director:

Tristram Coffin

"Cuddles":

Henry Kulky

Secretary:

Riza Royce

Manager:

Charles Watts

Sam:

Sam Colt

Bartender:

Paul Bryar

Young Man:

Tom Blakiston

Race Track Patrons:

Pat O'Malley, Gertrude Astor

Marian:

Valerie Vernon

Bert:

Pat Sexton

Pinkerton Detective:

Jack Ellis

Judge:

Frank Ferguson

Bailiff:

Timothy Farrell

Gregory:

Percy Helton

Rails:

Michael Hall

Clerk:

Arthur Space

Rodriguez:

Nacho Galindo

Reporters at the Courtroom:

Benny Burt, Ralph Volkie, Robert Strong

Women at Funeral:

Josephine Whittell, Sheila Bromley,
Elizabeth Flournoy, Ruth Warren,
Cele Kirk, Eileene Stevens, Helen Eby
Rock, Hilda Plowright, Ezelle Poule

Men at Funeral:

Harte Wayne, Louis Mason,
Frank Kreig, Paul Brinegar

Reporters at Shrine Auditorium:

Dale Van Sickel, Don Richards,
Robert Dumas, lean Woodley

Photographers at Shrine Auditorium:

Pat Miller, Al Hill, Frank Marlowe,
Charles Morton, Gordon Finn

Emcee:

Wilton Graff

Film reconstruction produced for the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences and Warner Bros. by

Ronald Haver

Production Consultants:

Gene Allen, Fay Kanin

Production Associates:

Douglas Edwards, Bruce Davis

Still photograph sequences designed
and directed by

Lize Bechtold Blyth

Still photograph sequence assistance by

Eric Durst

Editor:

Craig Holt

Assistant Editor:

D.J. Ziegler

Computer Camera:

Ken Rudolph

Photographic Effects:

Pacific Title

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