Trivia for
A Star Is Born (1954) More at IMDbPro »

• Because the role of Norman Maine is that of a has-been actor, it was rejected by Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Cary Grant (who at first accepted it) before being finally accepted by James Mason.
  
  
• The sequence in which Esther receives a studio makeover was inspired by Judy Garland's similar experience early in the filming of The Wizard of Oz (1939).
  
  
• In the scene after the movie premiere, Matt Libby is at a party where he passes a man and says, "Hey, Ray! Great score, the best!" The man is Ray Heindorf, musical director for this film.
  
  
• WILHELM SCREAM: during the song "Somewhere There's a Someone".
  
  
• WILHELM SCREAM: In the projection room while playing the western.
  
  
• This was George Cukor's 37th film, his first musical, and his first full production in color.
  
  
• Early tests were made using WarnerScope (Warner's own wide screen format) and WarnerColor. Both were judged to be unsatisfactory. The film was shot in CinemaScope (licensed from Fox) and Technicolor.
  
  
• Filming took 10 months to complete.
  
  
• After filming the Academy Award scene where Esther/Vicki is inadvertently slapped by a drunken Norman Maine, the whole side of Judy Garland's face was bruised.
  
  
• Hugh Martin, who was hired as vocal arranger, stormed off the set after a row with Judy Garland over her interpretation of "The Man That Got Away".
  
  
• The 15-minute "Born in a Trunk" medley was designed by Roger Edens and Leonard Gershe. It was inserted into the film when it was decided that none of the three Arlen/Gershwin songs submitted supplied an acceptable conclusion to the first half of the film. Mr. Edens, Judy Garland's musical mentor during her MGM years (1935-1950), also crafted the around-the-world-in-a-living-room concept for "Someone at Last" (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Ira Gershwin). Still under contract to Metro in 1954, Roger received no screen credit as either contributor or co-writer (with Mr. Gershe) of the "Born in a Trunk" song.
  
  
• A torch song supreme which was nominated for an Oscar, "The Man That Got Away" (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Ira Gershwin) had been photographed in three diverse schemes on a nightclub floor using distinctly different camera setups, lighting, placement of the band members and furniture, costuming for Judy Garland and the musicians, hairstyles for Miss Garland, and bits of business before she sings. (In the initial footage, Tommy Noonan lightly shoves Judy off the piano bench. In the next design, Judy serves coffee to Tommy and the on-screen trumpeter.) Ultimately, the "dark" version was chosen - with the club appearing somewhat cavernous in mostly dark-brownish hews, plus Judy wearing a navy-blue dress. The various permutations of this famous film number can be compared on the DVD from Warner Home Video.
  
  
• Humphrey Bogart (one of the possible candidates for the role of Norman Maine) can be heard as the voice of the drunk requesting "Melancholy Baby" in the café.
  
  
• Average Shot Length (ASL) = 16 seconds.
  
  
• Although Amanda Blake is still listed in the credits, her role entirely disappeared after the premiere because she appeared in one of the sequences cut to shorten the film's running time.
  
  
• Judy Garland was nominated for an Oscar as best actress and James Mason was nominated for best actor. These two nominations are the first time in Academy Awards history for two people in the same film playing roles for which different people were earlier nominated for Oscars: Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in the 1937 version.
  
  
• The film was re-edited several times. Premiering at 181 minutes, the studio (Warner Bros.) cut the film by 30 minutes despite the objections of director George Cukor and producer Sidney Luft (Judy Garland's husband). In 1983, all but 5 minutes of the cut footage was found and re-instated, but some footage had to be reconstructed using production stills.
  
  
• The premiere of the film at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles was the event of the year with Judy Garland, James Mason, studio head Jack L. Warner, and Jack Carson (who MC'ed the premiere) and dozens of A-list stars attending.
  
  
• The character "Lettie" from the 1937 version is divided between "Norman Maine" (early scenes) and "Danny McGuire" (later scenes) in the 1954 version.
  
  
• At age 20, Judy Garland first had played the role of Vicki Lester (Esther Blodgett) on the "Lux Radio Theatre" hour-long adaptation of the original 1937 film. The CBS broadcast of December 28, 1942, without songs, co-starred Walter Pidgeon as Norman Maine.
  
  
• The initial Columbia Records soundtrack LP (now reissued in the original mono sound on a British CD from Prism Leisure) reached the fourth slot on "Billboard"'s popular albums chart. Subsequently, two "improved" versions of the soundtrack have been released by the Sony label: a 1988 CD in mostly true stereo; and a 2004 deluxe package containing a second, unused Garland rendition of "It's a New World"; the singing commercial on TV for Trinidad Coconut Oil Shampoo; the discarded chorus of "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" (Judy with Jack Baker) from the "Born in a Trunk" sequence; the full orchestral introduction to "Gotta Have Me Go with You" (Judy with Don McKabe and Jack Harmon); the complete orchestral introduction, not totally heard in the release print, to the Academy Award-nominated Garland trademark, "The Man That Got Away"; and musical director Ray Heindorf's Oscar-nominated background score, including portions not included in the finished picture.
  
  
• The set for the musical number "Lose That Long Face" was created by taking New Orleans building facades left over from A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and spray painting them white.
  
  
• Norman Maine mentions the name 'Ellen Terry' to Esther Blodgett. Ellen Terry (1847 - 1928, created a Dame in 1925) was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain during the late nineteenth century, as well as performing in plays by Ibsen, G.B. Shaw and many others.
  
  
• Groucho Marx called Judy Garland not winning an Oscar for A Star Is Born (1954), "the biggest robbery since Brink's." Hedda Hopper later reported that her loss to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954) was the result of the closest Oscar vote up till that time that didn't end in a tie, with just six votes separating the two. In any event, it was a heartbreak from which she never really recovered and which has remained a matter of some controversy ever since.
  
  
• Judy Garland did not attend the 1955 Academy Awards, where she was nominated as Best Actress for her portrayal of Vicki Lester in A Star Is Born (1954), because she was in hospital after giving birth to her third child and only son Joey Luft.
  
  

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