A STAR IS BORN ARCHIVE: The Director's Copy of the Original 1936 Script as well as Dorothy Parker's Copy of Part of the Script with additional material

[Los Angeles]: Selznick International Pictures, Inc., 16 October 1936. First Edition. Softcover. Expected wear for working scripts but Very Good and stunning. Quarto (8-1/2" x 10-7/8") in stiff yellow wraps with the left margins punch-holed with metal clasps. The archive includes two copies of the Final Shooting Script (one belonging to Director William A. Wellman and the other, a partial script, to screenwriters Dorothy Parker and her husband, Alan Campbell); a SIGNED 8" x 10" Photograph of Fredric March who starred as Norman Maine (INSCRIBED "To Zoila/all good wishes/always/Fredric March/1937"); a formal 8" x 10" photograph of Parker and Campbell; and a small photograph of Wellman's secretary, Zoila Conan, holding two Oscar statues and annotated on the verso in an unknown hand: "Zoila Conan at Paramount Studios with Bob Carson's Oscar + Wm. Wellman's Oscar awarded for A STAR IS BORN made at Selznick Studios with Janet Gaynor & Fredric March." The film was nominated for 7 awards, including Best Screen Play, winning Best Original Story for Wellman and Carson. Wellman's copy of the script, acquired from his secretary, is numbered to 127 pages, though some numbers are skipped and others labeled "A," printed on various colored paper representing revisions and with a number of pages with pencil annotations by him. It also credits Carson for the screen play in addition to Parker and Cunningham. Parker's copy, acquired from her estate and with her last name in pencil at the top corner of the front cover, contains only the first 27 pages, plus a loose unnumbered page, and does not credit Carson on the cover. It differs quite a bit from Wellman's right from the beginning using a rabbit instead of a wolf in the opening scene and having the first scene take place in a movie theater instead of Esther's home. Parker's contribution to the finished script has long been a question. When she first saw the film, Parker was proud of her contribution and boasted about both the script and the film, but in later life she believed that she had contributed nothing of significance. The discovery of this script goes some way towards answering that question.

A STAR IS BORN, the quintessential Hollywood story, was filmed from October to December 1936 and premiered in April 1937. Wellman's script has December pages included. In addition to the Oscar for Best Original Story, the film also received an honorary Academy Award for color photography. It was the first color film to be nominated for best picture. A STAR IS BORN has been remade three times, in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason, in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and most recently in 2018 with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.