Trivia

George Cukor offered Marlon Brando the role of Norman Maine on the set of Julius Caesar (1953). "Why would you come to me?" asked Brando. "I'm in the prime of my life... If you're looking around for some actor to play an alcoholic has-been, he's sitting right over there"- pointing at his costar James Mason, who got the part.

Judy Garland was on her best behaviour during the early days of shooting, but she slowly lost control. She first called in sick on November 9, which kept her off the film for four days. She got sick again shooting outdoor locations and missed three more days. She was sick again for two days in December. Then they had to postpone a scene because she didn't like her costume. Other days, she had to leave early because she was too tired or sick to go on. By February, they were 41 days behind schedule. In late March, she took two weeks off to get herself off all prescription medications. Ultimately, the production would drag on for nine months.

In 1974, film historian Ronald Haver was doing a George Cukor retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For the showing of A Star Is Born, he put together a brochure featuring stills from the cut scenes and descriptions of what was missing. This triggered interest at Warner Bros., where an apprentice film editor discovered the complete three-hour soundtrack in the sound department's storage vaults. Haver wanted to create a restored version using the soundtrack with stills filling in for the missing scenes, but was unable to raise the budget through the LA County Museum.

Groucho Marx called Judy Garland's 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.

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.

Ray Heindorf: musical director for this film appears at a party, where Matt Libby tells him "Hey, Ray! Great score, the best!"

Humphrey Bogart: (unconfirmed) Some sources credit Bogart, who turned down the role of Norman Maine, as the voice of the drunk café patron requesting "Melancholy Baby". Other listeners insist that it sounds nothing like him.