In Hollywood, California, many film celebrities attend a gala show at the Shrine Auditorium. Oliver Niles (Charles Bickford), who runs his own film studio, tells publicist Matt Libby (Jack Carson) to keep the alcoholic star actor Norman Maine (James Mason) off the stage, who is clearly drunk at this point. But Norman knocks Libby down and wanders onto the stage while the Glenn Williams Orchestra performs. Vocalist Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), a young newcomer from the Midwest, incorporates him into the act so the audience doesn't realize that he is drunk. Later, the grateful and intrigues Norman tracks Esther to a small club where she is jamming. When he hears her sing "The Man Who Got Away", he realizes that she has great talent. He convinces her to quit the band she is performing with and take a chance a living her dream to be a big star. Norman promises to get Esther a studio audition. Esther's friend Danny McGuire (Tom Noonan) who works as the pianist, tells her that Norman is just giving her a line. Niles whisks Norman to a faraway location, so he looses contact with Esther before he can help her. Esther is forced to take odd jobs to survive. When Norman hears her voice on a silly TV commercial, he tracks her down to the boarding house where she lives. He gets her a studio contract. Her name is changed to Vicki Lester, but no one pays any attention to her until Norman shrewdly figures a way for Niles to hear Esther/Vicki sing. Niles casts her as the lead in a new musical which is a box office hit and to Esther/Vicki, a star is born. Esther agrees to marry Norman, hoping he will stop drinking and focus on his acting career once again. When they elope, this infuriates Libby, who despises Norman. Niles informs Norman that the studio is dropping him because his alcoholism has made him too great a risk. When Norman cannot find any work elsewhere in any major or independent studio, his fame begins to slip away. Norman starts drinking even more heavily. Esther tries to persuade him to stop drinking or at least "tone it down" but Norman angrily tells her to stay out of his personal business. After Esther is nominated and wins an Oscar for her performance in her first feature musical, Norman crashes the Academy Awards completely drunk and pushes his way on the stage where he embarrasses Esther and himself with his drunken rambling and when she tries to calm him down, he accidentally hits her in the face in full view of the televised audience forcing security men to remove him from the stage. Eventually Norman ends up in a sanatorium where he hopes to stay sober. When Niles sees how depressed that Esther is now that her career is stalled for her association with Norman, he visits Norman at the sanatorium where he offers him a small part in a picture. But this makes Norman even more upset. Due to being so used to having lead roles, Norman is too full of stubborn and foolish pride to accept the offer and pretends that he has other offers when he gets out the sanatorium. A few weeks later when Norman finally gets out of the sanatorium, he hopes to stay sober. But at the Hollywood Park racetrack where he goes to place a few bets, Libby confronts and insults him for living off his wife's salary and new fame, and assumes that Norman is and always will be a drunk. When Norman takes a swing at Libby, he knocks Norman down. A gathering crowd assumes that Norman is drunk. He gets up after Libby walks away and immediately falls of the wagon by ordering a drink at the racetrack bar. After being missing for four days, Esther and Niles learn that Norman has been arrested for drunk driving, getting into a car accident and resisting arrest. When the judge threatens to sentence him, Esther turns up in court and promises to take care of her husband so there will be no more incidents. He is released into her custody. At their beachfront house, while Esther and Niles think that Norman is asleep, he overhears them. Esther confides in Niles that she loves Norman so much despite his alcoholism that she has decides to give up her acting career and go to Europe with him so he can recover. Esther feels she owes her success to him for she believes that he is responsible for the success that she's had. She hopes they both can resume their acting careers abroad in England or Italy, or France. But Niles tells her that Norman's talent disappeared years before when he started drinking. Norman is clearly agonized by what he hears. After Niles leaves, Norman tells Esther that things will be better for her. Then while they go to sleep for the night, he wakes up early the next morning, walks into the ocean from the beach and deliberately drowns himself. Esther goes into seclusion, intending to mourn forever. After several weeks, Danny visits and insists that she appear at a benefit at the Shrine Auditorium. He says that Esther is Norman's monument that her love and success were the only good things in Norman's life. If she kicks it all away, it will be as if Norman never existed. Esther makes a surprise appearance at the shrine. She introduces herself to a worldwide audience: "This is Mrs. Norman Maine."
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