In this Technicolor blockbuster,  Janet Gaynor stars as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as a fading movie star who helps launch her career. From all accounts, A Star Is Born was fairly faithful to the true state of Hollywood at the time, and its deeply resonant themes of achievement and personal sacrifice led to two major remakes with a third in production for 2018.

Some film historians believe that the marriage of Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay was the film’s real-life inspiration. John Bowers has also been identified as inspiration for the Norman Maine character given his similar fate. Wherever it came from, this slice of film industry life is an excellent choice for the Internet Archive Top 100.