In the original A Star Is Born, Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) dreams of being a Hollywood actress. After catching the eye of star Norman Maine (Frederic March), she lands her first small acting role with his help. Norman helps her get the starring role in his next film and Esther, now renamed Vicki Lester, becomes an overnight sensation.
They fall in love and marry, after Vicki makes Norman promise he'll get help with his drinking problem. He struggles with his alcoholism until it all comes to a head when he ruins Vicki's Academy Awards acceptance speech while completely drunk. He does a stint in a sanitarium to try to straighten himself out and is eventually sent back home to Vicki. It's then that Vicki's agent, Matt Libby (Lionel Stander), lays into him and tells him how much he hates him and what he's doing to Vicki. And when Norman hears Vicki say she'll give up her career to help him get better, he drowns himself in the Pacific Ocean.
Truly devastated, Vicki decides to leave acting behind, but her grandma convinces her otherwise when she tells her of a letter Norman sent her back when they got married. The letter told of how proud Norman was of her, and with that and her grandma's insistence, Vicki chose to keep acting. At the end of the film, Vicki goes to her latest movie's premiere, and when she's asked to speak, she says, "Hello everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine."