Katharine Hepburn won the first of her record four Best Actress Academy Awards playing an actress; one from a small town, with stars in her eyes, that makes her way to New York to be a star.
When first we see her, she is wistfully admiring the paintings hung on the walls of a theater lobby of Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt etc.. She makes her way to the offices of a successful producer she'd heard of, Louis Easton (Adolphe Menjou). He is conspiring with his writer/friend Joseph Sheridan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) to get Rita Vernon (Mary Duncan), an actress they work with, to do a mediocre play and ultimately star in one of Sheridan's plays.
At the same time, in Easton's office reception area, Eva Lovelace (Hepburn) meets Hedges ( C. Aubrey Smith), a character actor who's also hoping to get a part in the play. Eva's "don't take no for an answer" appeal charms Hedges into "taking her on" as a student, for future payment, and her persistence also enables her to meet Easton and Sheridan.
After an indeterminate amount of time has passed, we learn that Eva got a chance to play a small part in an Easton production, did not do well, and is now literally a "starving artist" living in the streets. After a successful opening night of a different Easton play, Hedges finds Eva in a small coffee shop and insists on helping her home. However, since he was on his way to a party at Easton's place, he takes her there instead.
There she meets several famous people including another producer and a critic, while getting rather inebriated herself. Her true personality and her persistent outgoing nature lead her to perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet in front of the partygoers, causing Sheridan to fall for her. However, she passes out in Easton's lap and, later, spends the night with him. The next morning, not realizing Sheridan's infatuation with her, Easton tells him what happened and asks him to help him get rid of his one night stand.
But, never fear, all will turn out O.K. in the end. A happy Hollywood ending using a "much duplicated since" plot vehicle will bring "us" what we all want.
When first we see her, she is wistfully admiring the paintings hung on the walls of a theater lobby of Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt etc.. She makes her way to the offices of a successful producer she'd heard of, Louis Easton (Adolphe Menjou). He is conspiring with his writer/friend Joseph Sheridan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) to get Rita Vernon (Mary Duncan), an actress they work with, to do a mediocre play and ultimately star in one of Sheridan's plays.
At the same time, in Easton's office reception area, Eva Lovelace (Hepburn) meets Hedges ( C. Aubrey Smith), a character actor who's also hoping to get a part in the play. Eva's "don't take no for an answer" appeal charms Hedges into "taking her on" as a student, for future payment, and her persistence also enables her to meet Easton and Sheridan.
After an indeterminate amount of time has passed, we learn that Eva got a chance to play a small part in an Easton production, did not do well, and is now literally a "starving artist" living in the streets. After a successful opening night of a different Easton play, Hedges finds Eva in a small coffee shop and insists on helping her home. However, since he was on his way to a party at Easton's place, he takes her there instead.
There she meets several famous people including another producer and a critic, while getting rather inebriated herself. Her true personality and her persistent outgoing nature lead her to perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet in front of the partygoers, causing Sheridan to fall for her. However, she passes out in Easton's lap and, later, spends the night with him. The next morning, not realizing Sheridan's infatuation with her, Easton tells him what happened and asks him to help him get rid of his one night stand.
But, never fear, all will turn out O.K. in the end. A happy Hollywood ending using a "much duplicated since" plot vehicle will bring "us" what we all want.