Morning Glory (motion picture)

Morning Glory (motion picture), film about an aspiring actor, based on a play by Zoe Akins. Katharine Hepburn won an Academy Award for her performance as small-town Ada Love in this film, which was released in 1933. Hepburn’s career took off after her success in this movie. Love leaves her hometown for New York City, where she changes her name to Eva Lovelace and dreams of becoming a star. She gets work as an understudy, and when she fills in for the regular actor the first time, she performs wonderfully. She worries that her stardom will not last long and finds true love.

Director

• Lowell Sherman

Cast

• Katharine Hepburn (Ada Love, Eva Lovelace)
• Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (Joseph Sheridan)
• Adolphe Menjou (Louis Easton)
• Mary Duncan (Rita Vernon)
• C. Aubrey Smith (Robert Harley Hedges)
• Don Alvarado (Pepe Velez, the gigolo)
• Fred Santley (Will Seymour)
• Richard Carle (Henry Lawrence)
• Tyler Brooke (Charles Van Dusen)
• Geneva Mitchell (Gwendolyn Hall)
• Helen Ware (Nellie Navarre)
• Theresa Harris (Maid)
• Jed Prouty (Will Seymour)
• Robert Greig (Roberts)

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Actress (1932-1933): Katharine Hepburn

Quote

• Veteran actor Robert Harley Hedges (warning Lovelace about the fleeting nature of stardom): “Every year, in every theater, some young person makes a hit. Sometimes it's a big hit, sometimes a little one. It's a distinct success, but how many of them keep their heads? How many of them work? Youth comes to the fore. Youth has its hour of glory. But too often it's only a morning glory—a flower that fades before the sun is very high.”