Hollywood Studio Magazine (April 1971)

Take it from the top News notes on the Hollywood scene Oscar Day (and night) — April 15 For the Chinese, this may be the month of April in the year of The Boar, but for film-minded folk the world over, April is the month of the Oscar, as though you didn't know. What you may not have known, however, is that "Ben Hur", recently released on television, was the top Oscar-winning film of the fourth decade of Oscar awards, collecting 13 gold-plated statuettes in 10 out of 23 categories for MGM in 1959. If you're interested in numbers, store this collection of digits in your personal computer: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been handing out Oscars for 43 years, beginning with a quiet very "in" dinner party for 200 people at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, May 16, 1929, five months before the stock market crashed. Janet Gaynor won for three roles (Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, ad Sunrise). Emil Jannings won for two, and left for his native Germany before the banquet. Douglas Fairbanks handed out the awards (three went to Director William C. DeMille, Cecil B. DeMille's older brother) and the recorded time-lapse was four minutes, 22 seconds. The occasion was really in celebration of the second anniversary of the founding of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences — and all the films were silent. Janet Gaynor wept and thanked her co-workers, thus establishing a precedent unbroken in the "club's" 43 year history. Still on the subject of statistics, during the first decade, biggest collector of awards was a talkie "It Happened One Night" (released in 1934) which was voted five awards — Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert) — the only time both members of a co-starring team won Oscars — Best Directing (Frank Capra) and Best Writing (Robert Riskin) for his adaptation. A decade later, "Gone With The Wind" (MGM 1939) grabbed eight top honors, including "Best Picture of the Year". By this time lots of award-winning things had been added to film-making. In the beginning, there were 15 Oscars in 12 categories. A year later, there were only seven categories. In 1947, the Academy handed out 29 Oscars in 22 categories, where contributions seem to have stabilized. In 1970, there were 22. In 1971 there will be 22. But, in 1953 there were 23 categories and Columbia's "From Here to Eternity" took eight of them, including one to Frank Sinatra as Best Supporting Actor, and to Donna Reed, for Best Supporting Actress. A year later, with 24 categories to work with, "On the Waterfront", another Columbia release, provided the framework for eight awards, one to Marlon Brando as Best Actor. Nine years ago, in 1962, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins picked up a double award in the "Best Director" category and George C. Scott, nominated as a supporting actor, informed officials he wanted to decline the nomination. (He didn't win, anyway). In 1971, Robert Wise is producer-director of the Academy show. George C. Scott, nominated for his starring role in "Patton", informed officials he wanted to decline the nomination. Not so with Frank Sinatra. He's an official "Friend of Oscar", along with Bob Hope, who was never even nominated, newcomer Goldie Hawn, Jim Brown, Ricardo Montalban, Sally Kellerman, and others, who will give Oscars away on the night of April 15. Oh, well. Everybody needs some kind of distraction on the last day to file income tax returns. *** SOME BIG ONES NEVER MADE IT Add these names of non-Oscar winners to your collection of Academy trivia: Irene Dunne and Arthur Kennedy — five-time nominees, never winners. Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo, alltime greats who were finally given honorary awards. Four-time losers: Charles Boyer, Agnes Moorhead, Paul Newman, Peter O'Toole, Geraldine Page, Rosalind Russell, Barbara by Zelda Cini Stanwyck, Montgomery Clift and Claude Rains. Three-time losers: Kirk Douglas, Dame Edith Evans, Gladys Cooper, Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, Eleanor Parker, William Powell, Gloria Swanson, Natalie Wood, Clifton Webb and Charles Bickford. And how about these performers who were never nominated? Ida Lupino, Edward G. Robinson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Walker, John Barrymore, Laird Cregar, Boris Karloff! Or the fact that Judy Garland never made it either. For that matter, even after six nominations for each of them, neither did Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr or the late Thelma Ritter. And how's this for toppers — By 1967 there had been 39 Oscar presentations ceremonies. In only 14 of them did every winner show up to accept the honor. This may be partially due to the fatigue generated by the whole scene. Then there's that long walk down the aisle, that climbing the stairs to the stage, those words of gratitude — and return, clutching 872 pounds of gold-plated britinnium statuary, 1372" tall. *** UNIVERSAL LOVES LUCY- Lucille Ball and Jules Stein, Chairman of the Board of MCA Inc. Miss Ball's company has moved to Universal and her series will be filmed there beginning April 12. 5