Fun Fact: Entertainment is my passion. With that, I love movies. I love watching them. I love critiquing them. I love talking about them.
But another thing I love to do with movies is studying them; how they're made, the people involved, their inspirations, the time they were created in, looking at effects work, voiceover recordings, sound recordings, music recordings, editorial, and people in their makeup chairs waiting for hours on end to look good, aged, malnourished, bloated, or just not human. Basically whatever goes on behind-the-scenes, I find fascinating.
Another movie thing I love is the major appreciation of all the above that many movie people and buffs look forward to; the Academy Awards. I look forward to it every year, and they're one of the few things that I watch on TV nowadays.
And with that, there are a lot of good stories related to the prestigious award like did you know the 1980 Reagan assassination affected the Oscars? Or that George C. Scott won the 1970 Best Actor Award for "Patton" and refused it? Or Walt Disney winning a special award for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?"
These are the Top 10 Best Academy Award Stories
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To prepare for the 1959 Academy Awards telecast, producer Jerry Wald cut several numbers off the show intent on it running on time. Those changes, however, made Oscar night running short. Legendary comedian and co-host that night Jerry Lewis tried to fill in some improv comedy for time, but in the end the show still ended 20 minutes early. As a resort, NBC filled in the last 20 minutes with a rerun of a sports show.
Mary, Mary, Quite Unfair-y
When silent-screen star Mary Pickford attempted to branch out of her "little girl" image to play the reckless socialite Norma Besant in the 1929 sound film "Coquette", audiences understandably could not get with the program. They were just so used to "cute little girl" that everybody know her to be (isn't that the case today?). So everybody was baffled and angered when she won the Academy Award for the picture, many accusing her of using her status in the industry as a means to achieve an Award that she didn't deserve. What happened was that even though her performance was overall critically and publicly acclaimed, apart from being one of the founding members of the Academy, she lobbied sohard for the Oscar, even going so far as inviting the judges for tea at her Pickfair estate in Beverly Hills. Ever since then, the policies of voting nominees have been changed.
When Jack Told Julie to "go Fly a Kite"
This is the story of how Julie Andrews won an Oscar for Best Actress for the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins
Now for this story I really need to go to the very beginning, to when she was discovered, because the story would feel confusing without it. Before Julie came into the scene, the role of Mary Poppins was being considered for famous actresses such as Mary Martin or Bette Davis. But one day, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, the movie's songwriters were watching the Ed Sullivan in both their respective homes.
One of the acts Ed Sullivan presented that week was a number from the hit Broadway musical "Camelot" starring Richard Burton as King Arthur and a lovely English woman named Julie Andrews as Queen Guinevere. When the Sherman Brothers saw the act they called each other up, neither one of them realizing they were watching the same thing, and they both agreed they have found the perfect Mary Poppins! The next day, they went up to to Walt Disney's office. He wasn't there (which was good, because they didn't want to tell "him" they found the right Mary Poppins), so they went to Walt's secretary and ask her to buy Walt and his wife some tickets to see the show "Camelot" for their trip to New York.
After Walt saw the show, he went backstage to meet Julie. He asked her she wanted play the part of Mary Poppins. She initially refused for two reasons. First reason being that she was pregnant, and the second reason being that she lobbied hard to recreate her part of Eliza Doolittle for the movie version of the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady." However, she did say to Walt that in case she didn't get the part she love to do his film. Walt, being the gentleman politely replied, "We'll wait."
Enter Jack Warner, co-founder and CEO of Warner Bros..With Jack Warner, Julie's dreams of recreating her role just wouldn't be.Because Jack knew that as big a star Julie Andrews was on Broadway, she had zero movie experience. Since the cinema goers had never heard of Julie Andrews, he feared hiring her would hurt the film financially. So the part went to the dazzling, more familiar-to-the-public-eye Audrey Hepburn. So with that, Julie Andrews' first movie was Mary Poppins. And the result?........
Mary Poppins making more money than My Fair Lady, and Julie Andrews winning the Golden Globe and the Oscar while Audrey Hepburn only got as far as the Globe nomination!! Audrey got disqualified for the Oscar because most of her singing was dubbed while Julie had zero dubbing!! While My Fair Lady rack up 12 nominations with 8 wins including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, Mary Poppins still managed to win 5 of its 13 nominations, including Best Actress, Best Original Score, Best Song, and Best Special Effects.No other movie by Disney has ever garnered that many wins or nominations before or since. One of Mary Poppins' nominations that it ended up not getting was the coveted Best Picture nod, the only one Walt Disney ever got in his 4-decade career.
To end on a high note, I would also like to add the time when she accepted her Golden Globe for the role and saved a very special thanks to the one man who made it all possible for her......Mr. Jack Warner.
Jack told Julie to go fly a Kite, and how she flew that kite!
The Winning Streak........er!
In 1974, whether it was a publicity stunt from the producers or just random, a guy named Robert Opel came out of nowhere, behind David Niven, streaking!
Marlon 2: the Award He Had to Refuse
Having previously won the Best Actor category for On the Waterfront 18 years prior, Marlon Brando would snag another one for his iconic turn in the 1972 classic The Godfather. But this one had something different....He didn't show up.
Instead a Native American activist named Sacheen Littlefeather came on his behalf to explain why he couldn't be there that night. She stated that due to misrepresentation of Native American stereotypes that had been meld in the American media at that time and the recent incident at Wounded Knee, Marlon, who was active in the Indian Civil Rights Movement, could not accept such a generous offer. She originally had a 15 page speech but was told by the Academy that she would be physically forced off the stage or arrested if she went on for more than 60 seconds. So she improvised and told everybody that Marlon has graciously refused
Patton Slaps the Academy
One of the most infamous controversies in the history of the Academy Awards was when George C.Scott, who famously portrayed the colorful and controversial title character in the movie Patton, won the Best Actor Award for the role and BASHED IT TO BITS!
That's because he was opposed to most Awards shows. He didn't like the idea of competition with other actors and thought them as mere popularity contests. In referring to the Oscars, he famously quoted "the whole thing is a goddamned meat parade, and I don't want any part of it."
Side note: Funny thing, my dad said before that George refusing the Oscar cost him his career, but I don't know. I found out he did get nominated again after Patton (reluctantly I might add), and I learned that he was pretty uneasy being thought of as a celebrity. So in my opinion it might have felt pretty steady for him.
Reagan Bull
On March 31, 1981, the 53rd Academy Awards took place,
with Best Picture nominees The Elephant Man, Ordinary People, Tess, Coal Miner's Daughter and Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. It was originally going to take place the day before, but on that day at the Washington Hilton Hotel newly-elected President Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated by a man named John Hinckley Jr., whose attempt was merely a means to get attention from Jodie Foster, who he had obsessed over since she appeared in a previous Martin Scorsese film, Taxi Driver (and if you'd seen Taxi Driver you'll know the wrongness of that!).
When he heard that Jodie was going to enroll in Yale, he decided to move to New Haven, CT to slip letters and messages through her door and call her incessantly.
However, none of his contact with her went anywhere.
He started to think maybe something like airplane hijacking or attempting suicide would have her crawling to him. He then decided that if he had a place in history, Jodie Foster would finally accept him as an equal. And he thought "what's a good place in history? I know! Killing the President" He tried President Jimmy Carter, but he got arrested before he got a chance to shoot. After he failed to kill Reagan, he has since been receiving help in St. Elizabeth's Hospital. It is unknown if he is aware of Jodie Foster's coming out.
The assassination attempt's effect on the Oscars ceremony went a little more than just the postponement of one day. Out of fear of being attacked, Martin Scorsese, who was nominated Best Director that year for Raging Bull (and sadly, didn't win), left the ceremony with FBI bodyguards disguised as guests before the announcement of Best Picture (probably saved him the embarrassment, because Raging Bull unfortunately didn't win there either).
Breaking the Color Barrier
Speaking of Gone with the Wind, this movie became the first color movie to win Best Picture. But this isn't why I call this Breaking the Color Barrier. No, the answer to that is too obvious. It was said that while the cast of Gone with the Wind were sitting together in a table at the Cocoanut Grove the night of the Oscars, one of the supporting players Hattie McDaniel (who played the character Mammy in the movie) and her companion were sitting in the back right next to the kitchen door due to segregation laws of the time. But she made history that night when she became the first black person to not only be nominated but to also win an Academy Award.
Oscar Gold and the Seven Dwarves
When Walt Disney first told the world of his plan to make the first full-length animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1934, half of Hollywood screamed of laughter. For a time, it was known throughout the Land of Dreams as "Disney's Folly". At the time, nobody thought that people would want to sit through an 80 minute cartoon and everybody thought that a Technicolor film lasting longer than 7 minutes would hurt your eyes. People thought it was going to be a waste of time and money.
But during production, he used his Silly Symphony cartoons as springboards to enhance his artists' skills in storytelling, animation, music, color, technology, you name it.Finally, on December 21, 1937, the film had it's gala premiere at the Carthay Circle Theater. Many of the biggest names in Hollywood were there to wonder "What's Walt up to this time?" The reception was resounding, everybody in the theater reacted the way Walt wanted to in every scene. They laughed at the right moments, they screamed at the right moments, but it was when they cried that Walt knew he made a mine full of diamonds.
The film ended with a standing ovation that night.The receipts in the Box Office went through the roof, making 4 times its $1.5 million budget. It was the highest-grossing movie in the world until Gone with the Wind took over a couple years later. Even though the movie had only one nomination for Best Score in 1938, the following year child star Shirley Temple (on the right in picture) presented to Walt a Special Oscar honoring his achievement in making the first full-length animated motion picture; An Oscar accompanied with seven little ones.
Woody and Oscar Buzz
Woody Allen, one of the greatest comic minds of all time, also has the most Oscar wins and nominations in the Writing Category, winning for Annie Hall(which he also won Best Director), Hannah and her Sisters, and Midnight In Paris. And yet, he has never appeared to claim for any of those wins. That is because the Academy Awards literally mean nothing to him.
However, in 2002, he made his only appearance at the Oscars not to claim any award, but to make a speech. And the speech was to be about two things he holds very dear to his heart, New York and movies that took place in New York. Because this was shortly after 9/11, this one appearance that he had been striving to dodge was all worth it just to talk about New York and how it's still worth it to make movies there.