1939---GWTW Still the Winner--Vote for 1967 NOW!- Page 5

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 4:54pm

JB2---I can't believe you actually went!

I refused, when they tried to make them (even) 1.85:1 ratio in the '90s.

No way!

EDIT: Norma won once for "The Divorcee." And I never heard it was fixed. She was nominated plenty back then, and deserved it. She's the only actress to turn down the parts of Scarlett and Mrs. Miniver! She didn't think she was right for them. I agree.

The only other really bad Oscar year (that I know of) was 1934, when EVERYONE universally praised Bette Davis's performance in "Of Human Bondage" as re-inventing acting for the screen. She was a shoe-in to win the award that year... and then she didn't even get nominated! Jack Warner promised that if that ever happened again, he would pull out of the Academy for good... which would have sunk the Academy if Warner Bros. boycotted them.

So, Bette won the award the following year for an "okay" performance in "Dangerous." It was payback time, and Jack Warner was pissed!

Updated On: 11/22/06 at 04:54 PM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 4:57pm

If it said 70MM, I went. I've seen just about every film ever released in 70MM, even the blown-up ones! Most were worth it. In the case of GWTW, it wasn't. But, of course, that was before it was ever shown on television (which didn't happen until November of 1976), and certainly way before you could own it, so it was an opportunity to see it, at all! Everybody went!
Updated On: 11/22/06 at 04:57 PM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 4:58pm

But weren't Norma Shearer's wins fixed, too? She was married to Irving "Golden Boy" Thalberg, after all.

She got her roles because of him; but not her Oscars. He didn't run Hollywood, just MGM.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:03pm

*amazed*
You guys are a library of knowledge! I've got a lot to learn, it seems.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:04pm

It's kind of amazing the GWTW wasn't even shown on TV until '76. I'd forgotten that, but I remember the huge event, when they first showed it! Talk about must-see TV.

I remember when the Sound of Music was first shown on TV too. That was also a big deal.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:05pm

I remember when TITANIC was first shown on TV.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:07pm

I remember GWTW, because I was on my honeymoon!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:08pm

JohnBoy2: You were married in 1939? I pictured you younger.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:11pm

SM2--It's just been something I've grown up with. I've never taken a film history class in my life. I grew up with people around me in all aspects of the business. My grandfather went to the Oscars every year from the first ceremony until he retired from Warner Bros. in the mid-'50s. It was part of his life. My parents used to get on the phone with friends who had won the morning after their names were called out. It felt like I was "attached" to the movie business and the people in it, even growing up in Kansas! I had the opportunity to do the same thing myself a few years ago.

I just absorbed everything, saw plenty of movies because I wanted to (not because I felt I had to), talked to people in the business all the time, read books, and I work closely with people now who make movies and TV shows. It was just a natural progression for me, I guess.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 5:15pm

Well... this thread has totally made me want to go home and watch GWTW tonight. Great movie for a day like today.

[justme2]

Posted: 11/22/06 at 11:41pm

I'm more involved because of the restoration efforts and fight to get early movies on DVD before they all rot away. I've loved them since my teenage years, and I love the early movie timeframe for the guts the stories (both on and offscreen)had.

I didn't know anyone in the business, like Best12 (insert jealously here), but as I discovered each actor, actress or director throughout my "younger days", I would obsessively learn and read everything I could about them. Transfer that to college and actual film courses and work, and here I am still fighting for those silent and pre-code movies to be restored and transferred to DVD.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 3:19am

BTW: My pick for 1967 is BONNIE AND CLYDE. It was robbed (pun intended) big time! IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT was just the CRASH of its day. I also think that Faye Dunaway should've won for Best Actress.

Updated On: 11/23/06 at 03:19 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 5:29am

justme2---Did you (by any chance) work on the MoMA series of Edison films on DVD? I love those? KINO has released some terrific early films, also "The Movies Begin" box set with many wonderful pioneering filmmakers included.

Both are fascinating glimpses into the past, and regardless of your involvement in those particular DVDs, I bow respectfully before you and your efforts in film restoration and preservation! You're my hero!

I had a good, dear old friend in L.A. named Joe Wagstaff who passed away in 2001, in his late 90s. He starred in a few early musical films, "A Song of Kentucky" and "Let's Go Places," that are both sadly "lost" now. No print or negative is known to exist of either film. (I believe the negatives were destroyed in a big vault fire many years ago. The perils of celluloid!)

He showed me still photos and sheet music, partial scores, etc. I always wondered what they were like, and what Joe was like as a performer back then. He was George M. Cohen's protege, and also appeared as a juvenile lead in several Broadway shows. I don't think now I shall ever have the opportunity to see what he was like, because those films are not known to exist.

Your work is admirable, when it can help preserve the blood, sweat and tears of so many others that came before us!

*bows again respectfully*