I spoke to Andrew Laszlo about his father, Andrew Laszlo Sr., about his career as a cinematographer of such movies as First Blood, Star Trek V, The Last Frontier, Streets of Fire, Southern Comfort, The Owl and the Pussy Cat and The Warriors and also the original series of Shogun.
We discussed the survival of his father during the Holocaust. The following passage was taken from Andrew’s Facebook page, “Footnote to History,” which is also the title of his father’s memoir:
“In March of 1945, When the Germans knew they were losing the war, they put my father and other prisoners on a train to Theresienstadt. No one knows for sure why, but the most likely reason was they thought the allies would go easier on them if they didn’t see 60,000 starving bodies. The Nazis played one last trick. They mounted machine guns on the train. Seeing the guns, Allied planes mistook the train for a troop transport and bombed it. My father and his friend, Frogface, broke open a door and headed for the forest. When they were running six feet apart, Frogface was hit with shrapnel and blown to pieces. My father survived again. After the bombing, he threw the machine guns off and painted Red Crosses on the roof. They arrived in Theresienstadt safely. He was placed in the Hannover Barracks. By the grace of God, he saw his father one last time at Theresienstadt before his father contracted Typhus and died. My father had survived Bergen-Belsen, but the horrors of Theresienstadt loomed ahead.”
Some of Andrew Laszlo, Sr‘s credits for television shows were Naked City, Sergeant Bilko, The Beatles at Shea Stadium, and the already mentioned Shogun. He was also there, saving the day with his ingenuity, when Ed Sullivan first interviewed Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba.
This is my interview with Andrew Laszlo.
Finally, this is some advice we should heed attention to.
It is hard to believe that Duck Soup was released 90 years ago today. It is an American pre-code musical black comedy film written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, with additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin, and directed by Leo McCarey. Released by Paramount Pictures on November 17, 1933, it stars the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo in his final film appearance).
Pre-Code Hollywood (1927–1934) was a short time in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929 and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known as the Hays Code, in mid-1934. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934.
The plot of the movie:Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx)is named the dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of his wealthy backer Mrs. Teasdale, contending with two inept spies who can’t seem to keep straight as to which side they’re on.
Duck Soup is known for it hilarious quotes, and the humor is still as fresh today as it was 90 years ago.
These are just a few
(Louis Calhern) “I am willing to do anything to prevent this war.” (Groucho Marx) “It’s too late. I’ve already paid a month’s rent on the battlefield.
(Raquel Torres) “Oh, your Excellency, isn’t there something I can do?” (Groucho Marx) “Yes, but I’ll talk to you about that later.”
(Margaret Dumont) “I’ve sponsored your appointment because I feel you are the most able statesman in all Freedonia.” (Groucho Marx) “Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. You better beat it; I hear they’re going to tear you down and put up an office building where you’re standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can’t get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that’s too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven’t stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.”
(Margaret Dumont) “The future of Freedonia rest on you. Promise me you’ll follow in the footsteps of my husband.” (Groucho Marx) “How do you like that? I haven’t been on the job five minutes and already she’s making advances to me.”
(Groucho Marx) “Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you: he really is an idiot.”
(Louis Calhern) “I didn’t come here to be insulted.” (Groucho Marx) “That’s what you think.”
(Louis Calhern) “Chicolini, your partner has deserted you but I’m still counting on you. There is a machine gun nest near Hill 28. I want it cleaned out.” (Chico Marx) “All right, I’ll tell the janitor.”
(Groucho Marx) “Not that I care, but where is your husband?” (Margaret Dumont) “Why, he’s dead.” (Groucho Marx) “I bet he’s just using that as an excuse.” (Margaret Dumont) “I was with him to the very end.” (Groucho Marx) “No wonder he passed away.” (Margaret Dumont) “I held him in my arms and kissed him.” (Groucho Marx) “Oh, I see, then it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.” (Margaret Dumont) “He left me his entire fortune.” (Groucho Marx) “Is that so? Can’t you see what I’m trying to tell you? I love you.” (Groucho Marx) “I’ll see my lawyer about this as soon as he graduates from law school.”
On November 27 1936, the movie ‘Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor’ was released. The movie has brought me quite a bit of childhood trauma. It was used to facilitate a lie. I was told that if I would follow the diet of Popeye I too would get his superhuman powers. But I never did .
Ok, joking aside who wasn’t told that if you would eat spinach you’d become as strong as Popeye?
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a 1936 two-reel animated cartoon short subject film in the Popeye Color Feature series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936 by Paramount Pictures.[3] It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Dave Fleischer, with the title song by Sammy Timberg. The voice cast includes Jack Mercer as Popeye and J. Wellington Wimpy, Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Gus Wickie as Sindbad the Sailor.
In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
This short was the first of the three Popeye Color Specials, which, at over sixteen minutes each, were billed as “A Popeye Feature.” It was also the first Popeye color cartoon in general. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was nominated for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, but lost to Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony The Country Cousin. Footage from this short was later used in the 1952 Famous Studios Popeye cartoon Big Bad Sindbad, in which Popeye relates the story of his encounter with Sindbad to his 3 nephews.
The Popeye Color Specials, also including Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves, and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (both of which were also adapted from a story featured in One Thousand and One Nights) are in the public domain, and are widely available on home video and DVD, often transferred from poor quality, old, faded prints. A fully restored version with the original Paramount mountain logo opening and closing titles is available on the Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1 DVD set from Warner Bros.
Producer and special effects artist Ray Harryhausen stated in his Fantasy Film Scrapbook that Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was a major influence on his production of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
In 1994, the film was voted #17 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked Fleischer Studios cartoon in the book.
I watched All Quiet on the Western Front, last night. I thought that November 11 would be the perfect date to watch a World War I movie. It is a very powerful retelling of the story. Although I thoroughly liked the movie, this is not going to be a review of it, suffice to say I do recommend it.
This post is going to be about the man who wrote the book, Im Westen nichts Neues, which was translated into English as All Quiet on the Western front Erich Maria Remarque was born as Erich Paul Remark, his life was everything but quiet. it is also a reflection of how little regard the Nazis had for their World War I heroes.
Remarque was born on June 22nd, 1898, in Westphalia. After a local school and university education, he was drafted aged 18 and sent to Flanders on June 12, 1917.
Remarque was wounded five times within a month of being on the western front, the last during the third battle of Ypres. He began writing in a military hospital about his experiences, supplementing them with stories of fellow injured soldiers.
Remarque was the third of four children of Peter and Anna. His siblings were his older sister Erna, older brother Theodor Arthur (who died in early childhood), and younger sister Elfriede. The spelling of his last name was changed to Remarque when he published All Quiet on the Western Front in honor of his French ancestors and to dissociate himself from his earlier novel Die Traumbude (which he started writing at the age of sixteen and completed, but it was not published, until 1920). His grandfather had changed the spelling from Remarque to Remark in the 19th century.
In 1929, Remarque scored his greatest success with All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel, a lasting tribute to Germany’s “lost generation” that perished in the Great War, became an immediate international bestseller. In Germany alone in 1929, the book sold almost one million copies. It was translated into more than a dozen languages, including English, Chinese, and Dutch.
All Quiet on the Western Front earned Remarque accolades generally from the liberal and leftist press for the work’s pacifist stance. The Nazis and conservative nationalists immediately called it an assault on Germany’s honor, a piece of Marxist propaganda, and the work of a traitor.
That same year, German-born Hollywood producer Carl Laemmle, acquired the rights to make a film of the book. In May 1930, the American film premiered in Los Angeles and won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. That summer, audiences in France, Britain, and Belgium flocked to the film and it received popular acclaim.
Nearly immediately the Hollywood-made movie ran into trouble in Germany. When it was proposed for showing, a representative of the German Ministry of Defense demanded that its screening be rejected on the grounds that it damaged the country’s image and shed a bad light on the German military. In response, the Berlin censorship office requested Laemmle to edit the film, which was done. Remarque’s former boss, the press and film magnate, and outspoken German nationalist, Alfred Hugenberg, indicated that because of the movie’s alleged anti-German bias it would not be shown in any of his theaters. He subsequently petitioned German president, Paul von Hindenburg, to ban the film.
In December 1930, when the edited and dubbed version of the film was shown to the general public in Berlin, the Nazis sabotaged the event. The Party’s leader in Berlin and its propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, organized a riot to disrupt the showing. Outside, SA Stormtroopers intimidated moviegoers, while inside they released stink bombs and mice and harangued the audience. At subsequent showings, the Nazis carried out violent protests. In response to these actions and conservative attacks on the film, the government banned the film. Liberals and socialists condemned the action, but the prohibition lasted until September 1931, when Laemmle produced a more censored version for German audiences.
Remarque left Germany for Switzerland in 1932.
Once in power, Goebbels banned all Remarque’s works, stripped him of his citizenship, and let his Nazi rumor mill claim the author’s birth name, Remark (his grandfather dropped the French spelling), was a reversal of his real, Jewish, name: Kramer. On May 10, 1933, pro-Nazi students consigned his works to the flames during the fiery book-burning spectacles staged throughout the country. Remarque’s writing was publicly declared as unpatriotic and was banned in Germany. Copies were removed from all libraries and restricted from being sold or published anywhere in the country. The 1930s version of cancel culture.
In 1943, the Nazis arrested his youngest sister, German: Elfriede Scholz, who had stayed behind in Germany with her husband and two children. After a trial at the notorious Volksgerichtshof (Hitler’s extra-constitutional “People’s Court”), she was found guilty of “undermining morale” for stating that she considered the war lost. Court President Roland Freisler declared, “Ihr Bruder ist uns leider entwischt—Sie aber werden uns nicht entwischen” (“Your brother is unfortunately beyond our reach – you, however, will not escape us.”) Elfriede was beheaded on 16 December 1943. The bill of 495.80 Reichsmarks was sent to her surviving sister, Erna. Remarque later said that his sister had been involved in anti-Nazi resistance activities.
In exile, Remarque was unaware of his sister Elfriede’s fate until after the war. He would dedicate his 1952 novel Spark of Life (Der Funke Leben) to her. The dedication was omitted in the German version of the book, reportedly because he was still seen as a traitor by some Germans
In 1944, Remarque wrote a report for America’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the country’s foreign intelligence organization and the forerunner to today’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In it, he urged the Allies to adopt a systematic policy for re-educating the German population after the war. Germans, he believed, had to be exposed to Nazi crimes and evils of militarism.
When you watch the movie, and I hope you will, or read the book then please remember it is not just a bit of cultural history, but also something that is still current. That hate has never left, it just came back in different configurations.
(Many thanks to John Davis for pointing out the story to me, and Jackie Frant for doing some research on it)
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
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To be honest, I was never a great fan of Charlie Chaplin. I was always more of a fan of the Laurel and Hardy-type of humour. I find that Charlie Chaplin’s movies are quite dated when compared to the aforementioned, Laurel and Hardy films.
However, there is one notable exception. There has been one Chaplin movie that has stood the test of time. That movie, of course, is The Great Dictator, released on 15 October 1940. It is as relevant now as it was in 1940.
The film is a satire of Adolf Hitler, played by the main character Adenoid Hynkel. The story is based on Hynkel, a Jewish barber looking exactly like Hitler, and is played by Charlie Chaplin. It begins with a notice: “Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely coincidental.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script and began filming in September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had submitted to using spoken dialogue (it was his first talkie movie), partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice but also because he recognized it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin’s financial independence allowed him to take the risk. “I was determined to go ahead,” he later wrote, “for Hitler must be laughed at.” Chaplin replaced his Tramp character (while wearing similar attire) with “A Jewish Barber,” a reference to the Nazi Party’s belief that he was Jewish.
Adolf Hitler banned the film in Germany and all countries occupied by the Nazis. Curiosity got the better of him, and he had a copy brought in through Portugal. Historical records show that he screened it twice, in private, but records did not reveal his reaction to the film. Charlie Chaplin said, “I’d give anything to know what he thought of it.” For political reasons in Germany, the ban stayed even after the end of World War II and was lifted in 1958.
By the time Chaplin made The Great Dictator, he had long despised the Nazis and vice versa. A German propaganda film denounced him as one of “the foreign Jews who come to Germany,” never mind that he wasn’t Jewish—while the US press nicknamed him “The 20th-Century Moses,” because he funded the escape of thousands of Jewish refugees. When he started work on the film originally titled The Dictator, he was “a man on a mission,” according to Simon Louvish, the author of Chaplin: The Tramp’s Odyssey. “Some of his contemporaries, like Laurel and Hardy, just wanted to make funny movies and money. But Chaplin was very serious about what he wanted to say. The Great Dictator wasn’t just a film—it was something that was required.”
Chaplin was motivated by more than humanitarianism. He was also fascinated by his eerie connections to Hitler, who was born only four days after Chaplin in April 1889. A comic song about the Führer, recorded by Tommy Handley in 1939, was titled, “Who Is That Man…? (Who Looks Like Charlie Chaplin). There is, of course, also the moustache. Rumours that Hitler copied Chaplin’s moustache were not true. The so-called toothbrush moustache was prevalent at the time, and not surprising that it lost its popularity after World War II.
Hitler wasn’t the only dictator parodied in the movies. A character named, Napaloni, played by Jack Oakie was a satire on Mussolini.
Unlike Adolf Hitler and later dictators, Chaplin’s Adenoid Hynkel atoned and redeemed himself, and the speech at the end of the movie is still a powerful message which should be listened to today.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone—if possible—Jew, Gentile, black man, or white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness—not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world, there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, and has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in from the world. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness was hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…
The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cry out for the goodness in men—cries for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now, my voice is reaching millions throughout the world—millions of despairing men, women, and little children—victims of a system that makes men torture and imprisons innocent people.
To those who can hear me, I say—do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed—the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish…
Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes—men who despise you—enslave you—who regiment your lives—tell you what to do—what to think and what to feel! Who drill you—diet you—treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate—the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!
In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: ‘the Kingdom of God is within man,’ not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power—the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then—in the name of democracy—let us use that power—let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world—a decent world that will give men a chance to work—that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world – to do away with national barriers—to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!”
I don’t think there is one person on the planet who doesn’t know what Hollywood is, or what cultural significance it has. It is a place where dreams are turned into reality, and reality turned into dreams, sometimes nightmares.
This is just a pictorial blog about that place we all love and sometimes hate, or rather what is produced there The most visible symbol of the district is the Hollywood sign that overlooks the area. First built in 1923 (a new sign was erected in 1978), the sign originally said “Hollywoodland” (to advertise new homes being developed in the area), but the sign fell into disrepair, and the “land” section was removed in the 1940s when the sign was refurbished.
Greta Garbo and the Dubliner Cairbre, he was the first lion used by MGM, and was born in Dublin Zoo.
Judy Garland on the set of the Wizard of Oz
D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks founders of United Artists.
George Reeves as Superman
On the darker side of the entertainment business, The Hollywood Ten were a part of an industry-wide blacklisting of individuals thought to be connected to or involved with the Community Party.
Psycho
Born to be wild-The filming of Easy Rider
In a galaxy far, far away-Star Wars
We are going to need a bigger boat, and probably cinema-Jaws the first block buster.
Currently, I am reading a book titled, Animation under the Swastika—A History of Trickfilm in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945. It is the history of how Hitler and Göbbels attempted to compete with Hollywood, especially Disney.
A whole chapter in the book is devoted to the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Evidently, it was Hitler’s favourite movie despite the Nazis never achieving to get the film released in Germany. Only a few people, including Hitler and Göbbels, saw the movie and had copies.
In the 1930s, the Nazi regime dubbed foreign media to control anything negative from abroad, as would be the case for Snow White. In the late 1930s, the animated film was voice-over by German-speaking actors. The movie had not been released during World War II. The nationwide release of the dubbed version was in February 1950.
One sad thing about this is that most of the voice actors were Jewish and did not survive the Holocaust.
The 1938 News Report only mention some names of the cast. The only voice credited for her role is Hortense Raky as Snow White. Two other female actors mentioned were Dora Gerson and a New Lady Star. Seeing her age, Dora Gerson must have been the voice-over for the Evil Queen (and maybe the Witch), while the new female star was certainly the singing voice of Snow White.
Most of the original 1938 cast were Jews, and were murdered by the Nazis: Dora Gerson died on 14 February 1943, murdered with her family at Auschwitz. Otto Wallburg also died in Auschwitz on 30 October 1944. Kurt Lilien died on 28 May 1943, at Sobibor Extermination Camp. Finally, Kurt Gerron, the Dubbing Director, died on 28 October 1944 at Auschwitz. Kurt was coerced into directing a Nazi propaganda documentary intended to be viewed in “neutral” nations about Theresienstadt. However, once the movie was finished, he, his wife and the crew members of the documentary were deported on the camp’s final train transport to Auschwitz.
I am always intrigued by “What if ?” scenarios, like what if Columbus had taken another route to India? Or what if JFK had not been in Dallas that day?
What intrigues me most of all is the question, “What if the Nazis would have won the war?” or alternatively “What if Hitler would have been killed sooner?” I am not the only one who ponders these questions. There have been many authors and filmmakers who had the same idea and put those ideas on paper and in film. I am only selecting a few for this blog.
The picture above is from the 1965 film “It Happened Here.”
It is the Second World War. The Nazis invaded Britain. There is a split between the resistance and those who prefer to collaborate with the invaders for a quiet life. The protagonist, a nurse, is caught in the middle. Following the British army’s retreat at Dunkirk, England has been invaded and conquered by Nazi Germany. Irish nurse Barbara Murray comes to London as part of a civilian evacuation forced by American resistance forces massing off the coast of Ireland. She finds that in order to get a job as a nurse her only choice is to join the pro-Nazi civilian organization known as Immediate Action, which she does even though she is avowedly non-political. However, once on the job, she is faced with complicity in a number of disturbing acts being conducted by Immediate Action.
“Fatherland” is a 1994 TV film written by Stanley Weiser and Ron Hutchinson and directed by Christopher Menaul as an adaptation of the 1992 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. The film was produced by HBO and starred Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson.
In a world where the Nazis won World War II, Germany corralled all European countries into a single state called “Germania” and continues fighting against the Soviet Union. It is now 1964 and Germany’s war crimes against the Jews have so far been kept a secret. Germany believes that an alliance with the United States would finally beat the Soviet war machine. As his 75th birthday approached, Adolf Hitler wants to talk about peace with President Joseph Kennedy. An S.S. homicide detective and an American journalist stumble into a plot to destroy all evidence of the genocide; evidence that could destroy the peace process with America and evidence that Nazi and S.S. leaders will stop at nothing to keep hidden.
“Inglourious Basterds” is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany’s leadership—one planned by Shosanna Dreyfus, a young French Jewish cinema proprietor, and the other by the British but ultimately conducted solely by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Christoph Waltz co-stars in the role of Hans Landa, an SS colonel in charge of tracking down Raine’s group.
“Strange Holiday” is a 1945 American movie directed by Arch Oboler. Claude Rains is featured as a man who returns from a fishing vacation to find America controlled by fascists. Businessman John Stevenson returns from a camping holiday in the mountains to discover the whole of America has been taken over by foreign invaders. His family has been taken away and he is thrown into prison and must come to terms with the new USA.
So if you are ever bored I would recommend you look up these movies and watch them.
The highlight of the year for the movie industry is without a doubt, or at least it used to be. But when did it all start?
In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was established by Louis B. Mayer, the founder of the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, which then would be joined into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Mayer’s purpose in creating the award was to unite the five branches of the film industry, actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers. However it would take until 1929 before the first ceremony was held.
The first Academy Awards ceremony, held on May 16, 1929, was more like a corporate banquet than the star-studded spectacular we expect today. (It merited only a tiny, two-paragraph notice in The Times.) The location was the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, with roughly 270 people plunking down $5 per ticket. “It was just a family affair,” Janet Gaynor, winner of the first Academy Award for best actress, told The Times in 1982.
“I remember there was an orchestra, and as you danced, you saw most of the important people in Hollywood whirling past you on the dance floor. It was more like a private party than a big public ceremony.”
Douglas Fairbanks, the M.C. of the evening, handed out all 15 statues. Only five performers were nominated, and just two of them — Gaynor and Louise Dresser — were in attendance, as Gloria Swanson and Richard Barthelmess were traveling. Emil Jannings, the best actor winner, had returned to his native Germany, though he asked for, and received, his award before he left.
At the time of the first Oscar ceremony, sound had just been introduced into film. The Warner Bros. movie The Jazz Singer—one of the first “talkies”—was not allowed to compete for Best Picture because the Academy decided it was unfair to let movies with sound compete with silent films.
The distribution of the awards, by most accounts, clocked in at about 15 minutes.
The first official Best Picture winner was Wings, directed by William Wellman. The most expensive movie of its time, with a budget of $2 million, the movie told the story of two World War I pilots who fall for the same woman. Another film, F.W. Murnau’s epic Sunrise, was considered a dual winner for the best film of the year. German actor Emil Jannings won the Best Actor honor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh, while 22-year-old Janet Gaynor was the only female winner. After receiving three out of the five Best Actress nods, she won for all three roles, in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise.Back then, actors and actresses could win for more than one performance.
The Academy officially adopted the name “Oscar” for the trophies in 1939. However, the origin of the nickname is disputed.
One biography of Bette Davis, who was a president of the Academy in 1941, claims she named the award after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson. A frequently mentioned originator is Margaret Herrick, the Academy executive director, who, when she first saw the award in 1931, said the statuette reminded her of “Uncle Oscar”, a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce.
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
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Generally I write mostly about the Holocaust and World War 2. However every now and then, when I see something utterly ridiculous , I just feel compelled to voice my opinion.
It will not have escaped anyone by now that there has been a bit of an issue at the Oscars. Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, after stand up comedian Chris had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith’s current wife.
One might think that this came out of the blue, but it didn’t. In 2016 Chris Rock had made jokes about Jada Pinkett Smith at the Oscars. This was in relation to Jada and Will threatening to boycott the Oscars that year in support of #OscarsSoWhite. Which was started by April Reign. She created the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite on January 15, 2015 to call attention to inequality in Hollywood and the lack of representation of people of color in the 87th Academy Awards nominations.
To put it in context in 2016 Jada was in de TV Show Gotham. She has appeared in 2 movies in 2015 and 2016. “Magic Mike XXL” rated 5.6 out of 10 on IMDB and “Bad Moms” rated 6.2 IMDB. Prior to that she had appeared in Madagascar 3 and Madly Madagascar, she had also an uncredited part in Men in Black 3, which starred her husband Will Smith, as far as I am aware he did not slap anyone in that movie for not giving Jada a credit.
Basically Jada had appeared in 2 exceptionally bad movies, and was in a TV show. It was her choice of movies that didn’t get her an Oscar nominations.
Chris Rock had this to say at the 2016 Oscars about the #OscarSoWhite boycott.
“What happened this year? People went nuts. Spike [Lee] got mad. Jada went mad. Will went mad. Everyone went mad, Jada said she’s not coming. I was like, ‘Isn’t she on a TV show?’ Jada’s gonna boycott the Oscars? Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”
Rock continued, “Her man Will was not nominated for ‘Concussion.’ I get it. You get mad. It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. You’re right. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for ‘Wild Wild West.'”
It was funny, witty, entertaining and above everything else, true.
Fast forward to March 27,2022. Will Smith was nominated for best Actor, one of the most important Oscars. Not only was he nominated he actually won it for, “King Richard” a sports drama film , about the life of Richard Williams, the father and coach of famed tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.
The thing Jada and Will had campaigned for, equality for African American actors was finally achieved. However instead of celebrating this as a highlight, Will Smith decided to slap Chris Rock on stage, for telling a harmless GI Jane joke. A joke Will had even laughed about himself, it was only after his wife gave an angry stare he decided to attack Chris Rock.
Personally I believe that Will Smith should not have been given the Oscar, he only received it after the altercation with Chris Rock.
I always liked Will Smith, I believe he should have received the Oscar for “I am Legend”. However the last few years he has been too busy promoting himself and his family a bit too much. Movies starring his son “After Earth” and “Karate Kid” both produced by Will Smith, flopped at the box office and rightfully so because they were awful movies.
I hope the Academy will learn from this incident, and leave political motivation out of the nominations. Filmmakers should be judged on the merits of their talents and not the color of their skin or their sexual orientation.
The movie industry was manipulated by politics before during the McCarthy era. It took great actors like Kirk Douglas to break that manipulation.
History of Sorts 
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