Winning Oscars buying selling auctioning Academy Awards

Auctioning Academy Awards, Buying and Selling

Those who collect them
Those who buy them just to return them to
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In December 2002, Steven Spielberg paid $180,000, not including fees and

Steven Spielberg
Autographed Oscar
8x10 Color Photo

taxes, for Bette Davis' Best Actress Oscar for the 1935 movie Dangerous. It was auctioned by Sotheby's in New York. 

In 2001, Spielberg had paid $578,000 for the Oscar Davis won for the 1938 movie Jezebel. The director/producer is one of a handful of people who are buying up Oscars and giving them to the academy.

In 1996 Clark Gable's Best Actor Oscar for 1934's It Happened One Night sold for $607,500.

Clark Gable's son and only heir, John Clark Gable put the Oscar up for auction at Christie’s in Los Angeles. 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had sued to keep Gable's Oscar off the auction block. Both Christie's and Gable's son were defendants in the case.

Apparently the academy claimed that, two years before his death in 1960, Gable signed a standard contract giving it first right to buy the statuette if it was ever sold. Christie's claimed the signature on the agreement was a fake.

In 1955 a magazine claimed that Gable had given the Oscar to the son of director, Walter Lang. Lang was married to former actress, Madalynne Field. Also known as Fieldsie, she was private secretary and good friend to Carole Lombard. Lang and Field met when he directed Lombard in the 1936 film, Love Before Breakfast.

1955 Clipping claiming Clark Gable had given his Oscar
to the son of director Walter Lang

  Turns out that this was, to my knowledge at least, the first Oscar purchased by Mr. Spielberg and returned to the academy.

"I could think of no better sanctuary for Gable's only Oscar than the Motion Picture Academy," Spielberg said in a statement. "The Oscar statuette is the most personal recognition of good work our industry can ever bestow, and it strikes me as a sad sign of our times that this icon could be confused with a commercial treasure."





September 2001, George Stoll's Best Score Oscar (received for the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh) was offered in an estate sale at the Butterfields auction house. The award brought seven times more than expected at $156,875.  The actor Kevin Spacey was revealed as the anonymous buyer. He subsequently returned it to the Academy. 

In 1992 Harold Russell sold his Best Supporting Actor statuette from The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) for $50,000. Not a professional actor, he was able to portray a version of his own story in the film, a World War II veteran who comes home a double amputee. After making the film, he got a business degree from Boston University and became an ardent advocate for the disabled.

Mr. Russell said he needed the money to pay his wife's medical bills and other expenses. He's quoted as saying, "I don't know why anybody would be critical. My wife's health is much more important than sentimental reasons. The movie will be here, even if Oscar isn't." 

Russell received an honorary Oscar as well for being an inspiration for disabled war veterans throughout the U.S. "To Harold Russell for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in "he Best Years of Our Lives." This made him the first (and only) actor to receive two Oscars for the same role.

It's reported that agent Lew Wasserman bought Russell's statuette and donated it back to the academy.

Take the case of the Joseph Schildkraut Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Life of Emile Zola, 1937. His Oscar was in the early days when supporting actor awards were still plaques. In a 2007 auction it failed to reach its minimum bid and didn't sell. But in 2013 the Oscar sold for $92,866.

This is the only instance I found where a performer or craftsperson sold his or her own award. There are instances where people have donated or said to have gifted them.




In December 1993, the Oscar won by actress Vivien Leigh for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind was sold at auction for $510,000. The award was sold by her family. Ms. Leigh also won a Best Actress Oscar at the 24th Annual Academy Awards in 1952 for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

In 1970 Let It Be won the Oscar for Best Original Score presented to The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr). It's from their documentary film of the same name. 

In 1976, John Lennon donated his Oscar statuette to the Southbury Training School in Southbuy, CT for "a celebrity auction for retarded people," and it brought $600. It was sold again at a 1992 auction bringing $110,000 from an anonymous Beatles fan.

The best actress Oscar won by Joan Crawford for her role in classic film Mildred Pierce sold at auction on two occasions. Ms. Crawford's daughter Cathy sold it in 1993 at a Christie's auction for $68,500 to an anonymous bidder. In September 2012 it was sold at auction again for $426,732.

8 Academy Award Winners Signed 8x10 Photo (PSA/DNA) LOA- Audrey Hepburn, Denzel Washington, James Stewart, Gene Kelly, Sally Field +

Magician David Copperfield spent close to a quarter of a million dollars for Michael Curtiz's Best Director Oscar for Casablanca (1943). Copperfield was unsuccessful in securing Welles' Oscar as co-writer for Citizen Kane.

Michael Jackson paid $1.54m at auction in 1999 for the Best Film (then called Outstanding Production) Oscar awarded to producer David O Selznick for Gone With The Wind.

In February 2012 a record 15 Oscars were auctioned off just days after the Academy Awards took place. The statuettes were all awarded prior to 1950.

"The academy, its members and the many film artists and craftspeople who've won Academy Awards believe strongly that Oscars should be won, not purchased," said academy spokeswoman Janet Hill in a statement. "Unfortunately, because our winners agreement wasn't instituted until 1950, we don't have any legal means of stopping the commoditization of these particular statuettes."





Of the 15 auctioned together, the Oscar bringing in the most money was $588,000 for Citizen Kane Best Original Screenplay Oscar received by Herman J. Mankiewicz which he shared with Orson Welles as co-writer.  

"Also up for grabs were How Green Was My Valley's best picture Oscar from 1941, which went for $274,520 and Cavalcade's 1933 gong for the same prize, which brought in $332,165. 

"The oldest of the Oscars on sale, Skippy's best picture statuette from 1931, fetched $301,973. 

"Two acting statuettes, Ronald Colman's 1947 best actor prize for A Double Life and Charles Coburn's historic supporting award for 1943's The More The Merrier – the first year that supporting actors were honored with their own prize – took $206,250 and $170,459 respectively."
-- The Guardian February 2012




Jaws was nominated for Best Picture. Watching the nomination, Spielberg is disappointed that he's not nominated for Best Directing. "The shark was an actress," he jokes, as if the shark might be eligible for that category. 

They note that Jaws is one of the few films to be nominated for Best Picture but not in other major categories of directing, acting, or writing. The 48th Academy Awards were presented March 29, 1976.

That year the winner was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz. Other fantastic films in the category of Best Picture were Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville and Barry Lyndon.

Some may remember the old Jack Benny radio show, It's still available in MP3 podcast form. Ronald Colman was one of Jack Benny's neighbors. A series of shows dealt with Benny's borrowing Colman's Oscar.

In 2002 Ronald Colman's Academy Award sold for $174,500. Also auctioned was a special brass Oscar box. It was inscribed, "To Ronald Colman/With The Affection and Esteem/Of His Fellow Actors/The Masquers/First Annual Dinner to the Winner/April 28, 1948," per Christie's Auction description of a Colman estate sale in 2002.

FYI: In the early years of the academy winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded plaques. After 1943, winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded Oscar statuettes similar to those awarded to winners in all other categories, including the leading acting categories. Have any of these fifteen Oscars been donated back to the academy? I haven't heard yet.

Mr. Copperfield is among a large group of fans who believe that the statuettes are to be respected as important pieces of movie memorabilia by collectors. This controversy is unlikely to end as the heirs of those who won the awards before 1950 are still legally allowed to do what they will with the statuettes. 

How do you feel about owning an Oscar or an Emmy Award as a piece of movie memorabilia like one of James Bond's cars or Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz?

"Since the Academy Awards were first presented in 1929, there have been famous instances of lost or stolen Oscars. Margaret O'Brien's 1945 award for outstanding child acting disappeared from her home, only to be found 50 years later at a Pasadena flea market and returned to her."

The academy is in the process of building a museum. Some winners have their awards on display where fans can see them. I read that you can view movie memorabilia at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery Geyserville, CA, and that includes Mr. Coppola's Academy Awards. Similarly if you visit the Raymond Burr Vineyards in Healdsburg, CA you may be able to see his Emmy Awards.





In 1950, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences passed a rule prohibiting Academy Award winners or their heirs from selling a statue without first offering it back to the Academy for a price of $1.

"Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00. This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest."
-- excerpted from the Academy Rules and Regulations

Related Pages of Interest

The Travels of Orson Welles' Academy Award for Citizen Kane

Entertainment Memorabilia Auctioning, Collecting: Recent; Updates

Film characters with prosthetic hands: Character and Disability in film
Clark Gable marries Kay Williams July 1955

Carole Lombard and William Powell; mentions Lombard's secretary Fieldsie, Madalynne Field

Sources:

Los Angeles Times
New York Times
New York Daily News
The Victoria Advocate
NateSanders.com
Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009

All information is researched and deemed accurate. Please send corrections and updates if you have them with sources.

Bette Davis Ray Charles and Alfred Hitchcock-Paul Henreid Directs

A Direct Line to Paul Henreid

Now, Voyager Poster Movie Spanish
Bette Davis Gladys Cooper
Claude Rains Paul Henreid

Paul Henreid's birthday is January tenth. He was born January 10, 1908. Maybe best known for his roles in movies like Casablanca, Now Voyager, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Deception, Between Two Worlds and The Spanish Main, there's a lot more to his career than what he did in front of the camera.

You can celebrate by watching some of the films and TV shows that he directed.

He was one of a group of stars who went to Washington protesting the excesses of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 

Mr. Henreid divulges in Ladies' Man: his autobiography, that his career was nearly destroyed by the anti-Communist blacklist.

He began another career directing films and television in the early 1950s. 

One of the films he directed is Dead Ringer (1964) starring Bette Davis. This was the second time Davis played twin sisters. The first was A Stolen Life in 1946.

Dead Ringer Movie poster (1964)
(Bette Davis)(Karl Malden)(Peter Lawford)(Philip Carey)(Jean Hagen)

It's never a good idea to murder your sister and try to take her place. Bad karma to say the least.

Dead Ringer Movie Poster (1964)
Bette Davis and a dog who knows something

Dead Ringer also stars Karl Malden, Peter Lawford, Philip Carey, Jean Hagen, George Macready, Estelle Winwood and George Chandler. The director's daughter, Monika had a minor role in the film as well.

Davis famously references her famous What a dump line from Beyond the Forest in Dead Ringer. 



This was filmed at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The same family owns the Doheny Mansion where many films and television shows have been shot at this location including Spiderman and X-Men movies. Thanks to an anonymous commenter for this clarification.

The final film he directed was Ballad in Blue in 1964. The movie starred Ray Charles. While on tour in London, Charles visits a school for the blind and in the process befriends an eight-year-old fatherless blind boy named David. The movie is available to stream, rent or buy on DVD.

Others in the cast included Tom Bell, Mary Peach, Dawn Addams and young Piers Bishop as David. The Raelettes played themselves.

Ballad in Blue Original British Lobby Card
Ray Charles, Bumper Cars at Fun Fair

Ray Charles gives live renditions of his hit R&B songs including I Gotta Woman, What'd I Say, Hit The Road Jack, Hallelujah I Love Her So, and Let The Good Times Roll.

Ballad in Blue Lobby Cards

  At least one song, Light out of darkness, was written for the film.

Maybe you've seen Jamie Foxx in the biopic Ray and you've seen Charles himself in movies like The Blues Brothers? Well if you haven't seen it yet, you ought to see this one, too. That's what he'd say.

Paul Henreid and Burt Lancaster Original 8x10" Photo
Rope of Sand, proving to Mr. Hitchcock that Paul could be eerie

Alfred Hitchcock hired Henreid in 1955 despite the blacklist. I read that he went on to direct more than 80 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents for television. Looking over one available list, I found at least 20 episodes that he directed including the Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

One famous episode, Out There - Darkness, Season 4, Episode 16, Aired January 25, 1959 and starred Bette Davis.

Mr. Henreid directed a variety of episodes throughout the 1950s and 60s, working with many different actors.

In The Last Escape with Keenan Wynn. A practical joke has a devastating effect on an adulterous spouse. Aired January 31, 1961.

Henreid also directed episodes of the popular TV shows Maverick, Bonanza and The Big Valley.


Related Pages of Interest:

Museum Touch Tours for the Visually Impaired 

Did she teach Paul Henreid to light 2 cigarettes at once? Now Voyager

Sammy Davis talks like Jimmy Stewart talks like Bette Davis  

The Doheny Mansion Films




Resources not cited above: The New York Times April 1992

Deaf Theatre, Call for Entries- Art Show, Disabled Performers

Flying Solo - July 23, at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. "An evening of monologues from theater artists representing Deaf West Theatre, Gallaudet University, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the National Theatre of the Deaf & Quest: Arts for Everyone." (Photo from Deaf West Theatre production of Big River)

Call for Entries: Artwork, 09/11 deadline. In conjunction with the city's DEAFestival, Los Angeles citywide Deaf Awareness Month Art Competition. The art competition is open to all individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing and deaf blind residing in the greater Los Angeles area. Entrants may be middle school through high school students under the age of 19. All entry information is available online.

Call for Entries, Films, 10/25/09 deadline. Feature length and short films (30 minutes or under) are now being accepted for showcase in the first annual 2009 Different from what? Film Festival. The festival will be held in Tempe, AZ Jan 29-31, 2010.

Call for Entries, Films, will begin 11/01/2009 for The 2010 Superfest International Disability Film Festival. Keep checking their web site.

VSA arts is seeking performing artists/groups with disabilities who are interested in performing at the International VSA arts Festival in Washington, D.C. From June 6-12, 2010.

"VSA arts - the premier arts and disability organization - will bring together artists, educators, researchers, and policy makers with disabilities from around the world for a multicultural celebration of the arts and arts education." (Photo from the VSA Arts web site.)

The festival will feature visual, performing, literary and media artists from all corners of the globe. Applications and materials must be received by August 3, 2009.

Support India's Ability Unlimited dance company. Don't know when or if they are auditioning for new performers.

Instant Soap Opera: Write, Act, Film and appear on YouTube

Has your life become a melodrama? When you're finally catching your breath after particularly heated moments, do you swear that you hear violins and organ music?

Are you working on a way to loudly hang up on someone over your cell phone? (Pressing the "end" button really hard and snapping the little phone shut like a Venus fly trap just doesn't have the same impact that slamming down the receiver did. Darn it.) I have a strange interest in carnivorous plants, but we'll talk about that some other time.

Well, if you're living your own little soap opera, why not head on over to Godstone in the UK where the good people at the Orpheus Centre are doing an intriguing sounding workshop called The Instant Soap Opera. It just may help to get out some of that pent up drama. You may go into the workshop just another name in the crowd and come out a star ... on YouTube at least?!

"On this course, you can create, write, star in, film and edit 3 episodes of your own soap opera – in a week! Then broadcast it on You Tube for all your friends to see. You’ll look at what makes a good soap, then as a group you’ll come up with characters and storylines, learn about scriptwriting and acting on television, and put the whole thing together for a world premiere screening to an audience on the Friday evening, before seeing your work broadcast online!" Runs July 26-August 1

The Orpheus Centre is a residential performing arts centre for young disabled people. "We don't set out to train our apprentices to be actors, singers or musicians. We use their enthusiasm for the performing arts to teach skills for living and improve self-knowledge, self-confidence and teamwork." (Photo above is from their web site.)

The main tutors, Pete Lawson & Jenny Sealey, are very experienced in The Biz. Pete is an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter, with experience of creating work for adults and young people from the National Theatre to Radio 4. Jenny’s directing career started with Interplay Theatre Company. Her reputation for devising signed plays for deaf audiences and creating multi-sensory theatre enabled her to become Artistic Director of Graeae in 1998. You can read more about them on the Orpheus pages.

I'll put YouTube links here when they become available.

(Venus Flytrap photo from flytrapcare.com)

Early July Darwin & Fashion Shows, Living Paintings & Celebrations

July 2nd is the halfway point of 2009. 
To mark 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, the University of Cambridge will host a major international Festival on July 5-10. **As this page is from 2009, some of these links may not be correct anymore, some of the events may not be annual.

Darwin celebrations continue all around the world this year.

July 4-5 is Beyond Boundaries Live 2009 taking place in Farnborough, Hampshire UK. It's described as the UK's most dynamic lifestyle event for people with disabilities.

There are various sporting events, including rock climbing and beep baseball. Participate in Pimp my Wheelchair and an enabled cooking center. There's a photography competition and a fashion show featuring Sophie Morgan, a painter and a star of Britains Missing Top Model.

July 8th The Pageant of The Masters opens in Laguna Beach CA. Where art comes to life is their tag line. Each evening will consist of, "Ninety minutes of living pictures - incredibly faithful art re-creations of classical and contemporary works with real people posing to look exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces." This year's theme is The Muse.

Check out the blog, Twinklings for photos and a good write-up from last year's event. Photo in upper left-hand corner is Edgar Degas’ “Cafe Concert aux Ambassadeurs,” from a feature in the Orange Coast Magazine.
The Festival of Arts: California's Premier Fine Art Exhibition, runs during the day. The festivities end August 31st at the Laguna Beach site.

Every week, Christopher West placed a new blank T-shirt up for auction on eBay. The winning bidder decided the message and the design. West would then wear it for a week.

July 5th, West's T-shirts will be sold in a Final Auction at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. You can see the T-shirts and find out more about the project at his web site. (Photo from his site.)

July 11th Kokeshi: From Folk Art to Art Toy opens at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles California. The show runs through October and features a special display of custom painted kokeshi is also featured—and available for sale at the Museum Store—by over 100 well-known international contemporary artists.kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa, a traveling exhibition, is on display at the Japanese American National Museum through October 31st.
LaborFest 2009 has a range of events running throughout San Francisco, CA the entire month of July. The annual labor cultural, film and arts festival was established to commemorate the San Francisco General and West Coast Waterfront strikes, as well as the history and culture of working people.

Kristina Lewis utilizes common household objects such as duct tape, drinking straws, zippers, needles and magnifying glasses. Her work is attractive and provocative. She has a July show at the Oakland Museum Sculpture Court in California.

Doctor Anna Freud Banana and Urban Art make up just two of the exhibitions at the Weserburg Museum in Bremen, Germany. Since the 1970s, Doctor Banana has concerned herself with the scholarly investigation of artistic issues, and her preferred action medium for doing so is: the banana. One of her pieces, from the museum site, is pictured above.
Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished on July 2, 1937, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
July first is Canada Day!
July 4, 1971 Koko the Gorilla famous for learning sign language, was born
July 6, 1957 John Lennon met Paul McCartney

July 9, 1933 Neurologist Oliver Sacks was born. I'm a fan of his books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Talesand the film, Awakenings, which was based upon his experiences. Dr. Sacks discussed the effect music has on the brain on The Daily Show.July 10, 1947 Arlo Guthrie's Birthday
July 12, 1960 The Etch-a-Sketch was released
July 13-19 World Bodypainting Festival in Seeboden, Austria

These are some of the things I have on my calendar for early July. Time to celebrate and commemorate. Time for cake?

What Can YOU Do? Disability Employment Video Contest, Through July 15

The What Can YOU Do? Video Contest is an opportunity for young - and young-at-heart - filmmakers to promote positive change by illustrating that at work, it’s what people CAN do that matters.

Any type of video, max 60 seconds excluding intro/extro credits, can be submitted—serious, surprising, or even funny. So be creative! The point is to make people think and challenge their opinions about people with disabilities and employment. How you do this is up to you!

The contest runs from June 8, 2009 - July 15, 2009, and is sponsored by the Campaign for Disability Employment, a collaborative effort to promote the talent and skills that people with disabilities bring to America’s workforce and economy.

Call for entries: Emerging Artsists w/Disabilities ages 16-25 Deadline approaching

The deadline for the VSA national juried exhibition for emerging artists with disabilities ages 16-25 is coming up on June 19th.

Take a look at last year's winners. Work shown is by Emily Eifler.

Information from their site:
VSA arts is seeking visual artists who are interested in participating in the VSA Arts International Festival to be held in 2010.

The exhibition will include approximately 50 artists from around the world and will be showcased at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

Revealing Culture will be the most comprehensive survey of international artists with disabilities brought to the United States.

Artists are asked to consider the theme Revealing Culture as it relates to their submission, but a relationship to the theme does not have to be explicit or obvious in the work itself. Applicants from a wide range of artistic practices are encouraged to apply.

Disability is a requirement for eligibility, but will not be disclosed during the jury process. Artists will be selected on the aesthetic merits of their work.

VSA arts will use the exhibition to consider the influence of disability. What connections are established between the artist and the local disability community? How has the experience of disability shaped the artistic process or resulting work—if at all?


Image to the left is by PJ Smalley.

Deadline for entries is June 19, 2009.

The VSA site has an Artsists Registry that includes over 1,000 visual, performing, and literary artists with disabilities. Their site offers several other resources useful to artists.