WHOA! a.k.a. Weekly History of Oscar / Awardage
New series? Maybe. Why do I need gimmicky acronyms? I know not.
Jan 9th the first flight of the Avro Lancaster (no relation to Burt) took place in World War II in 1941. This famous plane, the most successful of British bombers, later had a starring role in The Dam Busters (1955) with Richard Todd in the cockpit. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Visual Effects and supposedly inspired the Death Star climax of Star Wars (see video comparison below). Peter Jackson was prepping a remake in 2009 but obvs The Hobbit (2012) has taken over his life.
Jan 10th Youth sensation Sal Mineo, the youngest two-time Oscar nominated male actor (honored for Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Exodus (1960) by the time he was 22), was born on this day in in 1939. You can see his Rebel screen test with James Dean and Natalie Wood above (such amazing trio chemistry). Love that movie.
After the jump Pixar, the first Oscars, Cate Blanchett...
Jan 11th On this day in 1927, Louis B Mayer announced the creation of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He couldn't have known that one day people would be so freaky about it 24/7 on the internet.
Andrew Stanton & John LasseterJan 12th On this day in 1957, John Lasseter was born. He would go on to found Pixar, which began hoarding Oscars (and the love of millions) straightaway. Their first Oscar, the first computer animated film to win, came for Tin Toy (1989) [historic acceptance speech]. Many more would follow. SITE NOTE: A special Pixar celebration coming to the Film Experience next month.
Jan 13th A French newspaper publishes Emile Zola's famous "J'ACCUSE!" letter in 1898. This will later be a major plot point in The Life of Emile Zola, the longest Best Picture winn--- what's that? It's... huh. No, really? It's not 7½ hours long?! I stand corrected. Reading: Best Pics From the Outside In: Life of Emile Zola and Shakespeare in Love.
Jan 14th Lewis Carroll died on this day in 1898. Fortunately he did not live to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, nor its impending Oscar Nominations of Doom. TRIVIA: Alice in Wonderland as an unofficial multi-artist franchise has only won 1 Oscar nomination to date for Disney's version in 1951 which was nominated for Score. It's more commonly adapted for television so Burton was at least savvy enough to recognize the under exploited big screen potential. Two big screen British efforts, the 1972 all star version and the 1985 bio Dreamchild, about Carroll's real life relationship with Alice, were ignored by Oscar voters and had to make do with BAFTA attention.
Jan 15th. Way the hell back in 1559 Elizabeth (I) was crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey. "Silly Nathaniel," you might be saying if you're a statistics stickler. "The first Oscar winners weren't "crowned" for another 26,843 days in 1929. What does one have to do with another?" Well, nitpicker, It's all about the actressing.
Dench, Robson, Duff, Davis, Blanchett
We could claim that Oscar voters are absolutely in love with the Virgin Queen, that they'd gladly take a tumble in her bedchamber to mount an attack on her iconographical moniker. But it wouldn't be true. So many actresses have played her now, she's more like the Promiscuous Queen; everyone has slipped into her corsets. Awards voters only got interested in this particular queen in the past 40 years. Sarah Bernhart played her in the silents (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth, 1911). Flora Robson took over in the 30s playing the role twice (Fire Over England and The Sea Hawk). Then it was Bette Davis's two-time star turn (The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, 1939, and The Virgin Queen, 1955). In the last 40 years, though, Elizabeth was suddenly awards bait. This royal role-playing has won two Emmys and an Oscar: Glenda Jackson (Elizabeth R, 1971) -Emmy, Helen Mirren (Elizabeth I, 2005) -Emmy, and Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love, 1998) -Oscar. The role also boosted the young career of Mrs. James McAvoy, Anne-Marie Duff with a BAFTA nomination (The Virgin Queen, 2005).
Most famously in our time, Cate Blanchett played Elizabeth in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: Turn Off The Dark* (2007) and was Oscar nominated... twice. Nobody even knows why the second time but that's the indisputable screen magic of that Virgin Queen.
Even Her Majesty Blanchett can't account for it!
Cate during her Elizabeth: Turn Off the Dark (2007) clip