It’s Oscar time!  For movie fans, this Sunday, February 26, it’s the Super Bowl of award ceremonies.  By now, most outlets have published their predictions as to who will win what award (The Artist for Best Picture, hands down), but not here.

Authors Jim Piazza and Gail Kinn have written the book, The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History.  It’s a compilation of fun facts, stories, and behind-the-scenes gossip that many in Hollywood would rather not be made public.  For any film buff or movie fan, the book is a must read. 

 Below is a glimpse of some of the things you can find in tucked away in the book under a section called Unmentionables.  These are little facts usually hidden by the studios about the stars, the films, and the award ceremony itself that probably never saw the light of day… until now.

1930-31:  Lionel Barrymore won Best Actor for A Free Soul

Lionel Barrymore’s arthritis was alleviated by MGM boss, Louis B. Mayer.  “L.B. gets me $400 worth of cocaine a day to ease my pain,” Barrymore is said to have remarked.  “I don’t know where he gets it.  And I don’t care.  But I bless him every time it puts me to sleep.”

1934: Clark Gable won Best Actor for It Happened One Night

MGM loaned Gable out to director Frank Capra for It Happened One Night as punishment for Gable’s money demands at MGM.  He showed up drunk for his first meeting with the director.  Gable later said about his leading man status: “They call me the King of Hollywood.  I’m under-endowed, I’ve got as mouthful of false teeth and bad breath.”  His wife, Carole Lombard, added; “Look.  He’s no Clark Gable at home!”

1945: Joan Crawford won Best Actress for Mildred Pierce

 Lucille Fat LeSuer was renamed Joan Crawford as the result of a fan-magazine contest.  She despised the name, thinking it sounded like crawfish.  Her arrest for prostitution was erased from the record books years later by her close friend, J. Edgar Hoover.

1951: Humphrey Bogart won Best Actor for The African Queen

Bogart suffered from manic depression.  According to the New York Times, bad boy Bogart was born on January 23, 1899, but Warner Bros. publicity department decided that the public would be told he was born on Christmas Day because, “…A guy born on Christmas can’t be all that bad.”  His last words are reported to have been: “I should never have switched from scotch to martinis.”

1965: Best Picture award went to The Sound of Music

Infamous film critic Pauline Kael was fired by McCall’s magazine for her scathing review of the Von Trapp family saga.  They wanted positive,  Christopher Plummer referred to his most enduring film as “The Sound of Mucus.”  A woman from Wales held the record for viewing The Sound of Music 947 times at the same cinema, the Dominion Theatre in London’s Tottenham Court Road. The film ran at the same theatre for several years.

1971: Jane Fonda won Best Actress for Klute

 Legend has it that when Jane Fonda, always the rebel, attended Vassar she refused to wear the elegant white gloves and pearls that were a tradition for the daily Tea in the Rose Parlor.  She was chastised, sent away, and later returned to the parlor wearing the gloves and pearls… and nothing else.   Jane’s father, Henry Fonda, was bitter that he had never won an Oscar, angrily stating: “How in the hell would you like to have been in this business as long as I and then have one of your kids win an Oscar before you did?”  Fonda won an Honorary Award in 1980.

Obviously, there are so many more examples of interesting snippets that the book offers.  The above are just a few samplings.  My personal favorite is something more recent that has nothing to do with Hollywood stars or the Hollywood lifestyle.  In 2008 the Best Picture award went to Slumdog Millionaire.  According to the book, the father of one of Slumdog’s young stars, Rubina Ali, reportedly attempted to sell her for $300,000.  He claimed he only received $3,000 for her work on the film and felt she was worth far more on the open market!

Look for the book.  It’s called The Academy Awards: The Unofficial History by Jim Piazza and Gail Kinn published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.

 Enjoy this Sunday’s Oscar (go The Artist!) and see you at the movies.