Is the Academy Being Childish about Oscar statuettes?

Cafe Society
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The daughter of Orson Welles was forced to withdraw her father’s CITIZEN KANE Oscar , expected to fetch at least $300,000 at a Christie’s auction, when the Academy threatened to exercise its right to purchase the statue for $1. The $1 rule only came into effect in 1950, 9 years after Kane, but Beatrice Welles was affected by a technicality.

n 1988, three years after Welles’ death, his youngest daughter and sole heir, Beatrice, requested a duplicate Oscar from the Academy, believing the original had been lost. By then, the group had passed a rule requiring all winners sign an agreement giving the Academy the right to purchase any Oscar put up for sale for only $1. The Academy made Beatrice sign such an agreement before giving her a copy of her dad’s statuette.

The statement she signed for the duplicate also extended to the original should it ever be found, and it was.

I don’t dispute the legality of the Academy’s right to buy back any Oscars for $1, but do you think it’s a fair stipulation? It’s ultimately just a statue: you’re not buying the right to say “I won this for making CITIZEN KANE”, you’re just buying memorabilia, the same as if you were buying the model of Xanadu or Rosebud (which sold for a relatively paltry $233,500 when you consider its history).

If I won an Oscar for my own work, such as Harold Russell, I would much rather know that if my widow or children ever fell on hard times the statue would help them through it than that they’d be the only people in the tenements with a gold plated statue worth $1 in their closet. This is especially true if its for a supporting performance or lighting effects in a movie rarely even seen anymore, as was the case with

Kevin Spacey and Spielberg, incidentally, have spent millions between them buying back pre 1950 Oscars. Apparently, until all the Oscars are back in one place, other Oscar winners turn into skeletons in the moonlight.

You’re much better off winning a Nobel Prize: they don’t care if you spend the prize money on research, hookers, houses, or some combination thereof.

Thoughts?

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This reminds me of my high school ten years ago where the best performer in each subject won a certificate and $20 to spend a book store. All the winners were taken to the store and chose their books. I chose a book on astrology since it interested me back then (not anymore, despite my username). The books were taken by the school to be given out during the award ceremony. Before the ceremony, I was told, in class in front of everyone, that my choice was inappropriate, that the book had been returned, and that another book would be chosen for me.

My take on it, then and now, is that I earned the prize and either it’s given freely to be mine, or it shouldn’t be given at all. Same here - Welles earned that Oscar. All the Oscar winners earned their Oscars. It should be given freely and if they don’t want it anymore, it’s up to them how to dispose of it.

That said, it’d surely be easy for the daughter to arrange a private sale.

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Considering that the Oscar is pretty much a bullsh*t award, I think the winners should be able to whatever they want with them.

Preferably allowing them to be used in a porn flick. :smiley:

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Well, the Academy is full of petty, tasteless, self-important dickheads, so I can’t say I find this story to be surprising, exactly.

What happens if you refuse to sign? Take the statue back? They always make a big deal about the secrecy of the winners, so I assume the signature must be demanded after the internationally televised awards ceremony. I’d have loved to see them try and strip, say, Halle Berry of her Best Actress Oscar after the press made such a huge deal over her acceptance speech. Or maybe all the nominees are forced to sign beforehand, in the event that they win. Almost as good: whoever ends up winning, there’ll always be a taint of “would they have won if so-and-so had still been in the running.”

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I think the nominees sign beforehand.

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But how could we possibly let the Oscars be besmirched with the grubby taint of commerce? We wouldn’t want the lofty name of Hollywood to be associated with filthy lucre, now would we?

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Scorpio: I’m horrified by your high school story! What bastards! That is just lame as hell…

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Thanks Opalcat. Plainly it scarred me, since I still remember it ten years later :slight_smile: Actually it just jumped into my head when I read the OP. Same kind of administrative possessiveness. If you won’t be a winner our way…

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To continue the Scorpio hijack: just what the hell was so objectionable about an astrology book?

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Maybe she could get around the agreement by putting the statue up for lease. Highest bidder gets to lease it for the next 1,000,000 years.

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Don’t sell the Oscar. Instead, make it a 999 year lease, at $1 per day, payable in advance. That’s about $365,000.

:smiley:

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In a perfect world, the school would have objected because astrology is a bunch of superstitious bushwa that shouldn’t be given the slightest tint of legitimacy by the educational establishment, even in a round-about way such as described by Scorpio.

However, I’ll bet real money that the school disallowed it on the grounds that “Astrology is a tool of SATAN!”

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The Academy is equally anal about all things ‘Oscar’. They have an insane list of advertising criteria that must be met. Things like the typeface has to be a certain font, the AMPAAS logo has to be written in a very specific way, with very specific placement of the © and ® symbols, how you can show the statue, when you can and can’t use the term ‘Oscar’ and ‘Academy Award’.

It’s really one of the dumber lists I have seen.

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So what you’re saying is that we’re all going to get sued now for using the words Oscar &reg and Academy award™ inappropriately, is that it?

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Hey, the Academy has to be rigid and unflinching in rpeserving the mystique of the Oscar Awards. If you could just strip all that away and reduce it to a simple matter of rude commerce… well, that road leads to Golden Globe country!

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Great minds think alike, don’t ask. And simulpost, too!

:slight_smile:

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Do you remember what book they replaced it with? (Please don’t tell me it was “The Joy of Gay Sex” or “The Satanic Bible”.)

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I say she should give the Oscar away and sell them a letter saying it’s an authentic Oscar.

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I think if you won the statue it should be yours to do with what you wish. Afterall her father EARNED it. It then became part of his estate when he died.

I woulnd’t let the Academy buy it back for $1 I would rather give it away. It’s a matter of principal.

Just my $.02

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I dont see what the problem is here. They signed a contract when the oscar was replaced saying that they couldnt sell it except back to the academy for $1. I dont see how the daughter or anybody else has any right to complain.

One question though. It says in the OP requested a duplicate Oscar from the Academy, believing the original had been lost Was the original actually lost or has it since been found?