# Where can you see an Oscar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2000, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257 "2000-11-29T21:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/21 "2011-01-10T16:07:59Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Spielberg has bought several Oscars at auction and given them back to the academy. Has he ever explained why? I know he’s rich but this must be costing him some significant money. And returning “lost” Oscars to the Academy seems like a pretty trivial use of money. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/22 "2011-01-10T17:08:51Z")
He loves Hollywood, its traditions and history, and he’s a nice guy (or wants to be seen as one). He has a ridiculous amounts of money and this is one way, for a relative pittance, he can give back to a community which has given him so much. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/23 "2011-01-10T17:24:46Z")
There’s one at George Bernard Shaw’s house in Dublin. I’ve been there. He got it for the screenplay for “Pygmalion”, and it was reportedly used for years as a doorstop (!) It’s cleanup up now > **[Pygmalion (1938 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_%281938_film%29)** > > Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the 1913 George Bernard Shaw play of the same name, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle. > The film was a financial and critical success, and won an Oscar for Best Screenplay and three more nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Howard), and Best Actress (Hiller). The screenplay later was adapted into the 1956 theatrical musical My Fair Lady, which in turn led to the 19... > **[George Bernard Shaw - Awards - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0789737/awards/)** > > George Bernard Shaw - Awards - IMDb - Awards, nominations, and wins > [@](#): > > He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaption of his play of the same name), respectively.[2] Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright because he had no desire for public honours, but accepted it at his wife’s behest: she considered it a tribute to Ireland. He did reject the monetary award, requesting it be used to finance translation of Swedish books to English.[3] > **[George Bernard Shaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw)** > > George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading d... ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/24 "2011-01-10T18:24:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > He loves Hollywood, its traditions and history, and he’s a nice guy (or wants to be seen as one). He has a ridiculous amounts of money and this is one way, for a relative pittance, he can give back to a community which has given him so much. It still seems nonsensical to me. How is returning Oscars to the Academy giving anything back to the community? Who is benefitting from it? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/25 "2011-01-10T18:26:06Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Thanks for the responses! > > Though I’m tempted to say that this will get a better response over at Cafe Society. Would a mod mind moving it? 🙂 Sorry for not getting to this for the last six years, but better late than never, eh?😉 Resurrected four times! You can’t keep a good zombie down. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/26 "2011-01-10T18:29:47Z")
It’s funny that this show be revived (and not by me) since I saw a couple of Oscars while on vacation in Europe. French film programmer and pseudo-archivist Henri Langlois’ Honorary Oscar is on display at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris Shelley Winters’ first Supporting Actress Oscar for _The Diary of Anne Frank_ is at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/27 "2011-01-10T18:29:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaption of his play of the same name), respectively.[2] Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright because he had no desire for public honours, but accepted it at his wife’s behest: she considered it a tribute to Ireland. He did reject the monetary award, requesting it be used to finance translation of Swedish books to English.[3] Even better, he is the only person to win any Nobel Prize and an Oscar. And to preempt the “Cad, you’re an idiot!”, Davis Guggenhein and NOT Al Gore won the Oscar for “An Inconvienent Truth”. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/28 "2011-01-10T18:40:15Z")
Chicago’s Field Museum is featuring a [Gold](http://www.fieldmuseum.org/exhibits/gold_tempexhib.htm) exhibit until March 6. Among the items on display is Susan Sarandon’s Oscar for _Dead Man Walking_. There’s also an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and some Olympic gold medals. It’s a pretty cool exhibit. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/29 "2011-01-10T18:42:37Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Even better, he is the only person to win any Nobel Prize and an Oscar. And to preempt the “Cad, you’re an idiot!”, Davis Guggenhein and NOT Al Gore won the Oscar for “An Inconvienent Truth”. There were a couple others who came close–John Steinbeck, Harold Pinter, and Jean-Paul Sartre were all Oscar nominees as well as Nobel winners. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/30 "2011-01-10T18:49:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It still seems nonsensical to me. How is returning Oscars to the Academy giving anything back to the community? Who is benefitting from it? If he hadn’t bought them and returned them to the Academy for public display, they’d probably be under a pinlight in some millionaire movie buff’s living room somewhere. Public access to history helps keep it alive. ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/31 "2011-01-10T19:40:22Z")
My next door neighbour kept her Emmy in her office window. She won for art direction for the Paul Adams mini-seires. Then her house was burgled so she keeps it hidden now. It was kind of cool to see it in her window. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/32 "2011-01-10T20:32:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > It still seems nonsensical to me. How is returning Oscars to the Academy giving anything back to the community? Who is benefitting from it? > > If he hadn’t bought them and returned them to the Academy for public display, they’d probably be under a pinlight in some millionaire movie buff’s living room somewhere. Public access to history helps keep it alive. I think the academy believes that having the award bought and sold like another piece of movie memorabilia devalues it. I believe that recent recipients are required to give the academy the right to purchase the statue back so as to keep them off the market. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/33 "2011-01-10T20:57:54Z")
MGM Studios displays many of their Oscars in their entry foyer. Quite impressive as you walk in. Problem is, MGM has been bought and sold more often than a hooker on Santa Monica Boulevard, and their offices have moved so often, their employees need a GPS to find their desks. Thus I cannot tell you exactly where their current office foyer might be. If you should find that entryway, those shiny Oscars are damned nice to look at. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/34 "2011-01-10T21:01:57Z")
John Ford’s Oscars for _How Green Was My Valley_ (Best Picture and Best Director) are held at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/35 "2011-01-10T21:33:30Z")
I seem to remember seeing Oscars at the Oakland Museum of California and the Lone Pine Movie Museum, but I don’t know what they were for. My brother works at AMPAS, I wonder if he knows. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/36 "2011-01-11T00:28:43Z")
Here in Chicago a couple of years ago they had an Oscar display at one of the shopping centers on Michigan Ave. It was a temporary thing to promote the show and they had a few Oscars on display, including one (I believe an extra one made for that year’s show) that you could hold and get your photo taken with in front of a podium. My pic w/ the statue is pretty ridiculous looking but I had a lot of fun doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257/37 "2011-01-11T04:44:14Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Here in Chicago a couple of years ago they had an Oscar display at one of the shopping centers on Michigan Ave. It was a temporary thing to promote the show and they had a few Oscars on display, including one (I believe an extra one made for that year’s show) that you could hold and get your photo taken with in front of a podium. My pic w/ the statue is pretty ridiculous looking but I had a lot of fun doing it. They did the same in LA, in the same complex as the Kodak Theater where they hold the ceremony (Hollywood & Highland). The Oscar-you-could-pick-up had a heavy cable attached to the bottom, so you couldn’t walk off with it. I’ve also held a couple of Emmys - my buddies worked at the TV academy office… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-you-see-an-oscar/43257.md?page=1)