Oscar Campaigns:Buying,Crying,Lying,Ballyhooing ?

[JFK]

Watching three great comedians go Golden Globe groveling,
and worse, misting up upon receiving one ,
brings to mind previous icky Academy Award Campaigns.
This thread is devoted to your/my favorite images and stories of vintage era Oscar trolling.

An example, to start it off:

Ballyhoo
Russell Birdwell was an increasingly wild publicist for such films as
GWTW, The Outlaw, and Duel in The Sun. To promote the last-named, Birdwell arranged for letters -
hinting at salacious on-set activities - to be left, nationwide, at various saloons.
These letters were addressed to specific (non-existent) patrons, the idea being that the
barkeeps would eventually open and read the unclaimed letters- and share the contents - with their customers.
Below is a rare example where a dubious Birdwell campaign was topped.

[JFK]

Walter Brennan Wikipedia Excerpt
"He was the first actor to win three Academy Awards and remains
the only person to have won three Best Supporting Actor awards. However, even he remained somewhat
embarrassed as to how he won the awards. In the early years of the Academy Awards, extras were given
the right to vote. Brennan was extremely popular with the Union of Film Extras, and since their numbers
were overwhelming, he won each time he was nominated. Though he was never thought undeserving of
these awards, his third win led to the disenfranchisement of the Extras Union from Oscar voting."

Variety:Road to best pic: An ‘American’ dream
"The publicity drumbeat continued apace:
In a well-timed demonstration of his Oscar bona fides, Spacey was featured opposite Jack Lemmon
in a Sunday New York Times Arts & Leisure piece March 12 headlined “A Couple of Winners Talk About
Awards and Acting.” Leaving no potential vote unturned, Spacey even pressed the flesh at
the Motion Picture Country Home"

[Daniel Eagan]

Los Angeles Times report* from 2012 found that Oscar voters were 94% white, 77% male and only 14% under the age of 50.

So hanging around the Motion Picture Country Home is not that bad an idea.


* http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... story.html" target="_blank

[Frederica]

Los Angeles Times report* from 2012 found that Oscar voters were 94% white, 77% male and only 14% under the age of 50.

So hanging around the Motion Picture Country Home is not that bad an idea.


* http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... story.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Oh, so rather like silent film fans.

KIDDING! (I think.)