Arliss Alert! – THE GREEN GODDESS (1930) TCM Feb 4 @8AM

[Mike Gebert]

To a point made a while back in this thread:

It marks the only time in Academy history that an actor competed against himself in two separate films.

Not true. In the early years of the Oscars the acting awards and some others went to the person, not a specific performance in a film. So Janet Gaynor was Best Actress in the way a baseball player was Most Valuable Player, and then their films from the eligible time period were listed-- so for Gaynor it's Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel, for instance. But basically there wasn't official recognition of the films at that point-- the listings of films were largely informal as were, for that matter, the nominations.

Without going into every possible permutation here, let's just say that obvious inconsistencies quickly appeared, some awards were treated differently than others in some years, and in general they made a big muddle of it. They finally cleaned it up c. 1930-1 and made all awards for a single specific performance (or directing that film, shooting that film, whatever), as well as pruning some of the nominations and so on. History kind of agreed on certain things-- that Arliss won for the very highly regarded Disraeli and not the less admired The Green Goddess-- though some sources will list both. Either answer is technically correct.

[wich2]

>I'm not sure that Jack and Orson performed Shakespeare together on Rudy Vallee's Sealtest show<

Verily - trust me, sirrah!

The Boys did the Tent Scene from CAESAR, on the 12-19-1940 program.

Best,
-Craig

[bobfells]

To a point made a while back in this thread:

It marks the only time in Academy history that an actor competed against himself in two separate films.

Not true. In the early years of the Oscars the acting awards and some others went to the person, not a specific performance in a film. So Janet Gaynor was Best Actress in the way a baseball player was Most Valuable Player, and then their films from the eligible time period were listed-- so for Gaynor it's Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel, for instance. But basically there wasn't official recognition of the films at that point-- the listings of films were largely informal as were, for that matter, the nominations.

Without going into every possible permutation here, let's just say that obvious inconsistencies quickly appeared, some awards were treated differently than others in some years, and in general they made a big muddle of it. They finally cleaned it up c. 1930-1 and made all awards for a single specific performance (or directing that film, shooting that film, whatever), as well as pruning some of the nominations and so on. History kind of agreed on certain things-- that Arliss won for the very highly regarded Disraeli and not the less admired The Green Goddess-- though some sources will list both. Either answer is technically correct.

Not true. The Academy's own Internet site states that there is no explanation why the Best Actor Award was given for DISRAELI alone. You are speculating as to the reason why and while it's certainly plausible, there's no documentation that a deliberate decision was made to drop GREEN GODDESS or why. I suspect that Mr. A himself might have requested this, especially since he criticizes GG in his memoirs. In any event, the award gives the impression that Mr. A "competed against himself and won" and that's worth at least a comment. As a few people so often tell me, lighten up.

[bobfells]

Now that many issues of Photoplay magazine are online, it's a treasure trove of photos I've not come across before.

Here's a beautiful portrait of Alice Joyce circa 1920:


and a rare photo of Mr. A with director James Young on the set of THE DEVIL (1920):

[Mike Gebert]

Well Bob, we all have our obsessions and this is one of mine, so...

The Academy is, curiously, not the most reliable source on the history of the Academy's own awards, especially in those early years. Bona and Wiley's Inside Oscar, for instance, is a much better source. Here's one I also rely on

In any case, it's easy to refute the idea that Arliss was in competition with himself. Every category had five nominees. If he was separately nominated for Green Goddess (and Norma Shearer for Their Own Desire), the acting categories, uniquely, would have had six nominees which just happened to coincide with the winners that year. Which is, alas, exactly how ever-unreliable Wikipedia lists it.

But if you look at the nominations for both 1929 and 1930, which had the most similar system of nominating people but not for specific films, here's what we see:

• Every category has five people in it (with one exception)
• If there are more than five nominations, it's always one person apparently getting nominated twice or even three times

To me it's much easier to believe that five was the rule and the double nominations are the same person being listed for more than one film in what was thought of as a single nomination. Again, it was like being named MVP more than it was winning for a specific role. There are plenty of examples where it's pretty obvious what they were being named for— Karl Struss and Charles Rosher either tied for an Oscar for every film each of them made in 1927, which is unlikely... or they both won for working on Sunrise, much more likely. Your suggestion that Arliss was the first of many to suggest that he won for Disraeli and the other one could be ignored is surely correct; Warner Bros., who treated Disraeli as the grandest thing they'd ever done, surely encouraged it too.

But I said there was an exception. Yes, Best Actress of 1929 has a sixth nominated actress, Corinne Griffith, who is sometimes trimmed off the list. My guess is that since it was basically a committee choosing nominees somewhat informally, they let an extra one slip in for old time's sake or to keep someone happy or whatever happens when committees do things. The five per category rule is otherwise consistent.

[bobfells]

Oh heck, Michael, give your book a decent plug!

http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Movi ... ael+Gebert" target="_blank

[Mike Gebert]

Now going for one penny!

[bobfells]

Now going for one penny!

You've left yourself wide open but I won't take advantage!