Irishman Who Designed Oscar Statuette Had Eleven on His Mantel

Oscar statuette is a knight standing on a film reel and holding a sword courtesy http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/oscar-films-sundance_n_6518866.html.

Born in 1893, Cedric Gibbons was an Irishman who made a name for himself in Hollywood.  He not only designed the Oscar statuette, but was nominated for thirty eight and brought home eleven.

Edith Head holds the record for most Oscars won by a woman (8) courtesy https://www.blue17.co.uk/edith-head-incredible-designers/. 

Austin Cedric Gibbons, the son of an architect, was born in Dublin in 1893.  He studied at the Arts Students League of New York and was hired by MGM in 1924 as an art director and production designer.  Four years later, he helped found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  In 1928, it was Gibbons who designed the most recognized award in the world, the statuette of a knight standing on a reel of film gripping a crusader's sword.  Oscar stands 13 1/2 inches tall and weighs 8 1/2 pounds, thanks to its solid bronze casting.  Legend has it that the statuette got its name when the Academy librarian, Margaret Herrick, commented that it looked like her Uncle Oscar.  In 1929, the first Academy Awards were held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles where Janet Gaynor won a statuette for best actress and Emil Jannings for best actor.

First Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Academy_Awards.

Little did Gibbons know that one year after he designed the Oscar, he would be carrying the statuette home.  In fact, when his career was done, Gibbons' mantel would hold a record-breaking 11 Oscars, and he would be nominated for 38. Gibbons influenced the production of about 1500 films and had direct involvement in 150 films in Hollywood.  The art director won the Academy Award for the following movies:

• The Bridge of St. Louis Rey (1929)
• The Merry Widow (1934)
• Pride and Prejudice (1940)
• Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
• Gaslight (1944)
• The Yearling (1946)
• Little Women (1949)
• An American in Paris (1951)
• The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
• Julius Caesar (1953)
• Somebody Up There Likes Me (1957)

Cedric Gibbons with his Oscars courtesy https://www.pinterest.com/slynnrich/cedric-gibbons/.

Bells of St. Mary's Minutae

Here are ten facts you may not know about the movie "The Bells of St. Mary's", starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman.

1.  A priest acted as an off screen adviser during production of the movie, based at a Catholic convent and school.  As a prank, Ingrid Bergman and Bing Crosby share a passionate kiss during the closing scene; the priest roars his disapproval of the kiss, only to find out it wasn't in the script.

2.  "Varvindar Friska", or "Spring Breezes", is a traditional Swedish folk song sung by Ingrid Bergman in the film.

3.  "The Bells of St. Mary's", which earned 3,715,000 at the box office, was RKO's most profitable film ever produced.

4.  Ingrid's Bergman's character, Sister Mary Benedict, purchases Gene Tunney's boxing manual at the sports store to train one of her students who is being harassed by a playground bully.  While Gene Tunney was a true boxer, he never wrote a book called The Art of Boxing.

5.  "The Bells of St. Mary's" served as a sequel to "Going My Way", also starring Bing Crosby as a priest.

6.  Leo McCarey, the movie's director, was inspired to write the script by his aunt, Sister Mary Benedict, who helped build Immaculate Heart Convent in Hollywood.  As Sister Mary in the movie suffered from tuberculosis, real life Sister Mary suffered from typhoid fever, which led to her death.

7.  "The Bells of St. Mary's" is considered a Christmas movie in large part because of the Christian theme and the Christmas play staged by the schoolchildren in which they sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, complete with a real baby in a basket.

8.  The Pledge of Allegiance did not contain the words "under God" at the time of filming; hence the children did not recite that version.

9.  Many of the theatrical posters for "Bells of St. Mary's" contained shots of Bergman and Crosby in non-clerical garb.

10.  At the 1945 Academy Awards, Leo McCarey won Best Director for "Going my Way" and Bing Crosby won Best Actor.  When Ingrid Bergman went onstage to receive her best actress award for "Gaslight", she said:  "I'm glad I won because tomorrow morning, I start shooting the sequel to "Going My Way", with Bing Crosby and Leo McCarey, and I was afraid that if I didn't have an Oscar, they wouldn't speak to me."

For more information, visit my post "The Bells of St. Mary's" at
http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2011/12/bells-of-st-marys.html.