AMPAS PUBlICATIONS Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library. Beverly Hills. Calif.

of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

NUMBER..¥\b FALL, 1975 BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. Non-Awards TV Special Building Dedication Plans Under Way Another Academy First The doors at 8949 Wilshire Boule­ This year seems to be a year for vard are finally open. The Academy "firsts" in the history of the Acad­ has planned a week of Gala Ded­ emy. The Academy, for the first ication festivities for the official time in its history aside from the opening, December 8, to celebrate Academy Award Presentations, has one of the greatest accomplishments produced a one-hour television in the Academy's 48-year history. special for the ABC network. It is For the first time, the Academy has scheduled to air Nov. 25, from 10-11 all of its facilities housed under one p.m. and will inaugurate a new five roof in a practical and luxurious new year contract with ABC. seven-story building under its own Jack Lemmon, who was awarded ownership. an Oscar for best supporting actor Similar dedication ceremonies for his role in Mr. Roberts twenty are planned for each of five consec­ years ago, and for best actor for utive evenings. National and inter­ Save The Tiger in 1974, will host the national press, industry leaders, show, entitled, The Academy Pre­ civic leaders, governmental leaders, sents Oscar's Greatest Music. The and past Academy Award winners show is a composite of musical will be invited to the black tie Gala numbers from Academy Award Those in the motion p icture industry go to all Dedication ceremonies on the first shows from 1956 through last year, ends to w in an Oscar. This photographer literally d id just t hat to ta ke this photograph of Osca r evening. The 3800 members of the including Judy Garland's Cole Porter movi ng into the Academy' s new bui lding. His Academy w ill be invited alphabet­ medley from 1965, Isaac Hayes' ren­ efforts were not in va in since t hey resulted in a ically on thefollowingfourevenings. dition of Shaft from 1972, and Eddie UP! wire service break announcing the opening of t he A cademy of Motion Picture A rts and The President of the Academy, Sciences' new se ven-story bui lding. Walter Mirisch, and the Board of Governors will host a champagne reception in the Grand Lobby at 8 Fisher's Love Is A Many Splendored p.m. followed by continuous tours Thing from 1956. of the building, and a screening of a Producer-Director Richard Pat­ terson selected the segments used film compiled of excerpts from Best for their intrinsic entertainment Picture Academy Award winners. value. After sorting through a phe­ The tours include the Players nomenal amount of footage, he has Directory, which is now compiled selected what he feels is an interest­ and housed in the building; the ing variety. Patterson has recently Board of Governors' Conference written and directed a feature docu­ room; the President' s office; the Ex­ mentary on Charlie Chaplin entitled ecutive Director's office; the Marga­ The Gentleman Tramp. He also did ret Herrick Library which houses so a Chaplin montage with Peter Bog­ many volumes that it fi·lls two floors; donovich for the 44th Academy the two projection rooms; the 80- Jack Lemmon and the film crew at work in the Awards show and an Edward G. seat screening room and the Samuel lobby of the new building during the filming of Robinson montage for the 45th " The Academy Presents Oscar' s Greatest Music. " Academy Awards show. Continued on page 4 Mary Pickford Display Set For New Building The Academy is paying a retrospec­ tive tribute to Mary Pickford, one of its 36 founders_ The Academy has not officially recognized her contri­ bution to the industry since she received an Oscar in 1929 for her role as best actress in Coquette. Her present position in the film industry remains unparalleled. For these reasons, in the new building will be a Mary Pickford photograph­ ic and memorabilia exhibit. Several hundred black and white photographiC enlargements docu­ menting Mary Pickford's colorful career will be displayed. These pho­ tographs, primarily 16"x20" and 11" x14" enlargements, will begin with STUDENT FILM AWARD WINNER Robert Zemeckis (center) is congratulated by director William Friedkin her short Biograph films from 1909 to (leftl. and Academy President Walter Mirisch (right) shortly after "A Field of Honor" captured the 1912_ All of her 52 feature films Special Jury Award In the Academy's 2nd Annual Student Film Awards. Zemeckis, 24, produced the through 1933 will be represented. film as a senior-year project while attending the USC School of Cinema and is currently pursuing a film career in Hollywood. Included will be original color post­ ers and lobby cards from Pickford films, as well as original artifacts. The material on display has been Academy Student Film Award Winners Announced primarily gathered and preserved Five student films were honored at Winners in their respective cate­ by Bob Cushman, a still photo­ July 1 announcement ceremonies gories included: grapher and a full-time employee for the Academy's Second Annual on the Academy's library staff. Cushman has been working on this Student Film Awards, designed I)RAMATIC Pickford collection for seven years. to recognize outstanding achieve­ "Swag," Bruce Postman, New York City, 26 ments in motion picture production min. , b&w. A scenario deal ing with three boys Pickford's husband, Buddy Rogers; by University and college students. growing up in New York and what happens to her secretary, Esther Helm; and her them when one of them fall in love with "the business manager, Matty Kemp, A total of 311 entries from through­ girl next door." out the U-S. were submitted in this have all been helpful and instru­ year's competition. Following re­ DOCUMENTARY mental in assuring the Academy gional screenings, 43 entries were "Men's Lives," Josh Hanig and Will Roberts, access to this valuable material. Antioch College, Yellow Springs, 0 ., 43 min., forwarded to the Academy's Short color. An exploration of the values and mores of Films Branch and Documentary American society that demand that males must Nominating Committee, which se­ always be tough and competitive. lected eleven semi-finalists for full ANIMATION Academy consideration at a special "Euphoria," Vincent Collins, San Francisco Art screening attended by over 300 Institute, 3 'I, min., color. A psychadelic effort to members and guests. depict euphoria visually, using animation. Director William Friedkin pre­ sented Awards of Merit on behalf of EXPERI MENTAL "Architecture of the Petroleum Age," Scott the Academy to the winners attend­ Thomas, Rice University, Houston, 2B min., color. ing the ceremonies and telephoned An unusual, first-person look at the impact of the congratulations to those young as­ automobile and technology on Houston and its environs. piring filmmakers not present. More than 100 persons attended the Tues­ SPECIAL JURY AWARD day morning event, which was open " A Field of Honor," Robert Zemeckis, USC, 14 to the public. Following the cere­ min. , color. A "black comedy" about an osten­ sibly deranged soldier who returns from war, monies, the winning films were only to find that real insanity is the world to screened_ which he returns. Mary Pickford Page Two Book Review ... By Fay Kanin Message from the President Odd Woman Out cludes all the circuitry and equip­ By Muriel Box ment necessary to install the ad­ vanced systems that our experts Probably, Muriel Box is best known such as Gordon Sawyer and Paul in this country for her screenplay of Veneklasen have been able to for­ The Seventh Veil on which she see in the motion picture future. collaborated with her husband, Syd­ The building also includes a 80-seat ney Box, and for which they won an screening room. The Margaret Her­ Academy Award in 1946. What is rick Library is the most complete less well known is that from 1950 collection in the world of informa­ and for a dozen years after, she tion concerning motion pictures. The library now has adequate space directed fourteen feature films in to serve our members, fi·lm research­ England with such stars as Laurence ers, students and the public. Harvey, Peter Finch, Julie Harris, Although the Academy does not Kay Kendall, Shelley Winters, Mai hold regular meetings of the entire Zetterling, Diane Cilento, Sean membership, it is managed by an Connery, Thomas Mitchell, Sir Wolter Mirisch elected Board of Governors com­ Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leigh­ posed of three members from each ton, Van Johnson - to name only a More than a decade of dreams, of twelve craft branches. The Acad­ few. blueprints and plans for the Acad­ emy's Awards for excellence-its emy's new home in Beverly Hills Oscars - have become the most In an industry which has been have become a reality. Thanks to characterized by the glaringabsence prestigious awards for filmmaking the efforts of many of you, all of the in the world. The outstanding talents of women as film directors, such an Academy's facilities are now housed from all branches of filmmaking are accomplishment is no small feat. in its own building for the first time And her detailing of it in this ex­ represented in the Academy and since its founding in 1927. This is a tremely personal and personable constitute it as the most esteemed milestone in the history of the Acad­ organization in the motion picture autobiography is not only a poig­ emy. nant account of the obstacle-race world. The new building is a reflection This building offers an oppor­ that any woman aspiring to enter of the broadening scope of the tunity for these eminent filmmakers this largely "for-men-only" domain Academy's activities. I urge you to to meet in attractive surroundings; must run, but is at the same time an take advantage of what it has to view films, exchange ideas, and informative saga of the ardors of offer, and to maximize the use of its thereby advance in their own en­ filmmaking, from the frenetic lu­ faci lities. deavors. I like to think of the Acad­ nacy of financing through the mer­ As filmmakers, we are constantly curial uncertainties of distribution. emy, in part, as supplying a creative striving for perfection. We have environment, where information is Starting as a typist in a corset firm kept that goal in mind in designing exchanged and researched, and (dictated by the grim necessity of the new building. The 1111-seat feeding herself), she moved on to a ideas are inspired and born. Samuel Goldwyn Theater is the I hope all of you will visit the new job as secretary in the scenario most technically and acoustically building often and participate in the department of British Instructional advanced of auditoriums and in- Academy's broad scope of activities. Films, then as a hastily-recruited substitute for an ailing continuity (script) girl. With no prior prepara­ cut film, but my request was re­ success. And the collaboration, so tion, she managed to brave out the fused." How strange that seems to auspiciously begun, broadened into experience through sheer guts and us today, when cinema depart­ marriage and a 3D-year working the sympathetic tolerance of the ments for the training of film stu­ partnership that wrote and pro­ films cast and technicians. Her dents abound in more than two duced a score of highly successful appetite whetted, she searched for hundred universities throughoutthis films for Arthur Rank Productions, ways to master film technique. "But country. and, eventually, for their own pro­ there were no books on the subject, Stubborn determination secured duction company. no schools for teaching its rules or her work in various phases of film The opportunity to direct was intricacies except the 'floor' of the production, and fortune led her to hard won and came at the age of tudio, itself," she recalls. "I re­ a meeting with a struggling young thirty-six in the field of documen­ uested permission to assist in the writer, Sydney Box. A volume of tary films, principally because of the editing department at night without one-act plays, written jointly, was scarcity of male directors in wartime, payment in order to learn how to published and found immediate Continued on page 4 Page Three Book Review ... Continued from page 3 Ms. Box admits. Nine years later, making the step to directing full­ length, feature films meant fighting the same battle all over again - the unwillingness of studio executives to place responsibility for a film in the hands of a woman, the difficulty of persuading actors (and actresses) that a woman had the skill and for­ titude to guide them through the perilous shoals of a film's produc­ tion. With the same openness, Ms. Box pulls no punches in her description of the strains, personal and pro­ fessional, that assail a "working The Margaret Herrick Library marriage" and that, in her instance, finally led to separation and divorce. Despite her awareness of the glaring inequities in woman's estate (there Library Opens Doors to Librarians and Press is no poverty worse than a poverty of opportunity), she is not unaware Since the Margaret Herrick Library, ture industry. It houses 9,000 vol­ of the many pressures under which which occupies the fourth and umes and subscribes to 140 perio­ men struggle as well. Her view of fifth floors of the Academy's new dicals. Many of the library's trade life is drawn with frankness, insight building, is regarded as one of the publications date back to the turn of and compassion. And her view of most complete collections of its the century. There are production the filmmaking process, as seen by kind in the world, the Board of Gov­ files on approximately 40,000 films a woman who has "been there," is ernors held a library reception for in the library, as well as authentic of inestimable value to any who heads of important film libraries, glass slides from the silent film days. selected area local public libraries, aspire to follow in her path. At the library reception, an in­ library and film study press, and formal wine and cheese gathering selected other press and ed ucators. on November 21, the group con­ The Academy views the library as gregated in the library for words of Building Dedication ... adding important impetus to its total welcome from Academy officials Continued from pa'ge 1 scope of activities and service to its and staff. All of the library staff members, the film community and members were on hand to conduct Goldwyn Theater, said to be the the general public. It provides a informal tours of the library, its facil­ most technically and acoustically complete history of the motion pic- ities and collections. advanced in the world. It has both acoustical baffles, and ci rcu itry for Sensurround and quadraphonic and quintaphonic sound, should these systems become widespread within the next quarter of a century. The Dedication ceremonies and Published by Ihe Academy of Molion Pidure Arls and Sciences the numerous activities sponsored 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California 90211 • (213) 278-8990 by the Academy in the years to follow, will have an important im­ Wolter Mirisch, President; Howard W. Koch, First Vice President; Fay Kanin, Vice President; John Green, Vice President; Morvin E. Mirisch, Treasurer; Hal Elias, Secretory; pact on the motion picture industry. James M. Roberts, Executive Director; Philip Chamberlin, Director of Special Proiects. The Academy brings together the most talented men and women in The Bullelin of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is designed to provide information filmmaking hopefully to produce about the full range of Academy activities and other newsworthy developments in the film world. Each issue of The Bullelin is moiled to the 3,800 members of the Academy and to nearly two even more outstanding work and to thousand colleges, universities, museums, libraries and film societies in the U.S. and abroad. promote new young talent. Page Four