Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "motion-picture-academy"

This Week
Meet me at the Ambassador
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Writers Notebook: Story origins

Ambassador Hotel
Monday, January 11, 1927

Thirty six members of the Hollywood motion picture community, interested in promoting the film industry, gathered at the Ambassador Hotel for dinner and a meeting.
Members attending that meeting are listed in alphabetical order: J.A. Ball, Richard Barthelmess, Fred Beetson, Charles H. Christie, George Cohen, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Joseph W. Farnham, Cedric Gibbons, Benjamin Glazer, Sid Grauman, Milton Hoffman, Jack Holt, Henry King, Jesse Lasky, M.C. Levee, Frank Lloyd, Harold Lloyd, Edwin Loeb, Jeanie MacPherson, Louis B. Mayer, Bess Meredyth, Conrad Nagel, Fred Niblo, Mary Pickford, Roy Pomeroy, Harry Rapf, Joseph Schenck, Milton Sills, John Stahl, Irving Thalberg, Raoul Walsh, Harry Warner, Jack L. Warner, Carey Wilson and Frank Woods.
During the meeting Mayer, Nagel, Niblo and Beetson laid out a general plan and fielded questions from the group. At the end of the meeting L.B. Mayer announced that the present group would be known as the official founders of the Academy of Motion Pictures.

Following that meeting the group moved swiftly to put together articles of incorporation. By mid March the first officers were elected: Douglas Fairbanks (president), Fred Niblo (vice president), M.C. Levee (treasurer), and Frank Woods (secretary).
On May 4, 1927 the State of California granted the academy a charter as a non profit corporation and one week later, on May 11, 1927 a festive and official organizational banquet took place in the Crystal Ball Room of the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles with three hundred guests in attendance.
Of that group of three hundred two hundred and thirty wrote checks in the amount of one hundred dollars each and were accepted as Pioneer members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
From that night in May it seems that everyone in the movie industry became enthusiastic about the academy and wanted to be a part of it.
Cedric Gibbons, one of the academy founders, was tasked with designing the statue of merit that would be handed out at the Academy Awards ceremony – Oscar was born.

Here are the major awards winners for the first Academy presentation. 1927-28
Production (Picture):
"WINGS," also nominated "The Racket," "Seventh Heaven...." 
Actor:
EMIL JANNINGS in "The Way of All Flesh"
Actress:
JANET GAYNOR in "Seventh Heaven"
Director: (Two Awards)
Drama Direction:
FRANK BORZAGE for "Seventh Heaven"
Comedy Direction:
LEWIS MILESTONE for "Two Arabian Knights"
Adapted Screenplay:
Benjamin Glazer (Seventh Heaven)
Original Story:
Ben Hecht (Underworld)
(To be continued)

Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Spicer Hearing final Witness – View the OK Corral

Doc shuffled through his notes and pulled the one out that said, why didn’t Tom Fitch ask a follow up question of Mrs. Bourland regarding the cowboy’s hands up status. Then he mused, Judge Spicer asked Tom’s question with absolute clarity and Mrs. Bourland’s answer put to rest the cowboy’s surrender claims. Doc wadded up the note and chuckled as he flipped it into the trash basket.
T.J. Drum called Judge J.H. Lucas, a slight bespectacled man to the stand. The judge’s office is on the second floor of the Exchange Building which fronts on Fremont Street, on the opposite side of the street from Fly's building.
Judge Lucas was in his office on the afternoon of the difficulty heard the shots being fired and rushed to the front window. “I looked down the street and saw Billy Clanton standing in front of the house just below Fly's building. He had his pistol up and I thought was firing. Then for fear of a stray bullet, I drew my head in for an instant. When I looked again, he was still standing there with his pistol and I thought fighting."
"Did you see anyone other than Billy Clanton, shooting or fighting, as you said?" T.J. Drum asked.
"No. I did not see anyone else that I thought had weapons."
"What happened to Billy Clanton?"
"I saw from his movement that he was wounded. His body seemed to bend a little and his pistol was above his head as he was in the act of falling. He caught against the window or wall and turned partly around. He struggled until he was clean down to the ground. Then the firing ceased."
"Thank you Judge Lucas, I have no further questions."
The district attorney stepped forward to cross-examine the witness. "Did you see any other person or persons with arms and engaged in shooting at the time you saw a pistol in Billy Clanton's hand?"
“I did not. I heard considerable shooting, but could not see any other parties with weapons, except Billy Clanton."
Price then turned to the Judge, “I have no further questions, Your Honor.”
Judge Spicer said, “You may step down, Judge Lucas.”
As soon as Judge Lucas stepped out of the witness box Tom Fitch announced, “Defense has no further witnesses, Your Honor.”
Judge Spicer rubbed his chin and looked at his notes for a long moment. Then he relaxed and sat back in his chair. "I plan to take some time and study the testimony. I shall adjourn this court to be reconvened Tuesday morning November 29th at nine o'clock."
(To be continued)

Writers Notebook:
Writers write best about what they know – sounds cliche, but it’s true. You might also add this bit, there’s a tinge of autobiography and a hint of bias in all of it.
Margaret Mitchell's ‘Gone the Wind’ is an excellent example. Ms. Mitchell based her great American novels location in and around Jonesboro, Georgia where her ancestors had lived, and a number of her characters were based on either relatives or people she knew.
Ernest Hemingway drew from a real life experience when he wrote ‘The Sun Also Rises.’ Donald Ogden Stewart, Oscar winning writer, and friend of Hemingway's tells that, while in Spain together they had made it into American newspapers as, ‘bullfighting Americanos’ in Pamplona in 1924. Then when ‘The Sun Also Rises’ was published in 1926, Stewart was mystified by the praise lavished on it. It seemed to him only an accurate journalistic account of what had actually happened during their trip to Pamplona with a group of friends, including some British Royalty. (Brett Ashley in the book).

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
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