Dear Flynnstones,
while watching HATARI in honour of the late Hardy Krüger, an eye opening episode ensued. And I think every true flynnmate will get a chuckle out of it. This movie whose desert road was paved by the likes of King Solomon‘s Mines and The Roots of Heaven also features Bruce “Et tu, Brutus!?“ Cabot. He gets horned by a rhino right in the beginning, but survives- for once he‘s the one being stiffed. Later there is a scene, when the delightful jumpy Red Buttons (the one who cost Errol his Academy Award) passes around a safari hat and asks all of the crew to chip in some money for a worthy cause. Each and every one does, except for…Cabot. I guess that‘s what you call „staying in character“.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Thank-you Heinz, Bruce Cabot was a top character actor in one major film after another. Hatari (1962) was the second of ten blockbuster films he made with co-star John Wayne. He almost became a leading man in the 1930’s but later specialized in playing one bad guy after another in films like Last Of The Mohicans (1936) with Radolph Scott, Lost In Alaska (1952) with Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, and his very last the James Bond 007 movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971) with Sean Connery.
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Very welcome Ralph, Cabot the Bruce was a hot commodity in the 30s battling King Kong and starring alongside Marlene Dietrich, or was it the other way round? His star appeal from yesteryear made him attractive to Errol as a roisterer companion when he was just starting out. But he soon became a Klingon to Flynn and even in the immediate aftermath of the ill fated Will Tell movie profited from their association netting the role of the bad guy in the italian film „The Red Cloak“.
Hatari Heinz… cost Errol his Oscar, you say?
The back story* to “the Award” is just as complicated from its very beginnings…
The idea of “Academy Awards” were originally (and broadly) defined as recognizing achievement in the film industry.
“The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1927 and 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. AMPAS president (1927-9) Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show.” -Wicki
“The Academy Awards were just a year old when Mary Pickford decided she should have a little gold statuette. Anticipation had been high for ”Coquette,” because it was Pickford’s initial talking picture and presented her in an adult role for the first time. Pickford had cut off her trademark curls, which were then sent to two Southern California museums.
Neither the melodrama nor Pickford’s performance was well received. But Pickford was too cagey to let negative notices get in the way. At the time, Academy Award winners were chosen by the five-member Board of Judges, and Pickford had the quintet over for tea. An invitation to Pickfair, the estate she shared with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, was the greatest status symbol in Hollywood, and the committee was duly appreciative, naming Pickford best actress at the 1928-29 Awards. Protests over this blatant bribery led to the opening of balloting to all academy members; voters could still be bought off, but it would take a much greater effort.”
-NY Times 3/9/03
(It should be noted Fairbanks resigned sometime after the 1929 awards ceremony, as I recall reading, where he noted the Awards had moved away from its original purpose- in other words, he wasn’t too pleased about that previous “tea” ceremony.)
Also, some further background:
*Why Were the Oscars Created?
BY KELLI MARSHALL MARCH 2, 2014
“In the late 1920s, MGM bigwig Louis B. Mayer (above) got antsy when studio construction unions began forming in Hollywood. These guilds came with expensive labor agreements, which were proving cost-prohibitive for the film studio. He was also annoyed because he wanted some MGM set designers to build his Santa Monica beach house, but because of the recently signed union contracts, his “outside project” would be very expensive. Mayer got around that by hiring just a few of the studio’s skilled artisans and outsourcing the cheap labor. But the situation was an eyeopener for Mayer, who figured soon Hollywood’s directors, actors, and writers would unionize, too.
In the late 1920s, MGM bigwig Louis B. Mayer (above) got antsy when studio construction unions began forming in Hollywood. These guilds came with expensive labor agreements, which were proving cost-prohibitive for the film studio. He was also annoyed because he wanted some MGM set designers to build his Santa Monica beach house, but because of the recently signed union contracts, his “outside project” would be very expensive. Mayer got around that by hiring just a few of the studio’s skilled artisans and outsourcing the cheap labor. But the situation was an eyeopener for Mayer, who figured soon Hollywood’s directors, actors, and writers would unionize, too.
As a result, Mayer and a couple of buddies created the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). In effect, this organization would hopefully stave off any more unionization efforts in Hollywood. Shortly after this meeting, Mayer convened with 36 actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers in a fancy hotel and told them that if they signed on as “Academy members,” working conditions would improve and they’d be a part of an elite organization. Not wanting to miss out on such an opportunity, the Hollywood folks — including new president Douglas Fairbanks and the only female, Mary Pickford — signed on.
The doling out of Awards, which most of the world will celebrate on TV… were actually an afterthought of this newly organized union.
Hatari Heinz… cost Errol his Oscar, you say?
The back story* to “the Award” is just as complicated from its very beginnings…
The idea of “Academy Awards” were originally (and broadly) defined as recognizing achievement in the film industry.
“The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1927 and 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. AMPAS president (1927-9) Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show.” -Wicki
“The Academy Awards were just a year old when Mary Pickford decided she should have a little gold statuette. Anticipation had been high for ”Coquette,” because it was Pickford’s initial talking picture and presented her in an adult role for the first time. Pickford had cut off her trademark curls, which were then sent to two Southern California museums.
Neither the melodrama nor Pickford’s performance was well received. But Pickford was too cagey to let negative notices get in the way. At the time, Academy Award winners were chosen by the five-member Board of Judges, and Pickford had the quintet over for tea. An invitation to Pickfair, the estate she shared with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, was the greatest status symbol in Hollywood, and the committee was duly appreciative, naming Pickford best actress at the 1928-29 Awards. Protests over this blatant bribery led to the opening of balloting to all academy members; voters could still be bought off, but it would take a much greater effort.”-NY Times 3/9/03
(It should be noted Fairbanks resigned sometime after the 1929 awards ceremony, as I recall reading, where he noted the Awards had moved away from its original purpose- in other words, he wasn’t too pleased about that previous “tea” ceremony.)
Also, some further background:
* Why Were the Oscars Created?
BY KELLI MARSHALL MARCH 2, 2014
“In the late 1920s, MGM bigwig Louis B. Mayer (above) got antsy when studio construction unions began forming in Hollywood. These guilds came with expensive labor agreements, which were proving cost-prohibitive for the film studio. He was also annoyed because he wanted some MGM set designers to build his Santa Monica beach house, but because of the recently signed union contracts, his “outside project” would be very expensive. Mayer got around that by hiring just a few of the studio’s skilled artisans and outsourcing the cheap labor. But the situation was an eyeopener for Mayer, who figured soon Hollywood’s directors, actors, and writers would unionize, too.
In the late 1920s, MGM bigwig Louis B. Mayer (above) got antsy when studio construction unions began forming in Hollywood. These guilds came with expensive labor agreements, which were proving cost-prohibitive for the film studio. He was also annoyed because he wanted some MGM set designers to build his Santa Monica beach house, but because of the recently signed union contracts, his “outside project” would be very expensive. Mayer got around that by hiring just a few of the studio’s skilled artisans and outsourcing the cheap labor. But the situation was an eyeopener for Mayer, who figured soon Hollywood’s directors, actors, and writers would unionize, too.
As a result, Mayer and a couple of buddies created the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). In effect, this organization would hopefully stave off any more unionization efforts in Hollywood. Shortly after this meeting, Mayer convened with 36 actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers in a fancy hotel and told them that if they signed on as “Academy members,” working conditions would improve and they’d be a part of an elite organization. Not wanting to miss out on such an opportunity, the Hollywood folks — including new president Douglas Fairbanks and the only female, Mary Pickford — signed on.
The doling out of Awards, which most of the world will celebrate on TV… were actually an afterthought of this newly organized union.
Then and now, a good electrician is hard to find. Thanks for that Illuminating LB Mayer story, King Karl. The Oscars later went on to be presented at the Biltmore Hotel, the infamous haunt, where Elizabeth Short disappeared. The Uncle responsible was never caught. The Academy Award escaped Errol too, but never mind, here is what he said about that in a 1950 issue of Screen Guide: “I have no desire to exceed others, to win an Academy Award for example, I merely desire to be creative.“
Elementary my dear Holmes Heinz, Bruce Cabot made three Italian films in the mid-1950’s. “The Red Cloak” (1955) a swashbuckler with gorgeous Patricia Medina, the following year a comedy with Italy’s top movie comedian Toto, and “The Love Specialist” (1957) with Diana Dors and Vittorio Gasman. The last was the only one to see any kind of a U.S. release.
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Right RR, Mr. Caboto still was in big demand as s heavy. Just figure, if our man Flynn had still been around the Cabot role in “Diamonds are forever“ would’ve been tailormade for him. There is a new book out called „When Harry met Cubby“ that is a good read and recounts a little the circumstances of filming James Bond in Howard Hughes’ Las Vegas of that period.