“Forgotten Hollywood”- Citizen Kane Oscar up for Auction…

Posted on December 14, 2011 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

  It ls a known fact that Orson Welles didn’t receive an Oscar for Best Director in 1941 for his work on Citizen Kane. This accolade went to John Ford for How Green was My Valley. Nor did Kane win the Best Picture statuette. Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz (the grandfather of Ben Mankiewicz, the weekend host at Turner Classic Movies) did garner an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for co-writing Kane’s amazing script.

   The only statuette Citizen Kane received is now up for sale, according Nate D. Sanders Auctions. Despite a protest from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beatrice Welles (Orson’s daughter) was given the right to sell the Oscar by court ruling, and the prize was valued at one million dollars in 2002. In 1950, the Academy required that Oscar winners  promise they not sell their statuette before offering it back for one dollar. Believed lost, Welles bequeathed the award to his daughter in his will. It was found in 1994, almost ten years after his death.

   The pictures losing to Citizen Kane that year in the Best Screenplay category included Sergeant York and The Devil and Miss Jones.

   Online bidding is open until 5p, December 20th. A suggestion…  Ben Mankiewicz should step up and make a bid. This would keep the Oscar in their family. And  his donation of this item to TCM might make it an outstanding display artifact in their lobby. Just saying

 Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 at 12:04 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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