When Whoppy Goldberg won the Best Supporting Actress Award for “Ghost” in 1991, she certainly had no idea that the Oscars would end up in a dumpster.
Goldberg sent the statue to Chicago-based manufacturer RS Owens & Co. for cleaning. But the box, which was opened and reopened, came empty. The award was later found in a trash can at an airport in California and the thief was never caught.
“It’s interesting that stolen Oscars sometimes wind up in the trash,” Jim Piazza, co-author of “Academy Award: The Complete Unofficial History, “Told The Post.” It seems like they are priceless or worthless. Thieves do, I think, to get cold feet. “
Since the first ceremony took place in 1929, there was some 80 Have lost the oscars Or was stolen. All but 11 have been found, physical in garbage bins and auction catalogs.
In more than a dozen examples, trophies – gold-plated over bronze, over 13 inches long and weighing 8en pounds – were stolen by Bona’s criminals. The same happened in 2000, when 55 unlicensed Oscars went missing from a loading dock in California.
They were shipped from the Chicago headquarters of RS Owens and should have been delivered to the academy before the award ceremony. Instead, the thieves apparently looked outside, and the statues ended up in a supermarket dumpster in the Koerstown neighborhood of Los Angeles.
A jumper named Willie Fulgier found 52 of the souvenirs, turned them into a $ 50,000 bounty and saved that year’s ceremony.
The thieves, employees of the trucking company who stole boxes without knowing their contents, were arrested and pleaded no contest; One was sentenced to six months in jail, the other received probation. Two inaccurate statues remain at large; One surfaced in 2003 during a Florida drug stir.
The first Academy Award thought swipe was in 1938, at the ninth annual ceremony held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Alice Brady won the plaque for Best Supporting Actress (trophies were not awarded in supporting categories until 1943) for her role in “In the Old Chicago”. But she was sleeping in a house with a sprained ankle and a seemingly unknown man accepted her in her place.
Rumors suggested that the boy was an intruder and held the prize. Shortly thereafter, while Brady was on Mend, the Academy held a lovely makeup ceremony, presenting him with the “new” Oscar. Common sense holds that he was given a replacement, and Brady, who died of cancer after just one year, never had a chance to comment.
In 2008, what he thought was his replacement Oscar was going to the Heritage Auction House in LA for $ 59,750. The sellers were the William and Alice Brady Estate Archive. But according to later research by Academy librarian Libby Vertin, the auction of the award was indeed original. There was never a replacement. The so-called mystery man who claimed that he was Henry King, the director of “In Old Chicago”.
He unquestionably distributed it to Brady, who then returned it for adaptation for the Academy. This is what was then presented to her at the Shringar ceremony.
“Without knowledge, less would have been found for property [Brady’s] Award, “Oscar Expert Olivia Rutigliano, A Columbia University Ph.D. The candidate who is dedicated to unraveling the Academy Award mysteries told The Post. “And now, with it being original, the price again increases. The more stories there are, the greater the value. “
Members of the Brady Estate were lucky to have to land the trophy. Oscars given after 1951 cannot be sold legally.
This mandate proved difficult for the estate of Mary Pickford, who received the Best Actress Oscar in 1930 for “Coquit”. Unfortunately for his family, the old Hollywood veteran also received an honorary Academy Award in the 1970s.
“When he signed an agreement to sell any Academy Awards,” Darren Julian, president of Julian Auction, Told The Post. This condition also reached his heirs. “Her estate tried to sell it, the academy sued and Mary Pickford’s property was lost.”
For his own interest in the gray-area items up for auction: “We never sell them,” Julian explained, “because we always respect the Academy’s request and value our relationship with them as anything else. Give. “
Despite the difficulty of selling hot, or even lukewarm, Oscars, some people just can’t help but nab them. Olympia Dukakis received her 1988 Best Supporting Actress Award (for “Moonstruck”) from Montclair, NJ, Kitchen. The sticky crook – who was never caught – tried to take the ransom, then fell silent. Dukakis bought a $ 78 replacement from the academy and the original is yet to be revived.
Frances MacDormand had the chance to show her Best Actress trophy for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in 2018 before snagging the Governors Ball after a big show in 2018. The alleged thief, Terry Bryant, who claimed to be an invited guest, announced to Temple of Exit with McDormand’s Oscar, announcing high, “We did it.” he was arrestedThe statue was returned, with Bryant claiming that it was not known that Oscar was genuine and the charges were dropped.
Still on a larger scale: the Best Supporting Actress plaque was won by Hattie McDaniel in 1940 – the first black person to receive an Academy Award, for her portrayal of Mamie in “Gone with the Wind” – which was donated to Howard University and Disappeared during a civilian. -Protest
When Steven Spielberg had to take the Brown Steps, he dropped all three Oscars out of the ordinary. In a private sale, the director paid $ 607,500 for Clark Gable’s 1934 “It’s Happened Night” Best Actor Award and Bette Davis’ 1938 for $ 578,000. “Jezebel;” The award for Spielberg then purchased Davis’ Best Actress statues (“Dangerous” of 1935) for $ 180,000 a second at a 2002 Sotheby’s auction.
“Spielberg returned him to the academy,” Piazza said. Through Sotheby’s, in 1999, “Michael Jackson bought producer David O. Selznick’s” Gone with the Wind “Oscar for a record-setting $ 1.54 million. Since the singer’s death, Piazza has said,” Someone No
Knows where it is. “
Occasionally, however, a faux Oscar ends its Hollywood. As was the case for Margaret O’Brien’s small-sized teen Oscar (given sporadically from 1935 to 1961) “Meet Me in St. Louis.”
“Margaret had created a prize room in her family’s Beverly Hills home and one day the maid offered to take three prizes for a good polishing.
Margaret’s mother agreed, but the maid was never seen again, ”Randall Malone, an actor and current-manager of O-Bryan, told The Post. “This happened in 1958, when Margaret would have been around 20. Then in 1995, the award was turned into an auction list.” It was expected to receive at least $ 10,000.
Before this happened, Oscar somehow ended up in a Pasadena flea market. “Most people thought it was a prop,” Malone said.
But a pair of sports-memorabilia takers took a shot at something else and bought it for $ 500. After learning that their search was stolen, the duo returned to O’Brien and the Academy gave him a ticket to that year’s Oscar ceremony.
“They were glad it got back to Margaret, but were sacred to themselves,” Malone said. “They thought they had found their treasure.”
And yet, for a trophy that’s worth enough to steal thieves, Oscar doesn’t always get a lot of respect from the stars who win him.
Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet keep it in their bathroom. And Jared Leto, who won the 2014 Best Supporting Actor Award for “Dallas Buyers Club”, Don’t even know where their oscar is.
The actor revealed in January on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” that I know I have been missing it for three years.
“I LA and. . It somehow just magically disappeared. . . I hope it is in good hands wherever it is.
Those who know Lato are not surprised. Solon Bixler, who played guitar in Ledo’s band Thirty Seconds to Mars, quoted the post as saying, “I know about Jordan, the award probably doesn’t mean much.” “I say he cares more about work than praise.”
It is interesting that stolen Oscars sometimes wind up in the trash. . . I think thieves do it to get cold feet
Academy Award Historian Jim Piazza
Fashion campaigner Kelly Cutrone, who brought Leto to her client’s show, told The Post, “I would be disappointed if he knew that I was in his garage or somewhere else.” It is entirely up to Jared Leto to brand that he does not know where his Oscar is. “
He is in good company. Angelina Jolie lost track of her (“Girl, Interrupted” for Best Supporting Actress 2000) after giving it to her still-deceased mother. Jeff Bridges has no match for what happened to his trophy (Best Actor 2010 for “Crazy Heart”).
Katherine Hepburn has won more (four) acting Oscars than anyone else, but did not bother to claim a single at the big ceremony. So it is only fitting that one in an Empire State Building went missing during a Guinness World Records appearance. Matt Damon did not receive the 1998 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for “Good Will Hunting”.
As he told the London Daily Express: “I know it ended up in my apartment in New York, but unfortunately we had a flood when one of the sprinklers went when my wife and I were out of town and The last time I saw it
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