©Disney
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney
This evening, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will honor the best films of 2014 during the 87th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Tinseltown will be a buzz all day as the clock ticks closer to the biggest event of the year for the motion picture industry.
This morning as my husband and I were engaged in our normal ritual of coffee while watching CBS Sunday Morning, we were deeply intrigued by the coverage of Oscar history. While there was little mention of my favorite visionary of all time, I started to think about Walt Disney and all the times he was honored with not only nominations, but also with historic wins of the coveted golden Oscar.
The tagline for The Oscars this year is “Imagine What’s Possible.” Walt Disney not only imagined what was possible, but because of his restless visions, he accomplished the impossible. With that in mind, I thought it would be kind of fun to reflect on The Oscars and Walt Disney and interesting place he holds in Oscar history.
Even decades after his passing, legendary animator, film producer and Hollywood icon, Walt Disney, still holds the record for the most Academy Awards in history with an astounding total of twenty-two wins from fifty-nine nominations, as well as four Honorary Awards.
Walt and Roy Disney ©Disney
The first Oscar that Walt Disney received, also the first in Academy history, was for Animated Short Subject (Cartoon) at the 5th Annual Academy Awards in 1932. Walt Disney took home the Oscar for “Flowers and Trees” against the other two nominees, his own Mickey’s Orphans and Warner’s It’s Got Me Again. At that same ceremony, Walt was also given an Honorary Award for his creation of Mickey Mouse, marking a giant milestone in Oscar history. The ceremony in 1932 was the first year that one man was given two awards and was only the second time a special honorary Oscar had been awarded.
In 1939, Walt received an Honorary Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for “significant screen innovation, which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon”. At that time, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the highest grossing film and leading up to the Academy Awards, was under consideration to be nominated for Best Picture. Given the unique nature of the full-length animation and the fact that it was set apart from the other films, the Academy found a special award would be a more appropriate recognition.
Academy President and legendary film director, Frank Capra was instrumental in the creation of a special award for Walt, honoring him with a custom-made Oscar statue standing above seven miniature statuettes that represented each of the Dwarfs. Child star, Shirley Temple, presented the second Honorary Award to Walt Disney marking the most distinctive award in academy history.
©Disney
In 1942, Walt Disney, together with William E. Garity and J.N.A Hawkins, received another Honorary Award for “their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia.”
That same year, Walt also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, an honor only bestowed upon film producers of great accomplishments at the Academy Award ceremonies. Producer David O. Selznick presented the award to Walt Disney, the youngest recipient of the award at the time, and he accepted with tearful words, “I want to thank everybody here. This is a vote of confidence from the whole industry.”
During the 1949 Academy Awards ceremony, Walt Disney made history when he won the Oscar for the first ever nature documentary, Seal Island.
©Disney
Walt Disney made further history in 1954 receiving four Academy Awards, the most in Oscar history at the time, for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom; Best Short Subject-Two-Reel, Bear Country; Best Documentary (Short Subject), The Alaskan Eskimo; and Best Documentary (Feature), The Living Desert.
In 1965, he received his first nomination for Best Picture for the beloved motion picture Mary Poppins, but unfortunately lost to George Cukor’s My Fair Lady. He received his final Academy award, posthumously, in 1969 for Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.
Walt Disney’s collection of Academy Awards, including the honorable Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, are display in the lobby at The Walt Disney Family Museum located in San Francisco, a place that certainly ranks high on my bucket list. I can only imagine standing before the display and hearing the words, “And the Oscar goes to…..Walt Disney.”
Visit www.capturing-the-magic.com for a preview of the stunning coffee table book, Capturing the Magic and purchase your copy today.
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