Academy Awards
Pickford was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for which her husband would be the first president. She was one of only three women founding members.
The first Academy Awards were held in 1929, without any nominations for Pickford. She was nominated for Best Actress in 1930 for the 2nd Academy Awards. Many have accused Pickford of unfairly winning, using her clout and standing in the industry for an Award she was unworthy of. One author called it 'the first lifetime achievement award' (despite the fact Charlie Chaplin had won something similar the year before).
Pickford did lobby hard for the Oscar, inviting the judges over for tea at her home Pickfair. However her performance was critically and publicly acclaimed. Pickford would win another Oscar in 1976, an honorary lifetime achievement award.
In 2008 a legal battle ensued between The Academy and Buddy Rogers's heirs over the sale of the Coquette Oscar. The heirs were trying to sell the award for charity, as stipulated in Rogers's second wife's will. The Academy insisted that the Award must be offered back to them for $1, a rule they instated long after Pickford won her Oscar. They claimed that when she won her honorary Oscar in the 1970s she signed a contract covering the Coquette statuette as well. The heirs argued that it might not have even been her signature, as Pickford was frail at the end of her life.
The Academy won the legal battle, but announced they were willing to pursue a private agreement with the heirs. The outcome of this agreement is unknown.
Read more about this topic: Coquette (film)
Famous quotes containing the word academy:
“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)