Welles Oscar for sale - Christies to auction July 25th

[ToddBaesen]

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Annie:

Very good suggestion, but unfortunately I imagine it would require someone with millions of dollars to buy out Beatrice totally. But it would be wonderful if it could actually happen. How many millions, we'd only know by asking Beatrice or Thomas White... neither of whom is known for being reasonable. But now would be a good time, as she clearly needs the money...

And incidentally, in reply to you post re: The Brady Folder. That was a folder of memos that pertained to TOUCH OF EVIL, that were obtained by Rick Schmidlin. Frank Brady found and quoted them in his book, CITIZEN WELLES. Check out the intervew with Rick Schmidlin at TOUCH of WELLES, I think he mentions getting the memos from Brady there.

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[ToddBaesen]

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And the sequel to CITIZEN BEATRICE:

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The dark screen FADES INTO a VERY CLOSE SHOT on Beatrice's back, and immediately CAMERA PULLS AWAY showing Beatrice, kneeling beside Orson's bed, her hands clutching the covers.

BEATRICE
Father, forgive me! God, forgive me!


NARRATOR
Something had happened - a thing which, years ago had been the eagerest hope of many, many Wellesfans the world over, and now it came at last: Beatrice Mori Welles had got her comeuppance. She got it three times filled, and running over...

[Fat Annie]

Todd,

One more thing re: Beatrice.
the MP Academy should not give her any money.
Giving her money is encouraging her activity which is anthithetical to the interests of Motion Picture Advancement.

[Fat Annie]

Todd,

Regarding who has the money, Mr. Spielberg has already spent over $1.5 million to return Oscars to the Academy and according to THIS ARTICLE he was possibly going to have to do the same for Welles's.

How much more effective to use the money to end B's nonesense & set up a non-profit to truly preserve the Great Man's legacy.

[ToddBaesen]

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Interesting that Billy Wilder's wife, Audrey has just donated $5 million to the UCLA Film and Television Archive and Hammer museum. Now if only someone would think of donating that amount to buy out Beatrice Welles!!

As for Mr. Spielberg doing it, although it would clearly be within his means, I doubt if he'd be interested, based on what Oja Kodar had to say about the unproductive meeting Welles had with Spielberg when Orson needed a mere $2 million to make THE CRADLE WILL ROCK.

Here's an excerpt from Kodar's comments about the meeting between Spielberg and Welles:

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OJA KODAR: Orson was going to use Amy Irving for a part in THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, and at the time she was married to Steven Spielberg. So Orson had dinner with Spielberg and Amy Irving, they talked about the movie and then they both left. They also left Orson with the bill. Once again, Spielberg had a right to say no, but if you have courage, and you've paid $60,000. for a piece of wood, (the Rosebud sled from CITIZEN KANE), wouldn't you think he might give $60,000 to a great moviemaker? Wouldn't you think Spielberg might say, "Mr. Welles, here's $60,000, write me a script," instead of paying for a reproduction of the Rosebud sled. And Orson said the sled was a fake, because the real Rosebud sled had burned up. But even if you don't shoot the script, wouldn't you like to have an original script by Orson Welles? You could put it on your coffee table and boast to your friends that Orson Welles had written an original script for you. You know what it is? These people don't love movies. First they love themselves. Only after that, do they love movies. They always say, "I admire Orson, I'm impressed by him, I learned so much from him." But it's just something that sounds wonderful to say. It's like people who look at the Mona Lisa. They stand there and don't see much. You can see the disappointment on their faces. They fly all the way to Paris, go to the Louvre, and stand in front of the Mona Lisa and their faces look like a Cocker Spaniel. Everything is drooping down, because they don't know what they're looking at, but it's a great thing to go back and say, "it was wonderful."

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[Jeff Wilson]

While the possibility of Beatrice's troubles forcing her hand in terms of allowing projects to come forward is tempting, it remains perhaps too early to start crowing that the Wicked Witch of the West is dead. Until something actually makes U.S. screens, nothing has changed. And because one project might come out, it doesn't mean more will. The temptation to indulge in schadenfreude is oh so great here, but I'm going to try and refrain for the moment. I am curious as to what has apparently wiped her out financially; I mean, she's obviously had money at some point, given the caliber of lawyers she had on the job all these years.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Jeff,
Despite the smug tone of my earlier message on this thread, I agree that it's too early to gloat. I expect that She Who Shall Not Be Named has a few tricks left up her tattered sleeve.

[Lance Morrison]

wow, thanks todd, that was quite an interesting comment from oja

[Jeff Wilson]

Well, the first battle in the legal war over Welles' Oscar has been won by Beatrice...from the Associated Press, today:

LOS ANGELES - The Academy Award presented to Orson Welles for "Citizen Kane" belongs to his daughter, a judge said, ruling against Oscar overseers trying to prevent the sale of the statuette.

U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson ruled in Beatrice Welles' favor on March 4, saying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had no claim to the Oscar awarded to her father for co-writing the screenplay of his 1941 classic. The ruling was made public Monday.

"Welles has unrestricted property rights in the original Oscar, which she may dispose of however she sees fit," Pregerson wrote.

Her attorney said Monday that Welles plans to sell the Oscar at auction.

The academy will appeal the ruling, said David Quinto, an attorney for the academy.

Welles had tried to sell the Oscar last year, but Christie's auction house pulled it from a scheduled sale because of the ownership dispute with the academy.

The dispute centered on a right-of-first-refusal agreement that the academy adopted in 1950, which stipulates that if an award winner or the winner's heirs ever put an Oscar up for sale, it has to be offered to the academy first for $1.

The Oscar presented to Welles, who died in 1985, had long been presumed lost, and his daughter asked the academy for a replacement in 1988. The academy agreed, but asked her to sign the agreement regarding potential sale of Oscar statuettes.

Orson Welles' original Oscar surfaced in 1994 in possession of Gary Graver, a cinematographer who had worked with the director. Graver sold the statuette for $50,000 to Bay Holdings, which then offered it for sale through Sotheby's auction house.

When Beatrice Welles heard of it, she sued to block the sale of the Oscar, which eventually was returned to her. After she offered the original Oscar for auction, the academy notified her she was obligated to return it under the agreement she signed for the duplicate statuette.

Welles then sued the academy, arguing the agreement applied only to the duplicate, not the original Oscar.

In last week's ruling, Pregerson agreed, saying the wording of the agreement did not cover the original award.

The academy "always knew they had no right to this Oscar, but they made this woman sue over it," said Welles attorney, Steven Ames Brown.

Academy attorney Quinto said he believes Welles understood that the academy's intent was to prevent the sale of any Oscars so the statuettes would not become "articles of commerce."

"The Oscar represents the highest level of personal achievement in the field of motion pictures," Quinto said. "If you can buy an Oscar or pick one up at the supermarket, if anyone can buy it, then the Oscar would cease to have that kind of unique meaning."

Brown said Welles plans to offer the original Oscar again for auction. She hopes it will fetch close to $1 million, the upper range of an insurance value placed on it by an appraiser the academy hired in 2002 to determine the worth of Welles' Oscar, Brown said.

Beatrice Welles plans to put the proceeds toward her work to help abused animals, Brown said.

[jbrooks]

Beatrice Welles plans to put the proceeds toward her work to help abused animals, Brown said

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Beatrice make public statements last year to the effect that she needed to sell the Oscar because she was broke?

[jbrooks]

Actually, I just found this excerpt from an AP story in a posting above. Interesting.

In June, the Academy learned that Ms. Welles had placed the Oscar up for auction, citing financial difficulties. It informed her that the "Oscar is not an article of commerce" and that she was obligated to return it, as well as the duplicate, as specified in the terms of the agreement she signed in 1988. Additionally, the Academy offered to aid Ms. Welles financially. In reply, Ms. Welles not only refused to hand over the two Oscars, but instead sued the Academy and Mr. Quinto, "because it had advised Christie's that there was a right-of-first-refusal agreement,'' Quinto said.

Ms. Welles then threatened to declare bankruptcy unless the Academy would allow the auction to proceed as scheduled. Apparently, Ms. Welles has been borrowing heavily against the presumed proceeds from the "Kane" Oscar - which Christie's estimated would bring in between $300,000. and $400,000. Talks are still ongoing between lawyers for the Academy and Ms. Welles' attorney about whether she can now completely withdraw the trophy or, if, once it was announced for sale, both statuettes must be returned to the Academy - for the nominal fee of two dollars.

As late as Tuesday morning, Quinto said, "the Academy renewed its offer to try to so something to assist Ms. Welles financially, if she will deliver the original and replacement Oscars back to the Academy.''

[blunted by community]

just saw it on compuserve front page. judge rules oscar belongs to daughter.

though morally it belongs to graver. you'd think she'd say, "gary, take this, i know dad wanted you to have it, and i want you to have it for all the years of loyalty you gave him when no one else did." then beatrice would climb on her golden chariot and ride away. and we can hold our breaths till this happens

[L French]

What a shocker. Even the Academy can't seem to win against Miss Beatrice. So now Steven Spielberg will have to come forward and buy the KANE Oscar for $900,000. to $1 million - ironically the entire budget for the original film - and then donate it back to the Academy. But wouldn't that money be far better spent to complete - as we've all been disscussing - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND?!

Especially since that Oscar plays a key role in scenes filmed for OSOTW.


LF: What about Welles' screenwriting Oscar, that was used in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND?

GARY GRAVER: We used the Oscar as a prop in several scenes in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. John Huston is holding it, and he hands it to Peter Bogdanovich. It's a scene that's in the unedited footage. Well, after we shot that scene, Orson gave me the Oscar and said, "keep this." So I did. I kept it - until the daughter found out that I had it, and came after me and sued me. It was just like this (picks up the telephone). She had never seen it, she had never had it in her hands, she just heard about it, and said "I want it," so she took me to court and won. Then, the judge said, "are you going to try to sell this for money?" She said, "absolutely not." Then last year she tried to sell it, and the Academy found out about it and they went after her and she had to return it to the Academy. She's been kind of quiet ever since then.

[jbrooks]

Well, after we shot that scene, Orson gave me the Oscar and said, "keep this." So I did. I kept it

Is Mr. Graver suggesting that "keep it" meant that it was a gift. I suppose it would depend on the context, but it sounds to me from this quote that "keep it" meant "hold on to this for me." I would think that if Welles were going to bestow such a mighty gift he would have beem more formal.

[blunted by community]

a diner and all of gary's friends speaking on his behalf, telling an experience they shared with him, yes, that sounds about right. and a band of course.