FROM THE ARCHIVES

Film Awards Bestowed

Vivien Leigh and Robert Donat Receive High Academy Honors

By Read Kendall

From The Times: March 1, 1940

Two English motion-picture players won the highest awards last night from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

They are Vivien Leigh for her performance in "Gone With the WInd," a Selznick International production, and Robert Donat for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," which was produced in England by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

"Gone With the WInd" was voted the best production of the 1939 season. This too, a Selznick International production.

Top Honors to Selznick

The picture, "Gone With the Wind," taken from the book by Margaret Mitchell, won, in all, 10 different awards. Its producer, David O. Selznick, was given the most coveted honor of all, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

The awards, with which gold statuettes more commonly known as "Oscars," were presented last night at the 12th annual academy banquet in the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. The honored received their tokens from a vote comprising 12,000 motion-picture people, including actors, actresses, directors, writers, technicians, producers and, for the first time, extras.

Mitchell Honored

Thomas Mitchell, for his performance in "Stagecoach," produced by Walter Wanger, won the award for the supporting actor.

For the first time a Negress was given the highest award for supporting actress, which went to Hattie McDaniel for "Gone With the WInd."

Direction honors went to Victor Fleming for "Gone With the Wind."

Original story: Lewis R. Foster for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Screenplay: Sydney Howard for "Gone With the WInd."

Art dIrection: Lyle Wheeler for "Gone With the WInd."

Special effects: Fred Sersen and E. H. Hansen for "The Rains Came," from 20th Century Fox.

Black and white cinematography: Gregg Tolan, for "Wuthering Heights," from Samuel Goldwyn's studio.

Cinematography, color: Ernest Haller and Ray Rennaban for "Gone With the Wind."

Sound Recording

Sound recording: Bernard B. Brown, "When Tomorrow Comes," from Universal.

Film editing: Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom, for "Gone With the WInd."

In the music line, the following awards were made:

Best original score: Herbert Stothart, "The Wizard of Oz," Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; best scoring, Frank Harling, John Leibold, Leo Shuken and Richard Hageman, for "Stagecoach;" best song, E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, for "Over the Rainbow," from the "Wizard of Oz."

Short subjects: Paramount, for the one-reel "Busy Little Bears;" Warner Brothers for the two-reel "Sons of Liberty," and the cartoon, Walt Disney, for "The Ugly Duckling."

Thalberg Award

The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given this year to producer David O. Selznick, who made "Gone With the WInd," reads as follows:

"To carry on the ideals represented by Irving G. Thalberg is the privilege of the academy in sponsoring this award. It shall be given each year for the most consistent high quality of production achievement by an individual producer based on the pictures he has personally produced during the preceding year. It shall be in the form of a specially designed trophy, which will, each year, become the permanent possession of the producer to whom it is awarded."

Fairbanks Honored

In honor of the part he played in the organization in the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a commemorative award was presented last night for the late Douglas Fairbanks, first president of the academy, and for his part in the international development of the motion picture.

Other special awards went to the Technicolor Co., a statuette trophy, "for its contributions in successfully bringing three-color feature production to the screen;" to Jean Herscholt, president; Ralph Morgan, chairman of the executive committee; Ralph Block, first vice-president; and Conrad Nagel for their work in connection with the Motion Picture Relief Fund; a miniature statuette trophy to Judy Garland "for her outstanding performance as a screen juvenile during the past year," and a special plaque trophy to William Cameron Menzies "for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of "Gone With the Wind."

Other Films Nominated

As is the custom, the auditing firm which counted the ballots this year, as in the past, did not give out the results of the runner-ups in the most important balloting divisions.

Nine other pictures besides "Gone With the WInd" were nominated. These included "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "Love Affair," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Ninotchka," "Of Mice and Men," "Stagecoach," "Wizard of Oz" and "Wuthering Heights."

In the best acting performances, Robert Donat vied with Clark Gable for "Gone With the WInd," Laurence Olivier, "Wuthering Heights," Mickey Rooney, "Babes in Arms," and James Stewart, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Scarlett O'Hara

Vivien Leigh, who came to Hollywood by chance and won the role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the WInd," won from such a formidable array as Bette Davis, nominated for "Dark Victory," and a two-time Academy Award winner; Irene Dunne, for "Love Affair"; Greta Garbo, for "Ninotchka"; and Greer Garson, for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips."

Thomas Mitchell took the winning supporter actor honors away from Brian Aherne for "Juarez"; Harry Carey, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"; Brian Donlevy, "Beau Geste"; and Claude Rains, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Hattie McDaniel, for "Gone With the Wind," won over Olivia deHavilland in the same picture; Geraldine Fitzgerald, "Wuthering Heights"; Edna May Oliver, "Drums Along the Mohawk"; and Maria Ouspenskaya, "Love Affair."

Victor Fleming Victor

Victor Fleming, for direction of "Gone With the Wind," was victorious over Sam Wood, "Goodbye Mr. Chips"; Frank Capra, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"; John Ford, "Stagecoach"; and William Wyler, "Wuthering Heights."

Walter Wanger, producer and newly elected president of the academy, succeeding Frank Capra, presided at last night's banquet. Mervyn Le Roy, producer-director and chariman of the banquet committee, arranged the program in Cocoanut Grove.

Honorable-mention awards for scientific and technical achievement in the film industry were announced by Darryl F. Zanuck, chairman of the research council of the academy.

These awards went to the following:

George Anderson of Warner Bros., for an improved positive head for sun arcs; John Arnold, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for a mobile camera crane; Thomas T. Moulton, Fred Albin and the sound department of the Samuel Goldwyn Studios for the origination and the application of the Delta db test to sound recordings and motion pictures; Emery Huse and Ralph B. Atkinson of the Eastman Kodak Co. for their specifications for chemical analysis of photographic developers and fixing baths.

Others Honored

Farciot Edouard, Joseph E. Robbins, William Rudolph and Paramount Pictures, for the design and construction of a quiet portable treadmill; Harold Nya of Warner Bros., for a miniature incandescent spot lamp; A. J. Tondreau of Warner Bros., for the design and manufacture of an improved sound track printer; F. R. Abbott, Haller Belt, Alan Cook and the Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., for faster projection lenses, and the Mitchell Camera Co., for a new type process projection head; Mole Richardson Co. for a new type automatically controlled projection arc lamp; Charles Handley, David Joy and The National Carbon Co., for improved and more stable high-intensity carbons; Winton Hoch and the Technicolor Motion Picture Corp., for an auxiliary optical system; Don Musgrave and Selznick International Pictures, Inc., for pioneering in the use of the co-ordinated equipment in the production of "Gone With the WInd."