February 26 - The Academy Awards

On this day, in 1942, Walt Disney received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 14th Academy Awards ceremony. First presented in 1938, the Thalberg award is an honorary Oscar (even though it's not the traditional statue but instead a bust of its namesake) given to "creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production" (to be official about it). It's not awarded every year. Walt was only the fourth person to be honored with one but it wasn't, of course, the first time he'd left the ceremony with a statue.

The Walt Disney studio has a long history of impressing Academy voters with the films they've produced over the last 90+ years. Which, in my opinion, is how we get into a bit of a grey area when it comes to those golden statuettes. The answer to the trivia question "Who has received the most Academy Awards?" is, hands down, Walt Disney. His 26 wins in 59 nominations dwarfs anyone else's total by more than triple. But while he was the guy signing everyone's paychecks, how much of his work is represented in those statistics versus the work of the people cashing those paychecks? Would the studio have done such stellar pictures if Walt hadn't been cheerleading everyone on with a meticulous eye for detail and a bankroll to match? Most probably not. Could Walt have made such stellar pictures on his own? Definitely not. But it's a debate that's gone on as long as collaborative art has been made and will go on until the last director on earth says "That's a wrap": how much belongs to the ones who made it and how much to the one who paid it.

The first time the Walt Disney Studio earned itself an Oscar was for the Silly Symphony Flowers and Trees in 1932, which was also the first time that one was given for Best Animated Short. In fact, Disney went on to win Best Animated Short the first eight times it was given out. The last of the dozen times Walt won in that category happen posthumously in 1968 for Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. His other wins came as producer on Best Documentary (2 wins), Best Documentary Short (2 wins), and Best Short Subject (5 wins). He was also presented with 3 honorary Oscars for the creation of Mickey Mouse, Fantasia, and his most famous win, one big statue and seven little statues for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Eventually, Walt wasn't the only one in the studio winning awards. At first, it was just for music, like when Leigh Harline, Paul Smith and Ned Washington won Best Score and for Pinocchio and Best Song for "When You Wish Upon a Star" in 1940. Then, as Disney started making live action pictures (and was newly eligible for the whole gamut of categories), the wealth was really spread around (for instance, when Mary Poppins won five, Walt didn't get any of them). And the flow continues right up to today, with films produced by Disney garnering over a dozen nominations and bringing home four wins at the 91st ceremony just a couple days ago. It was a showing I'm sure would have put a sparkle in Walt's eye and had him saying "Not bad. Not quite up to me yet, but you'll get there."

February 16 - James Baskett

On this day, in 1904, James Baskett was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. James planned to become a pharmacist after high school, but two intertwined circumstances got in the way of that dream: pharmacology school was more expensive than James could afford , so he began acting to support himself. The world of prescription drugs never stood a chance. He began on the stage in Chicago, Illinois, starting small but taking increasingly roles. He eventually moved to New York City, joining Bill Robinson's (better known as Mr. Bojangles) acting company. It didn't take long for James to establish himself as one of New York's leading black actors. In 1929, he appeared on Broadway with Louis Armstrong in a musical revue called Hot Chocolates that ran for over 200 performances. Starting in 1932, he began appearing in films being produced in New York, utilizing mostly (if not all) black casts, like Harlem is Heaven, Gone Harlem and Policy Man.

In 1939, James moved again, this time to Los Angeles, California, where he continued to nab small film roles. A highlight of this phase of his career was a turn as Lazarus in the 1943 anti-Nazi horror movie Revenge of the Zombies. In 1944, James met Freeman Gosden and was asked to join the cast of Freeman's radio show, Amos 'n' Andy. For the next four years, James gave voice to Gabby Gibson, a slick talking lawyer, for a nationwide audience.

Image copyright Disney

In 1945, James answered a newspaper ad seeking voice actors for a new project being produced by the Walt Disney Studio, Song of the South. He auditioned for the role of a singing butterfly, but when Walt heard his voice, James was called back for a more extensive session. In the end, Walt offered him the lead role of Uncle Remus, making James the first live action actor the studio ever hired (the studio's first live action actress was Virginia Davis, original star of the Alice Comedies). He did, in fact, also get to be that singing butterfly, as well as the voice of Br'er Fox and partially the voice of Br'er Rabbit, when Johnny Lee was unable to finish the film.

Image courtesy of inlandvalleynews.com

Song of the South is a picture mired in controversy, some of it simply because of its content and some of it earned because of its handling of said content. The controversy spilled over into the film's premiere in Atlanta, Georgia. James wasn't allowed to attend because of the city's segregation laws. What's never been up for debate, however, is James' flawless performance. Walt reportedly told his sister Ruth that James was the best actor to be discovered in years. The gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, among others, agreed and began campaigning heavily on James' behalf to get him an Academy Award for his role. The pressure on the Academy worked, sort of. While he didn't get a nomination for Best Actor, James was presented with an Honorary Award for "his able and heartwarming characterization of Uncle Remus," making him the first black actor to receive an Oscar (once again slightly upstaged by a woman; Hattie McDaniel had been the first African-American to win period, several years earlier).

James didn't get to enjoy his achievement for long. His health had become an issue during filming for Song of the South and had only gotten worse since. He suffered a diabetes induced heart attack in late 1946. Less than two years later, during a summer hiatus for Amos 'n' Andy, James passed away on July 9, 1948 from heart failure. He was only 44 years old.