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| WHEN THINGS GO AWRY |
AND THE WINNER IS....
THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE OSCARS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences got into an embarrassing situation. It all started with a Bowery Boys movie titled High Society. In it, Slip and Sach (Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall) do Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney impersonations, run riot in a mansion, and foil the efforts of swindlers trying to steal a boy's inheritance. The Bowery Boys films were 'Programmers,' quickly produced to allow the release of three or four features a year; they ran, on an average, a little over an hour in length.
No problem. Except that these films had limited release, and then disappeared; this was before the broadcasting of the series on television. Months later, MGM released the big-budget musical High Society, starring Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, and Bing Crosby. Saul Chapman and Johnny Green received Academy Award nominations for Best Score, and Cole Porter's song True Love was nominated for Best Song.
Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra in the MGM film.
Then something went wrong. The Motion Picture Academy sent out ballots to Academy voters, and in a case of mistaken identity (?), the nomination for Best Original Screenplay went to Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds for the Bowery Boys film High Society. According to Bernds, when the Academy sent the ballots, they listed only the title and studio but not the writers' names. Academy voters, not noticing the Allied Artists, thought they were voting for the MGM production.
Bernds had been in Hollywood for 25 years, starting as a sound engineer. He worked with Frank Capra, the Three Stooges, Ma and Pa Kettle, and on some of Elvis Presley's films. Elwood Ullman wanted the mistake to stand, but Bernds called the president of Allied Artists, who agreed that the Academy should be informed (or, deformed, as Leo Gorcey's Slip would say) of the mistake.
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