Geraldine Page Wins an Oscar, The Color Purple Doesn't

when Geraldine page won the Best Actress Oscar in 1986 for the trip to bountiful members of the audience jumped to their feet in applause such a standing ovation is rare so what could merit such a reaction for Paige the aboard was a long time coming this was her eighth nomination but her first win had she lost that night she would have broken the record for the most acting nominations without winning a record that now belongs to Peter O'Toole of course the win was a relief but like any year at the Oscars no honor is guaranteed her category was filled to the brim with talent ever-present Meryl Streep had her usual fanfare and a newcomer by the name of Whoopi Goldberg had Hollywood buzzing her standout performance led the color purple to 11 nominations but despite the film's initial momentum it went home empty-handed on Oscar night in this video we'll talk about why why it took so long to recognize a screen legend why Whoopi Goldberg may have been overlooked and what happened to leave the color purple without an Oscar to its name this is how f Murray Abraham read off Geraldine pages name when she won her Oscar I considered this woman the greatest actress in the English language the winner is Geraldine page in most cases such statements can be written off as hyperbole in the case of Geraldine page the statement was somewhat of a profession wide consensus she'd began acting her teens gradually building up a lengthy resume in the Midwest before moving to New York in the 1940s as a devotee of method acting and a student of the famed acting teachers who to Hagen and Lee Strasberg Paige honed her craft to become as Tennessee Williams put it the most disciplined and dedicated of actresses in 1952 she had her big break when she was cast in an off-broadway production of his play summer in smoke now the film industry had its eye on Tennessee Williams not only was he one of the most successful contemporary dramatists but also the film adaptation of his play a streetcar named desire surface new movie stars made a ton of money and won some big awards working with him and doing it really well gave her the exposure to leap into film the next year she starred in Hondo opposite John Wayne which marks the beginning of a long career of receiving praise not taking home the Oscar let's take a quick tour through the losses of Geraldine page 1953 Geraldine stars in Hondo as a simple pioneer wife she is nominated for Best Supporting Actress and loses to Donna Reed star of the year's most critical and popular hit From Here to Eternity 1961 Geraldine stars in summer and smoke as a repressed spinster heroine she's nominated for Best Actress and loses to Sophia Loren and two women the first actress to win for a foreign language picture 1962 Geraldine stars in sweet bird of youth as a fading movie queen and drug addict she's nominated for Best Actress and loses to Joan Crawford's campaigning skills or Anne Bancroft 1966 Geraldine stars in you're a big boy taking a comedic turn as the smothering mother of a college student she's nominated for Best Supporting Actress and loses to sandy Denis in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf the year's most nominated film 1972 Geraldine stars in another comedic role in Peet and Tilly as a socialite she's nominated for Best Supporting Actress and loses to Eileen Eckhart in butterflies are free 1978 Geraldine stars and interiors as a gloomy borrowed from Berkman wife of a rich Verlander er she's nominated for Best Actress and loses to Jane Fonda in coming home I made a video about it 1984 Geraldine stars in the Pope of Greenwich Village as a chain-smoking foul-mouthed - Irish Widow she loses Best Supporting Actress - Peggy Ashcroft in Passage to India so you probably haven't seen many or any of these movies but those short descriptions should make a couple of things clear first her roles display a remarkable range there are the neurotic loose women of Tennessee Williams but also repressed tragic women and just as many comedies to boot second the sheer number of her nominations suggested she held a certain clout within the acting community remember nominations are determined by members of that profession actors nominate actors and clearly they respected her work third that is an awful lot of attention for someone who doesn't really share the name recognition of other actors with the same number of nominations which says a lot about the specific nature of her celebrity as Edward Guffman pointed out in the San Francisco Examiner was unique she'd never been a top box-office draw she's never gotten that much public attention Bob Thomas of The Associated Press added despite obviously being a great actress she lacked the element of glamor Hollywood usually likes to promote but she relished that aspect of her career saying I'm not what you call a commercial actress even though the parts in the movie versions of summer and smoke and sweet bird were meaty roles they weren't moneymakers but rather have people think I was a great actress than a bankable one her eighth nomination of course was for the trip to bountiful which was adapted from the play in which Geraldine also starred in on Broadway the story follows Carrie watts who plots to escape the isolated life she lives with her son and daughter-in-law in order to visit her childhood home in the small rural town of bountiful Texas the reviews of her performance were as usual overwhelmingly positive and understood to be the culmination of her previous works Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote that Geraldine has never been in better form nor in more firm control of that complex delicate mechanism that makes her one of our finest actresses Roger feasto of the courier noted each of Paige's impassioned eccentrics is entirely different from the others so her performance in the trip to bountiful typifies a career spent not in refining a single character but ending ceaselessly plumbing the emotional depths of a wide variety of women Geraldine's long admired history propelled her into the Oscar race but it was a newcomer who would present the most potent challenge to her win in 1986 [Music] Whoopi Goldberg always wanted to be an actress too but her Road would be a little more sinuous Boren and Karin Johnson in 1955 Whoopi was raised in public housing she dropped out of high school got into drugs as she began to seriously pursue acting she drifted into improvisational comedy and worked odd jobs to stay afloat one night director Mike Nichols saw her perform her one-woman show at the Dance Theater Workshop in New York captivated he approached her with an offer to transfer the show to Broadway the show became a sensation in the New York theatre scene praised for her gallery of characters ranging from a six-year-old girl a Jamaican immigrant and a California surfer chick its success won her a Grammy for Best Comedy recording and prompted HBO to record the show as a comedy special in the meantime she was reading Alice Walker's novel the color purple about a young woman named Seeley who grows up in a sexually abusive household only to be married off to another abusive man slowly she learns to accept and love herself and leave the men who destroyed her life moved by the novel would be wrote Walker a letter and as it turned out she had already seen me she'd seen my my shows a couple of times and they'd already sent all my information down there little did she know that the stars were already aligning director Steven Spielberg loved the book too and wanted to adapt it into a movie so she auditioned and won the role taking on Z Lee was an enormous challenge it was her first film with a demanding role led by a huge director but she nailed it Janet Maslin wrote that she grew into a tremendously compelling figure was a huge radiant smile that's even more powerful as her formidable scowl Gene Siskel praised her as a natural talent Roger Ebert took it even further and said she gave one of the most amazing debut performances in movie history naturally she was quickly thrust into the best actors conversation the press began to develop a narrative of this comedian who broke the mold to diverge from her normal fare to deliver one of the most powerful dramatic performances of 1985 that's true to a certain extent but Moby never really saw her that way I plan to be known as Whoopi Goldberg character actor she said I never really thought there was anything in me to do comedy I started out as a straight actress people keep telling me you're a stand-up and I kept looking around and saying I'm not really if you watch her special it is very funny but you also clearly see suggestions of the depth she's thoroughly explores in the color purple as Frank Rich pointed out in the New York Times Whoopi wants to make us laugh cry and think so she was nominated alongside Geraldine for Best Actress as well as Anne Bancroft and Angus of God Jessica Lange and sweet dreams and Meryl Streep and Out of Africa the major some of the Year cher who had won Best Actress in con for masks she wasn't happy about it but she showed up in style and made a vow what are you feeling tonight how do you feel about this I'll be back Anne Bancroft had been nominated alongside Geraldine in 1962 when she eventually won for the miracle worker and Joan Crawford showed up out of the kindness of her heart to accept the award on her behalf he or she plays the Mother Superior of a convent where a nun mysteriously becomes pregnant and kills her child her performance was lauded by the critics but the film's overall reception was lukewarm and did not gather enough momentum to generate attention Jessica Lange's portrayal of country singer Patsy Cline in sweet dreams when her her fourth Oscar nomination in three years yes that math checks because in 1983 she was nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the same year ultimately taking home Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie she solidified her place as an Academy darling but with a recent win it was less urgent for the Academy to once again reward her work Meryl Streep won very recently too in 1983 for Sophie's Choice her second win in three years in out of Africa she plays Karen Blixen a Danish woman who moves to Africa with her new horrible husband who she quickly ignores in favor of Robert Redford because honestly who wouldn't by this time Meryl Streep already enjoyed the reputation of being the greatest after suffering and had been nominated for an Oscar nearly every year since 1979 her nomination was a no-brainer because out of Africa was the kind of Meryl Streep movie the Academy loved a big-budget historical romantic drama in which she had some accent going in to the Oscars the color purple and out of Africa led with 11 nominations each most people expected a tug of war that would result in a fairly even split but out of Africa the stately romantic story of a woman fighting for her dreams on the African continent was the big winner seven Oscars out of 11 nominations among them Best Picture Best Director and Best Screenplay adaptation for the color purple also with 11 nominations it was a night of the Blues not one single win 0 Oscars Roger Ebert joined the industry ride search for answers in an op-ed a few days later he described an encounter with Quincy Jones the color Purple's co-producer and musical composer had with the press when they asked him his thoughts on the matter resigned Jones simply said that's the way it is Ebert wrote I imagine he was making a quiet almost dispassionate statement about a black film in a white society Quincy sentiments found a relatively strong echo three days before the publication of Ebert's article a local la chapter of the n-double a-c-p filed a letter of protest labeling the Academy Awards a slap in the face a radio station in DC urged listeners to wear a purple ribbon in protest of the Academy's actions the Academy of course contested the accusation of racial bias citing the film's eleven nominations as evidence of its general acceptance by Academy members and as a counterpoint 1977 is the turning point which also received eleven nominations and zero wins as with anything there are multiple factors at play here but all point to the Academy's routine blindness toward people of color numbers are the most obvious metric as we've discussed many times on this channel the odds are not in your favor if you were anything other than white only one other black woman had won an Oscar prior to 1986 Hattie McDaniel in 1939 for Gone with the Wind that's it there were no examples to tell her a Best Actress win was possible that wouldn't happen until 2002 there weren't any examples the black women led ensembles winning a lot of Oscars either or Latinas or Asian women nothing the color purple was breaking ground in contrast as Ebert pointed out in that same article Out of Africa represented the kind of formulaic familiarity that advantaged its candidacy it was the reminder of an earlier simpler time in Hollywood when stately epics were cast with major stars and cloaked in literacy and respectability the film starred Meryl Streep the reigning queen of great Hollywood actresses and Robert Redford a modern leading man of mythic proportions and then you have a film starring names that most of the Academy voters had never heard before Whoopi Goldberg Oprah Winfrey Margaret Avery the only name Academy voters would have recognized with Steven Spielberg who was famously sahab to that evening the speculation being that the man who made some of the biggest blockbuster hits of all time including jaws and Indiana Jones was making his foray into serious film and everyone who'd been chasing his success wasn't quite ready to crown him the king of that too lastly there was a sense that the protests after the film's initial release had a substantial chilling effect prior to the Oscars the coalition against blaxploitation accused the color purple of perpetuating harmful stereotypes of black men as violent rapist the Chicago Tribune noted that author James Baldwin accused the movie of mangling the poetic vision of Alice Walker's Pulitzer prize-winning novel black feminist Michele Wallace said that the movie smothered Walker's feminist message in a syrupy disney-like sentimentality black author Ishmael Reed called the book a near criminal assault on black family life and heterosexual relationships questions of representation are complex and require a level of nuance that mainstream award season conversations don't usually have for White Academy voters it would be a lot easier to cave and ignore issues they didn't really understand in an effort to avoid controversy of course they did to the point that it created another controversy the color purple launched would be in two major stardom and in some ways her fame was revolutionary she gave them in a kind of model that they've never seen before you know cheeping a welfare and I've been on welfare too so you just get devised you know I'm here for you you know whatever I can do she don't forget you but Hollywood's overtly racist definition of what a leading lady should be has limited women of color since the beginning of cinema Whoopi was no different I don't think she's a romantic lead Steven Schiff is the film critic for Vanity Fair magazine even though she can wear a blonde wig she can't play a blonde even though she can she can act the way a beautiful woman might act and walk the way a beautiful woman a wife might walk she can't really play a beautiful woman she was aware of what she was facing but she was exceptionally persistent never letting preconceived notions dampen her ambitions and never anticipated people calling me funny-looking I never anticipated my own kicking my ass after the color purple never anticipated people going you sexual never occurred to me that I wasn't cute whoopee has since embarked on a career that unquestionably ranks her as a living legend she is notoriously and he got having finally won an Oscar in 1991 for Best Supporting Actress in ghosts becoming the first black actress to win in 52 years and now she's a voice at the Academy's table she hosted the ceremony four times famously donning incredible costumes and currently serves as a governor on the Academy's board but that night in 1986 belonged to Geraldine most critics predicted that she would win calling her the sentimental favorite and this created the bulk of her momentum still the company that produced the trip to bountiful Island Pictures was an unexpected advantage for Geraldine Al Jean harm is reported in 1986 an Oscar for Best Picture could add up to twenty million dollars to a movies ticket sales an Oscar for best actor or actress could add at most about four million dollars big studios want a big payoff so they really want Best Picture smaller Studios like Island Pictures found it more valuable to pursue the smaller payoff in the acting categories so that's how they focus their awards season strategies although she'd been acting for more than 40 years Robert blue wrote in the Chicago Tribune in the last three months Paige has attracted more public attention for her work than ever before the trip to bountiful opened in New York and LA during Christmas to meet its Academy requirements prior to the Oscars it played in 70 additional theaters throughout the country and had less than three million dollars in ticket sales after the Oscars it jumped to 200 extra theaters and earned an extra 1.5 to 2.5 million dollars her credential also garnered a much larger asking price for the VHS rights Island Pictures also pursued the strategy for William Hurt who won Best Actor that year for kiss of the Spider Woman the strategy clearly paid off but it wouldn't have packed as big a punch without the catharsis of knowing that a woman who had paradoxically captured everyone's attention but not their acknowledgement finally got to stand infront of her peers and receive the applause most people at least sympathize with this feeling so it's nice to see something other than that at the Oscars especially knowing in hindsight that Geraldine passed away the next year this may be because there was eight times it may be because it's Kerry Watts and not another role we don't know what made it actually slide into my welcoming arms this way but I know what made me get nominated good job [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Be Kind Rewind

Views: 331,506

Rating: 4.9094124 out of 5

Keywords: whoopi goldberg, geraldine page, oscars, academy awards, 1986, anne bancroft, jane fonda, the color purple, best actress, the trip to bountiful, steven spielberg, jessica lange, meryl streep, out of africa

Id: nv2qgL3fGZo

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 25 2019

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