70 Years of the Oscar

By Robert Osborne

Book Overview

Presents the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with coverage of each year's Academy Awards from 1928 to the present. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789204843
• ISBN13: 9780789204844
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Abbeville Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 5.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 9.3" x 12.3"

Customer Reviews

great resource book

a great book to review past Academy Award winners and nominees i really enjoyed the notes from previous award winners and their thoughts on receiving the award i have given this as a gift to fellow movie lovers and it is a big hit has also helped me in a few movie trivia contests too!!

An all-inclusive encyclopedia of the Academy Awards

This book is not a history in the since of most history books. It does not detail how the academy began, or how it changed over the years, or give you any kind of insider view of its workings. Instead, it is a complete listing of every nominee and every winner in every category since the award ceremony's inception in 1927. There are plenty of photographs of the nominees and images of scenes from the nominated films for each year, so it is not dry in the way many reference books are. In fact, Mr. Osborne's love of film and its history really shine through in the book. It is interesting to look through this book and see what we consider to be films that have withstood the test of time versus which ones were rewarded by the academy at the time. For example, in 1939, the Academy did recognize that "Gone with the Wind" was the best picture of the year, which people were lining up to watch in movie theaters until its television broadcast premiere in 1976. However, in 1941, "How Green was My Valley" won best picture, which is a film that hardly anyone watches anymore, while "Citizen Kane" was completely ignored. It's also interesting to see how the Academy compensated for past oversights by awarding performances that were less than stellar in subsequent years. For instance, in 1934 Bette Davis was overlooked in her performance in "Of Human Bondage". This caused a huge public outcry. The following year the Academy gave her the best actress award for her performance in "Dangerous"- a move that has largely been seen over the years as a consolation prize for what happened the year before. This book is full of little insights such as these, and it is a fun book that gives hours of entertainment for film history buffs. I bought my first copy of this history by Mr. Osborne back in 1987 when he was then detailing the 60 years of the Oscar, and I enjoyed it so much I have been updating my copy every time he releases a new edition. Highly recommended.

Just What I was Looking For

Over the years, I have picked up a few books about the Academy Awards. I did so primarily to get a list of winners but I have also been interested in knowing the nominees. In the early days of the award it wasn't unusual to have eight or nine nominees for a particular award. However, the inference was still that there was something special about this particular movie in regards to this particular awards. I like that "75 Years of the Oscar" lists not only each award winner but each award nominee as well. I espcially appreciate the listing of all nominees for the Best Foreign Language award. I hadn't come across that before in any of the books I'd found. "75 Years of the Oscar" makes for a large tome and I did have to send back the first edition of the book that I received due to weak binding for a book this size. The book provides an overview of each individual year as well as each decade of the award. Over the years the Academy Awards have over-rated some turkeys and ignored some movies now considered classics. The Academy has had a tendency, over the years, to focus on five to eight movies a year for 95% of all nominees. It certainly seems that it is a popularity contest more than an artistic examination. However, it's still a fairly reliable source for finding good movies of the past and that's what I use it for.

Best Oscar book ever!

I liked this book so well, I have given it as a gift to 5 different people. Each person loved it.The presentation and format of the historical material is excellently done. The book is a great refrence manual for movie buffs. The construction of the book is also well done, the page stock and pictorial layout is indeed top notch.

As Good As It Gets

This fabulous book is informative, interesting and absolutely CRAMMED with excellent photos, many of which I am sure have never been published before (at least I had never seen them before reading this book). Robert Osborne's excellent book is as up to date as anything gets, the only awards not included having been given out less than a month ago. This book also includes a complete list of ALL nominees in every single category for each year, somehing I have found in no other book I have ever read on the subject.An absolute MUST for all movie/trivia buffs!