Please help me find Budge Crawley's 1976 Oscar acceptance speech

August 4, 2006 9:23 PM

My grandfather won an Oscar in 1976 and I want to find some video of his accpetance speech.

He won it in the category "Best Feature Length Documetary" for the film The Man Who Skied Down Everest and his speech was quite short and a bit of a poke at the whole industry in Hollywood:

"This is an American award for a Canadian film about a Japanese skier skiing down a Nepalese mountain" and then he said some other stuff, I guess. But I don't know because I have never seen it. I'd dearly love to see it and so would his kids (my uncles and aunt).

I have contacted the folks who run the Oscars but they are ignoring me (I am in their email cue, I guess). Can anybody help me here? Do you just happen to have the 1976 Oscars on VHS and can you upload Budge's speech to YouTube?

posted by persona non grata to media & arts (15 comments total)

The Museum of Television and Radio in NYC might have it. But you would only be able to watch it there. They don't allow people copies of anything because they don't own the rights.
posted by kimdog at 9:30 PM on August 4, 2006

I can't see from the IMDB link who the production company was.
Could it have been the National Film Board? If so, they may have a copy of or at least some info about the Oscar speech.
posted by chococat at 9:32 PM on August 4, 2006

Remember that clip show of acceptance speeches? No? That's because there isn't one. The Academy jealously guards the rights to those, to keep their show valuable and special.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:38 PM on August 4, 2006

I have contacted the folks who run the Oscars but they are ignoring me (I am in their email cue, I guess).

Instead of waiting in the e-mail queue, how about calling them (i.e. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) directly at: [phone] -- and/or sending a FedEx to:

Mr. Sid Ganis
President
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy Foundation
8949 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Doing so may elevate your inquiry to somewhere "near the top o' the pile."
posted by ericb at 9:41 PM on August 4, 2006

chococat: It was Budge's company, Crawley Films (thanks to MeFi member pracowity for that quite awesome link). He was actually the NFB's main competitor back in the day and his incredible success remains a sore spot for them.

And thanks for that cool link, kimdog! We only want to watch it and not tread on any rights. It's not like we own the movie or anything... heh.
posted by persona non grata at 9:43 PM on August 4, 2006

That's great counsel, ericb. Thanks! I will write to Mr. Ganis tomorrow. Maybe they have some rights exception for family members of Oscar winners. I'm hoping to offer this bit of history as a big surprise to Budge's kids (my mother included). I guess I just figured that email would be answered. A very naive attitude for sure, especially where Hollywood is concerned.
posted by persona non grata at 9:49 PM on August 4, 2006

Wow, that's really impressive.
Kind of funny (and typical) that I made the NFB assumption...exactly what the article in that link was talking about.
posted by chococat at 9:50 PM on August 4, 2006

Heh. Turns out he won a Oscar in '53 as well, in the same categorty (thanks pracowity x10!). RTFA, I guess. He was a hell of guy and a mad great gradfather.

The NFB assumption is a given, chococat: Budge really was their only early competition and he was a true maverick. He really did, pardon my un-PC laguage, serve them their own head on a platter. He ripped them a new asshole when they were in their youth. Tough stuff for such a young governmental agency.
posted by persona non grata at 10:04 PM on August 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

And this is totally gratuitous, but a number of good actors got their first gigs via Budge's casting couch, including Genevieve Bujold, Christopher Plummer and the awesome Robert Shaw (RIP). You can thank my grandfather, in a way, for the Benchley/Spielberg character "Quint". Robert Shaw got his start at Crawley Films.
posted by persona non grata at 10:21 PM on August 4, 2006

There was just this weird film on late at night a few weeks ago, kind of pseudo-documentary, with Robert Shaw walking around Montreal, trying to get a job or something. Early '60's. Looked VERY NFB-ish. Was that your grandfather's? I missed the first half but what I saw was great. Couldn't figure out what Robert Shaw was doing in it.

sorry for the derail.
posted by chococat at 10:25 PM on August 4, 2006

Yes, chococat, that was The Luck of Ginger Coffey that you saw. Shaw had been a largely been a stage actor until then, though he had done quite a bit of film and TV work it's my understanding that TLoGK was his first star turn. Same for Ms. Bujold in Amanita Pestilens. She was so young and pretty in that film it takes my breath away.
posted by persona non grata at 6:58 AM on August 5, 2006

Not really what you asked, but I was hired to photograph a speech given last summer by Miura (the guy who skied Everest and also became the oldest person to summit Everest at age 70). he talked about the movie durin his presentation.
posted by planetkyoto at 8:55 AM on August 5, 2006

What you need is actually the Margaret Herrick Library. [An archive and film library run by the Academy] They will take brief reference queries and I'm sure they can point you in the right direction.
I interned there while I was in library school and they have a truly amazing collection. Ask for Sandra Archer, if she still works there.
posted by exceptinsects at 9:05 AM on August 5, 2006

Wow! Thanks expectinsects!
posted by persona non grata at 12:49 PM on August 5, 2006

That's a precious picture, planetkyoto. I met Miura at the Oscar party (which was held on the farm where I grew up) in the summer of '76. I was six at the time and Miura was courteous to a fault. He treated me like a real little man. I had no idea of the significance of the moment but it is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life: Youchira Muira reaching down to shake my little hand and asking me how I was doing. And he was genuinely curious. He was so deeply tanned he was almost black, I remember that. His teeth outshone the sun. The world needs more people like Miura.

I was delighted to hear that he had finally made it to the top of that particular hill, and with his son no less. May he have a long life and I hope I can meet him again.
posted by persona non grata at 2:23 PM on August 5, 2006