Doll-A-Day 66: Oscar Week:Planet of the Apes Zira, Cornelius, and Dr. Zaius, by Sideshow

  Today we conclude Oscar Week with three dolls. These dolls were made by Sideshow around 2004.

  If you're a reader of this blog you'll know that Planet of the Apes is one of my obsessions. It has been since I was a kid.

They're supposed to have so many points of articulation, but they are still kind of hard to pose sometimes.

  These Sideshow dolls, (The male Apes collectors would probably prefer I call them 'figures'!) are some of the best that have been made. (The best are the Hot Toys dolls, but those are so far out of my budget that I'm about as likely to get one as Taylor was of getting back to his own time.) They are miles above the Hasbro dolls that came out around the 30th anniversary in 1998.The reason the Sideshow dolls are so good is because they are much more to scale than the Hasbro dolls, (with their giant heads and accessories. Zira's pencil is about the size of her arm. If it had really been that big Taylor could have held his own against Julius's club quite easily.), and more realistic and detailed. Also, they aren't just made to look like any general apes from the movies, but are specific likenesses of the actors who played the characters, in the make ups that were sculpted specifically for them. No other characters wore these specific appliances.

Dr. Zaius by Sideshow. The costumes are pretty detailed and fairly accurate.

Dr. Zaius, played by Maurice Evans, a Shakespearean actor best known as Samantha's dad 'Maurice' on "Bewitched".

Zira, played by Oscar winning actress Kim Hunter. Kim won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire".

Dr. Zira

Kim Hunter

Cornelius

Hard as it may be to believe, for people who haven't seen the movie, it is actually easy to tell who's who in that make up. For example, Roddy McDowall as Cornelius in Planet of the Apes....

...as opposed to Sal Mineo as Milo in Escape from the Planet of the Apes.

Or Roddy McDowall as Caesar in the last two Apes movies.

Or come to think of it, even Roddy McDowall as Cornelius in Escape From the Planet of the Apes. They changed the hair from that movie on, making it smoother and more blow dried looking, and didn't put those 'I haven't slept in a looong time' black rings around Cornelius' eyes. The earlier hair, made from yak hair,  was more ape like, darker, shorter, and sort of dry looking and not so blow dried.

This sea air is playing havoc with my hair.

Roddy McDowall without his Ape face.

  Planet of the Apes was based on the novel "La Planete des Singes" by French author Pierre Boulle.  The French title actually translates to "The Planet of Monkeys", which is incorrect. The primates in the novel and the movies, are all apes, not monkeys. That kind of mistake in the Apes movies could get you killed with a dinner tray...

  Boulle was well known for his novel "Bridge on the River Kwai", which had been made into a very successful movie in 1957. Boulle didn't think  "La Planete des Singes" had the same cinematic possibilities, and wasn't one of his better books. Producer Arthur P. Jacobs thought so though, and bought the movie rights shortly after the novel's publication.
  Jacobs shopped the idea to several studios, all of whom turned him down flat. He began to work up a presentation, including a book full of paintings of what the film might look like. He asked "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling to write a script. Serling outdid himself.: He wrote 30! (By the way, someone has produced a faux Twilight Zone episode by editing scenes from Planet of the Apes, (and turning them black and white), and adding actual Rod Serling TZ voice overs. It's on the internet somewhere. It's quite good. **UPDATE: Found it! It's on the website Forbidden Zone. You can see it HERE.**)  The final script was written by Michael Wilson, although the famous ending is Serling's.
  Jacobs' next move was to acquire a star for his movie, one that would make the studios sit up and take notice. After talks with Jacobs, Oscar winning actor Charlton Heston agreed to play the lead human character and suggested a director. With all this on his side Jacobs managed to persuade Twentieth Century Fox head Richard Zanuck to produce the film. It seems to have helped that Zanuck was totally unaware of all the political overtones in the movie.
  The largest challenge to the making of the movie was of course, how do you make talking apes? Make up artist John Chambers was hired to develop the ape 'appliances'. Chambers had developed prosthetic limbs  for soldiers injured in World War 2 before becoming a make up expert. His most well known work, apart from the Apes make up, is probably Mr. Spocks pointy Vulcan ears on Star Trek.

 One million dollars of the movie's final five million dollar plus budget was for make up. Early on the make up applications for the lead apes took 5 hours. They managed to eventually cut it to 3. Kim Hunter had very sensitive skin and had to add an hour or two at the end of her day to have the make up carefully taken off. (In typical male fashion, Roddy McDowall ripped his appliances off.)
  The time in the make up chair wasn't the only hard part of being an ape. Some of the actors found the make ups very claustrophobic. They had to smoke with cigarette holders, in part to get the things to reach their mouths deep within the make up, and partly because the make up was flammable. They had to look in a mirror to eat lunch so they didn't tear their 'face' off. (They were actually told not to eat anything that required a lot of chewing, so the make up didn't come loose. According to John Chambers this order was ignored, and the ape cast came into the make up room after lunch to get their faces reattached, with their chin pouches full of 'leftovers'.)The make up, combined with the heavy costumes proved to be a bit much in the hot summer weather in California and Arizona. I recall reading that Maurice Evans fainted from the heat and fell off his horse. (After the first couple, subsequent Apes movies were filmed in cooler seasons.)

"What will he find out there Doctor?"   "Several sequels Zira."

  It was all worth it though. The film is considered a classic. It also became a massive merchandising success. There was Planet of the Apes everything in the stores. I own a large selection of merchandise myself. I'm only kicking myself for trying to act my age (at 12 and 13!) and not buying the dolls and playsets. (That treehouse is pretty cool...) It was perfectly ok for me to own the models, board game, and puzzles,(Which I did...do.), but not the dolls. I have since tried to make up for it. Ken has bought me most of the Mego Apes, plus I have the Hasbro ones and these Sideshow dolls...uh, figures. (Sorry guys.)
  Planet of the Apes was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Original Music Score, and  Best Costume Design. It lost both, but did win an Honorary Oscar for the make up.

John Chambers, left, accepts his Oscar from Walter Matthau and an unidentified companion. What are you laughing at John? His tux probably cost more than yours.(Well. He couldn't get his off the rack, now could he?)

 'Honorary', because at the time there was no category for make up. An Oscar for make up had only been given out one other time, another honorary Oscar, for The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, in 1964. There were no other Oscar winners for make up until 1981, when a Best Make Up category was finally created.
  Roddy McDowall, appeared in 4 Apes movies and an Apes TV series (albeit a short lived one.). He was cheated out of his one chance at an Oscar. He was the favourite to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Cleopatra (1963). Twentieth Century Fox somehow submitted him in the wrong category, 'Best Actor', instead of Best Supporting Actor, and his nomination was disqualified.

I dreamed I was being presented with this giant Oscar, and I was wearing a skirt...

  I always wondered why he never won a juvenile Oscar, as he was so fussed over as a child actor. He surely would have won for How Green Was My Valley, (1941). (Roddy was under contract to Twentieth Century Fox as a child actor. When casting was being done for How Green Was My Valley and Roddy's screen test came on, casting director Lew Schreiber told the director, "You don't want to see this kid. He's wall eyed." He still got the part.) It won almost everything else that year.

Ok Roddy, practically everybody else here is winning an Oscar and you're not. Get used to it. Now smile!

 In doing research for my post this week, on the Judy Garland/Dorothy doll and Juvenile Oscars I found out why he never won a Juvenile Oscar. They were very lax about giving out Juvenile Oscars in the first place, and during most of World War 2 they just sort of forgot about them. Story of his life.
   As long as I can remember I've found apes so interesting. They're so close to humans. Humans and chimps share between 96 and 99 % of the same DNA. Chimpanzee babies' intelligence grows at the same rate as human babies until they reach somewhere around 2 years old. As a kid I used to watch all the Jane Goodall TV specials and wanted to do what she did, living amongst the chimps and studying them. So I always found the whole 'what if?' idea of the Apes concept fascinating. I was 6 when the original movie came out. I don't know when I became aware of them. I just know I had wanted to see the movies for ages before they were shown on TV when I was in 6th grade, (I was 11 or 12.) From then on they have been one of my favourite things. I am nerd enough to have made an Apes scrapbook around age 12, and I still have it. (Ok, it's a combination Apes/Roddy McDowall scrapbook.) Ken happened to have made one when he was a kid too. I always tell him that if we ever get a divorce, I get custody of his Apes scrapbook!

"What are you doing Zira?"  "I think I lost a contact." "Oh! Those things are the Devil's pawn!"

  

  That concludes Oscar Week. See you tomorrow for Skipper Saturday.

Doll-A-Day 64: Oscar Week:Vivian Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara

  Today's doll is a bit of a cheat: she's not actually my doll. She's Ivy's. I hope to get one in the future though, and I did buy this one. Does that count? Besides, I did a Frank Sinatra recently, and I have put my Casablanca dolls away in such a good place I can't locate them!That leaves me a little short to finish out the week. So...
  Anyway, today's doll is Mattel's Timeless Treasures Scarlet O'Hara doll from 2001.

  The Scarlet doll is wearing a recreation of the 'Barbecue dress' from the early part of the movie 

 
The dress is a pretty fair duplicate of the real dress.
   Unlike the earlier Scarlet dolls by Mattel, this one doesn't have a Barbie head. Mattel made a head mold in the image of actress Vivian Leigh, who played Scarlet in the classic 1939 movie.

 

  1939 is known as THE year for movies.So many classic movies were released that year, including Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights,Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Dark Victory, Stagecoach, and Gunga Din. Gone With the Wind, in spite of this stiff competition , won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year.

 The film was  based on the best selling book by Margaret Mitchell.Incidentally, Gone With the Wind was the only novel Mitchell ever wrote.

  
The film won 8 of the 13 Oscars it was nominated for, plus two honorary Oscars for Technical Achievement and use of colour. Vivian Leigh won Best Actress.

Vivian Leigh with her Oscar for Gone With the Wind.

Both Olivia de Havilland, as Melanie, and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy were nominated for Best Supporting Actress, along with Geraldine Fitzgerald for Wuthering Heights,Edna May Oliver for Drums Along the Mohawk, and Maria Ouspenskaya, (Perhaps   best known today as the old gypsy woman in The Wolfman.) for Love Affair, (The original version of An Affair to Remember). With her win, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Academy Award.

A proud Hattie McDaniel with her plaque Oscar, which was the type of Oscar given to Best Supporting actors in her day.

  Unfortunately, there was still enough racism in the room that at the awards ceremony Hattie and her escort were required to sit in the back of the room, at a separate table from the rest of the cast.
  It would be 10 more years before the next African American nominee, Best Supporting Actress winner Ethel Waters, for Pinky.
  Upon her death Hattie's possessions were sold to pay off the Internal Revenue. Her Oscar was listed as "no value" and was donated, as her will instructed, to Howard University. Sadly, the plaque disappeared in the 1960's and Howard University has no idea what ever happened to Hattie's Oscar.
  Many people criticized Hattie McDaniel for her frequent portrayal of  maids. Her answer to the criticism was, "I'd rather play a maid than be one." The choice of roles for her were undoubtedly pretty limited, so playing a maid was one of few options open to her. In any case,Hattie's maids were always strong characters who always said what they thought and never took any flack from anybody, including her employers.
  I always considered Gone With the Wind to be a bit over rated. It's a good movie, with good performances, but so are a lot of others. The character of Scarlet is an absolutely awful human being. I'm also uncomfortable with the way the movie leans toward the confederate side. But, seen as the story of how change and war affect the characters and their lives, plus the performances and the beautiful sets and costumes seen in the early Technicolour,the movie is still entertaining.
  Vivian Leigh is one of the actresses I always said I would trade looks with any day. She was beautiful.

Vivian Leigh in Gone With the Wind.

The other is Hedy Lamarr. I think she was even more beautiful, and I always wanted to look like her.

Hedy Lamarr

  Vivian Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley, in Darjeeling, British India in 1913. She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but did not finish her schooling there, as she left when she got married. Several years later she divorced, and married Laurence Olivier in 1940.
  Prior to the movie being made she had read Gone With the Wind, and had asked her agent to suggest her for the role of Scarlet. At first there was some worry that she was 'too British', but agent Myron Selznick eventually changed his mind.There had been such problems deciding on a "Scarlet" that time was running out.Filming had had to be started, using a double who covered her face, in the Scarlet scenes of the burning of Atlanta. In spite of the legend that tells of producer David O. Selznick being surprised by his brother Myron suddenly producing Leigh on the GWTW set during the 'burning of Atlanta' scenes,David had actually been considering Leigh, and the meeting with her on the set that night had been arranged.
  Margaret Mitchell's first choice for Scarlet had been Miriam Hopkins, born in Georgia and raised in Alabama, whom she said could portray Scarlet as she had been written in the novel.

Bette Davis (left) and Miriam Hopkins in "Old Maid". In real life the two were bitter rivals who hated each other.

Hopkins was never really in the running though, She was in her mid thirties and considered too old. Bette Davis was a favourite in the beginning, in spite of being under contract to another studio (Warner Brothers. Ironically, today Warner Brothers owns the MGM catalog, including Gone With the Wind.)When she didn't win the role of Scarlet she was cast the next year in a very similar role as a Southern Belle with attitude in "Jezabel", for which she won her second Best Actress Oscar.
  The possible actresses were narrowed down again and again. Paulette Goddard did several screen tests and very nearly had the role.

Paulette Goddard in one of her Technicolor screen tests for the role of Scarlet.

  In the end of course, Vivian Leigh was cast and Scarlett became one of her two her most well known roles.(The other being Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire".)
Tomorrow we'll see another Oscar winner.

Doll-A-Day 63: Oscar Week: Laurel and Hardy

  Today's doll is really two. Laurel and Hardy by Hamilton.

These dolls were made in 1991. They're about 12" tall. The clothing is really well made, and all removeable---unfortunately! Oliver Hardy's pants keep falling off!

If they only talked these dolls would be just about perfect.

I really love these dolls. They really look like Laurel and Hardy.

Laurel and Hardy's 1932 short "The Music Box", a classic comedy about the pair trying to get a piano up a massive flight of stairs on a hill side, won the first Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film (Comedy). You can watch "The Music Box"  HERE.
  Incidentally, the stairs were real, and are still there. They're in Los Angeles, and connect Vendome Street (at the base of the hill) with Descanso Drive (at the top of the hill), and are located at 923-925 Vendome Street near the intersection of Del Monte Street. A  plaque commemorating their use in the film is located on one of the steps near the bottom, and a sign at the top of the hill reads "Music Box Steps". Contrary to popular belief, they are not the same steps used by the Three Stooges in "An Ache in Every Stake", although both are in the Silver Lake district. (The Stooges try to deliver ice to the house at the top of the steps, but by the time they reach the top the huge block has become an ice cube.) The Stooges steps are about 2 miles away from the Laurel and Hardy steps, on Fair Oak View Terrace.
  In 1961 Stan Laurel won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. (Oliver Hardy had died in 1957.)

Stan at home with his Oscar.

  Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in Ulverston England in 1890. His father was a theatre manager, and eventually moved the family to Glasgow, where he managed the Metropole Theatre when Stan was very small. Stan longed to take to the stage himself, and worked up a comedy act as a boy. His father however, refused to put him on stage at his theatre. As a teenager Stan finally took his talents to a rival theatre, where he did his act, full of stolen jokes, and also stolen pants: Stan had stolen a pair of his father's best checked trousers and cut them down to fit him for his act, a typical 'baggy pants comic' act of the era. (The baggy pants, bowler hat and cane were all popular comic accoutrements. They were not only copied by Stan, but by another comic we'll talk about in a minute.) Unbeknownst to Stan, his father had come by to visit his friend and rival theatre owner only moments before Stan was to take the stage. When Stan finished his act he found his father waiting for him. He was so frightened by the sight of his father that he dropped his hat, (also his father's.), and proceeded to kick it into the orchestra pit, where it was stepped on by the orchestra leader, who had tried to retrieve it. Stan then rushed off stage, catching his father's frock coat on a hook and tearing it in half. The audience thought it was part of the act, and loved it. Afterward, the senior Mr. Jefferson had to admit that his son had talent, and Stan was encouraged to be an actor. In 1910 Stan joined the famous Fred Karno theatre troupe, working as understudy to that other 'baggy pants comic' who had stolen the bowler hat and baggy pants look, and who beat Stan to stardom in Hollywood: Charlie Chaplin.

Stan kneeling on the left, and Charlie Chaplin in the life preserver.

   

  Stan later changed his name to 'Laurel' because 'Stan Jefferson' had 13 letters and might be bad luck! Stan's name and number were in the phone book, and in his later years many fans, (which included the famous, such as Dick Van Dyke and Jerry Lewis.), called, or even stopped by to talk. Stan answered all his fan mail. He typed his letters himself, on his home typewriter.
   Stan passed away in 1965. Dick Van Dyke, who had become a good friend, gave the eulogy. Dick performed his Stan Laurel impression many times on his own TV show and others. Stan said that "if they ever make a movie of my life, and I hope they don't," that he wanted Dick to play him.  

  Oliver Norvell Hardy was born in Harlem, Georgia in 1892. His friends called him Babe. Originally it was thought Oliver was destined to be a  singer. He began singing professionally as a boy. In 1910 he worked as a manager (and every other job) at a local movie theatre and eventually decided acting was for him. He continued to sing throughout his career though, and sang in quite a few Laurel and Hardy films. (Laurel and Hardy even had a hit record in England in 1975, years after both had died, with "Trail of the Lonesome Pine", from their 1937 film "Way Out West". It got to number 2 on the charts.)

  In 1913 Oliver ended up traveling to Florida, which was a huge film making center in those days. He started working for the Lubin studios, usually playing the villain. In 1917 Oliver moved to Los Angeles to work in films there. In 1921 he appeared as the robber in a short called "Lucky Dog". The short starred Stan Laurel. You can watch "Lucky Dog" HERE.

Oliver robs Stan in "Lucky Dog".

The two didn't work together again for several years, and then only in separate scenes in the same film. Oliver even appeared in a film Stan directed. But it wasn't until 1927 that they were put together intentionally as costars. From then on they were a team.

  Oliver appeared solo in only a couple of films after their teaming. Stan never appeared solo again, although he had had his own series of shorts before their work together.
  Tomorrow we'll continue with Oscar Week.

Doll-A-Day 62: Oscar Week: Elizabeth Taylor

Today's doll is the Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds doll by Mattel.

It's from the Timeless Treasures line of dolls, and was available in 2000. If you look closely you'll see that I was lucky enough to get mine years ago for $9.99.
  It's actually quite a good likeness, other than the fact that Elizabeth Taylor was a bit more zaftig than this Barbie body!

The box says the dress is a copy of one of her real dresses. She also has a ring, and a Swarovski crystal necklace.

The head mold was also used on the Cleopatra and Father of the Bride dolls, and I think they got the likeness even better. If I was any good at it, I'd try a repaint to improve her, but I'm afraid I'd ruin her and not have one at all. Someday I'd like to get a Cleopatra and a Father of the Bride.

Elizabeth Taylor was born in 1932,to an American family living in England. In 1939 they moved back to America to avoid the dangers of World War 2. Her mother was a former actress, but didn't originally think of getting Elizabeth into films, in spite of being told by friends and strangers alike that she should try to get her amazingly beautiful daughter tested for the role of Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone With the Wind. Finally though,she succumbed to the lure. Universal and MGM apparently almost fought over Elizabeth. Universal got there first, but fired her after a year of her seven year contract. They didn't know what to do with her and her grown up eyes. She was then signed to MGM. She had an uninterrupted career from child actress to adult actress, which happens to few people. 
  With "Cleopatra", released in 1963, Elizabeth became the first actor to be paid a million dollars for a movie. (Not coincidentally  it also became the most expensive movie ever made.The entire budget was originally only two million dollars! Eventually all the problems and delays left the budget at $44 million dollars, at that's at 1960's values. It's still considered one of the most expensive movies ever made when the price is adjusted for inflation.)

She was only joking when she asked for a million. She didn't want to work at the time and was hoping to put them off by asking for so much. Poor girl. They wanted her anyway. She ended up making more than a million, since she had it in her contract that she'd be paid more if the movie went past it's scheduled shooting time. (Of course it was WAAAY over!).plus she also got a percentage of the profits.

  Elizabeth won her two Best Actress Oscars, for Butterfield 8 in 1960 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe in 1966.

  Tomorrow we'll see another Oscar winner.