People and Events

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was not at all pleased to learn that Hollywood memorabilia dealer Malcolm Willits was planning to auction off what he advertised as the Oscar awarded to the late Arthur Freed as producer of “An American in Paris.”

It sent Willits a letter pointing out that a recipient must sign an agreement not to sell the statuette without first offering to return it to the academy for a dollar. Nevertheless, a few days ago Willits sold the Oscar to a Swiss buyer--for $15,760.

News of the sale brought Willits a call from Freed’s son, who said the real Oscar was still in his possession. Willits concluded that the statuette he sold actually was presented to MGM for the Gene Kelly-Leslie Caron classic as the Best Picture of 1951. The academy, Willits said, then gave Freed his own personal Oscar for producing it.

How did Willits get the studio’s Oscar? “We got it on consignment from a man in Maine who said he had bought it from the estate of a man who had written two or three books on the stars.” How it got from MGM to that writer is not clear. A studio spokesman said “a lot of stuff was boxed up and sent to Ted Turner” when Turner bought the studio library in 1986.

“I figure there’s at least 2,000 of them (Oscars) floating around out there,” Willits said. “You can’t just die and leave them to sons and nieces and nephews without having them appear on the collectible market.”

Since the sale, Willits added, “you’d be surprised at the Academy Awards we’ve been offered . . . some very famous ones. They all expect to get $15,000.”

But “lesser categories,” such as black-and-white cinematography, just won’t bring that kind of money, he said.

We’re down to our last two big St. Patrick’s Day parades around here, so Irish folks will have an easier decision this Saturday, which of course is five days before the official green madness.

The Fifth Annual Downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade, sponsored by the American-Irish Heritage Week Committee, will set out from 1st and Hope streets at noon and then proceed to City Hall.

Parade President Shevaun O’Sullivan estimates that there will be more than 1,000 marchers, as well as a couple of dozen Irish wolfhounds and setters. (There will be a special dog food hospitality table at the starting line.)

An hour later, the Greater Los Angeles St. Patrick’s Day Committee’s Third Annual Parade on Hollywood Boulevard will set out from the Hollywood Roosevelt and head eastward for Hollywood and Vine with actor Charles Durning as grand marshal.

The downtown procession will be headed by Ray Remy, president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. O’Sullivan says Remy’s mother was an O’Mahoney.

As for the St. Paddy’s parades of recent years in Beverly Hills, Pasadena and Redondo Beach, all have folded for one reason or another. Not enough Irishmen to go around, perhaps.

Bobby (Fats) Mizzell is not as famous as bandleader Woody Herman was, but his friends say the boogie-woogie and rockabilly piano man is having the same kind of trouble with the Internal Revenue Service that Woody did. The IRS billed him for about $13,000 in taxes on income that Mizzell claims he did not receive because of mismanagement by others.

One of his fans, advertising executive Ron Arnone, said that Mizzell has managed to pay off about $3,000 but that the IRS has confiscated his wages and is planning to auction off his car. “He works as a piano player and he needs his car to get to work,” Arnone said.

Arnone and others are throwing a benefit for Fats tonight at 9 at the Tam O’Shanter Inn on Los Feliz Boulevard, where the man plays. “He has a lot of friends,” Arnone said.

Still on music: Dozens of sidemen and vocalists who saw the Swing years from the bandstands were on hand at the Sportsman’s Lodge in Studio City on Monday night for the 12th annual Big Band Reunion.

Former Stan Kenton trombonist Milt Bernhart introduced singers Art Lund and Martha Tilton and other familiar figures from the bands of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Alvino Rey and Woody Herman to the crowd of several hundred.

Comedian Milton Berle was there and couldn’t resist getting up to say a few words. Bernhart reminded him that he, Bernhart, once played in the band on Berle’s early TV show. Berle, recalled the trombonist-turned-travel agent, would advise the musicians:

“Make sure you laugh at my jokes because I laugh at your music.”