People and Events

Is there no end to this thing?

Yet another Oscar has turned up for sale by Hollywood memorabilia dealer Malcolm Willits--but neither he nor the Santa Monica pawnbroker who accepted it as collateral on a $300 loan would say Friday whose it is.

“I just don’t want to embarrass anybody,” said Willits. “The original recipient was down on his luck.” He even declined to specify whether it was presented to an actor, director, producer, special-effects man or what. Only that it was presented for best something or other in 1961.

Willits said the statuette is in much better shape than the Best Picture of 1951 Oscar (for “An American in Paris”) he sold a couple of months ago to a Swiss producer for more than $15,000. That trophy had been presented to MGM, much of whose property was boxed up and shipped out when Ted Turner bought the studio. It reportedly fell into the hands of a writer.

Willits also handled the $13,000 sale of Marlon Brando’s Best Actor of 1954 Oscar for “On the Waterfront” (which Brando purportedly gave to a friend as a doorstop).

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has informed Willits that it has the right of first refusal on old Oscars and that reselling them is “illegal.”

As for the latest Oscar, which was redeemed from the pawnshop after its recipient read about those big prices, Willits’ publicist, Chris Harris, said Friday:

“This one is going to cause absolute outrage on the part of the academy. It was in a very prestigious category.”

Since you ask (and without the foggiest as to what Harris meant by “prestigious category”), the 1961 Oscar winners included Best Actor Maximillian Schell for “Judgment at Nuremberg,” Best Actress Sophia Loren for “Two Women,” Best Supporting Actor George Chakiris for “West Side Story,” Best Supporting Actress Rita Moreno for “West Side Story,” Best Directors Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for “West Side Story.”

And a whole lot of others.

Ace Jewelry & Loan proprietor Ron Manes said the unidentified client who borrowed $300 on the 1961 Oscar--only to redeem it after learning that others had sold for thousands of dollars--”was up there and then suddenly everything caved in.”

Manes said he has had other Oscars in the place “and a lot of jewelry from stars.” He said he even holds as loan security a gold Nobel Prize medallion--upon which he also loaned $300. Again, he refused to say who brought it in.

“I’m not the average pawn shop,” Manes said. “A lot of movie stars come in here and buy things.”

Recent notice here of complaints by one Andre Dupret that the folks of Avalon did not do enough for an estimated 1,500 mainlanders stranded on Santa Catalina Island, a consequence of last weekend’s terrific windstorm, has brought a response from there.

As might be expected, Villa Portofino hotel manager Danette Goslin takes umbrage.

“We would hope that most would be pleased to be ‘stranded’ on such a beautiful island,” Goslin writes. “Needless to say, Mr. Dupret was not of the adventurous nature, nor did he take the time to find out what other facilities or accommodations were available to him.”

Contrary to Dupret’s contentions, Goslin maintains that “many islanders did open their homes to the unexpected castaways.” Others, she said, offered blankets, sheets, pillows and food--”which, by the way, most of these articles found their way home with the stranded families instead of being left behind to be returned to the generous islanders.”

With any luck, the wind won’t come up again very soon.

Monterey Park Police Officers Ruben Echeverria and George Acevedo were honored by their department Friday for capturing an armed, drunken man who had threatened to kill his wife and had barricaded himself in his apartment with his two children.

When Echeverria and Acevedo went in after him, according to the citation, the suspect jumped up and pointed a gun at them. They sicked a dog named Eros on him and quickly had him in custody.

As the two cops posed proudly with their ribboned medals, a photographer asked where the dog was. Somebody trotted Eros in belatedly so he could have his picture taken.

“Doesn’t he get a medal, too?” the photographer asked.

“No,” Echeverria said. “Just a little more to eat tonight.”

Which seemed fine with Eros.