HOLY COW! HISTORY

Mark Powell is on family leave. This column is reprinted from December, 2015.

E very once in a while history provides a

story where good triumphs in the end.

I’m a fan of classic movies, the old black white films from the 1930s and 40s you see on TCM. It was a time of unrivaled talent on the silver screen. And Margaret O’Brien’s cheerful face was right there alongside the greats from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

You may not remember her name, but you’d know her in a heartbeat if you’ve seen 1944’s Meet Me In St. Louis. She darn near steals the show as Tootie, the lovable, spunky six year-old daughter. Here’s another reminder: the dad is about to drag the family cross-country to New York City, leaving St. Louey just as the much-anticipated 1904 World’s Fair is about to the begin. Said family is naturally distraught, and in one of moviedom’s biggest tearjerker scenes of all time, Judy Garland tries to cheer up Tootie by singing the maudlin, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

The movie was a huge hit, and Margaret was rewarded with a special Oscar statuette just for kids called the Academy Juvenile Award. It was presented only 12 times, starting in 1934 with (who else?) Shirley Temple and concluding with Hayley Mills in 1960. From then on, children competed in the regular Best Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories with the adults.

It was a scaled down copy of the regular Oscar, standing just seven inches tall. Bob Hope, who MCed the awards show for many years, jokingly called it an “Oscarette.”

Her mother wrote a short acceptance speech, which was dutifully memorized. But young Margaret was understandably blown away by all the excitment, and when the big moment came she forgot the speech, blurting out, “I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much!” As she dryly recalled later, “My mother wasn’t very pleased.”

The roles kept coming, including Beth March in Little Women.

Unfortunately for her, puberty eventually came, too, and the roles dried up as she progressed into her teenage years. Margaret O’Brien learned the painful lesson almost every child star has experienced the hard way: Cute Kid very, very rarely makes the transition to Sucessful Adult Actress.

But Margaret had a powerful reminder of her glory days, her little Oscar, and no one could ever take that from her.

Margaret was 17-years-old in 1954, living in southern California with her mother. One room in their home was dedicated to Margaret’s movie memorabilia, her awards and, above all, her Oscarette.

One day the family’s maid asked if she could take Margaret’s little Oscar and two other awards home with her and polish them. Sure, the mom said; the maid had done that before. No problem.

But this time, the maid never came back to work.

Three days passed. Margaret’s mom called the woman and fired her, ordering her to return the awards ASAP. The strain was too much for the mother, who suffered from a heart condition. She died soon afterward.

Losing her only remaining parent was naturally upsetting, and Margaret didn’t have time to think about her missing statuette amid her grief. When she finally called about it a few months later, the phone number was disconnected and the former maid had moved without leaving a forwarding address. Margaret O’Brien’s Oscarette was gone for good.

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences heard about the theft, they sent her a replacement. Margaret was grateful; but it just wasn’t the same.

Margaret clung to a hope that one day, no matter how long it took, she would be reunited with her special statuette.

Time passed, until the 1990s, when the plot thickened.

Two men, dealers in Hollywood movie collectibles, were at a California flea market one day, pawing through odds and ends. One reached into a box and pulled out a miniature Oscar. Margaret O’Brien’s name was engraved on it. They split the $500 cost and bought it.

The Academy’s executive director spotted a photo of it in a catalog for an upcoming auction of movie memorabilia, contacted the dealers and told them the back story. They graciously agreed to return it to its rightful owner.

And so on February 7, 1995, almost exactly 50 years from the moment she first received it, Margaret O’Brien’s stolen Oscar was presented to her again … making her one of the very few recipients who’ve received the very same Oscar twice.