The Historic Asolo Theatre, http://www.ringling.org/HistoricAsoloTheater.

aspx,
is the only recreated 18th century theatre in the United States. It’s yet another of
the wonderful, many faceted aspects of The John and Mable Ringling Museum,
http://www.ringling.org/ which sits at the end of University Parkway in Sarasota.
The current cinema program is “We Could Make Beautiful Music Together: Six
Decades of Academy Award Winning Film Scores”:

Film Score by Year

Chariots of Fire Vangelis 1981
Sunset Boulevard Franz Waxman 1950
The Red Violin John Corigliano 1998
Summer of ’42 Michael Legrand 1971
The Heiress Aaron Copland 1949
Tom Jones Jon Addison 1963

The Heiress
This is a movie about which I knew NOTHING. Hadn’t seen it on tv
late on a Saturday night. Hadn’t heard anyone talk about it. Didn’t
know who was in it, or why it was so good.

It’s a pretty simple story: boy meets girl. However, boy may be after
girl solely for her money. The boy is dashingly handsome, and
seemingly smitten. The girl is plain, a nervous conversationalist, and
can never live up to her father’s idolization of her dead mother.

Costume Drama
I probably never heard of this movie, or I ignored it if I had heard
about it because it’s a costume drama. You know this kind of movie:
everyone speaks properly and practices good social graces. It’s set in
19th century New York City, and is based on the play The Heiress,
which is itself based on the Henry James novel Washington Square.

Yawn, right?

Wrong.

It’s in black and white and it’s gorgeous. Its set design, costumes,
music (of course), and cast work in perfect harmony. Its theme of
love – innocent, optimistic, pure – taken advantage of (possibly) is
timeless, universal. Like Sunset Boulevard, this film’s emotional
intensity remains undiluted, even after all these years.

Olivia de Havilland is the most beautiful “plain” woman I’ve ever seen.
Montgomery Clift is the PERFECT handsome-dude-come-a-calling-to-
seduce. And Ralph Richardson is the stern Dad who knows better
and yet wants to see his daughter married.

I so wanted Clift’s love for de Havilland to be true. I did NOT want her
heart to be broken. I wanted her Dad to be wrong.

Is Clift genuinely in love with de Havilland? Or is he after her money?

Rent the movie and find out. Or better yet, see it on the big screen.
And bring a hanky. I didn’t cry, and I’ve no idea if anyone in the
audience cried, but they were vocal in their hope, their skepticism,
and their hurt.

Awards and Biographies

Here’s the list of The Heiress’ Academy® nominations, and awards,
and biographies of the film’s winners:

Nominated: Best Picture

What Won that Year: All The Kings Men

Nominated: Best Director, William Wyler

Who Won That Year: Robert Rossen, All the Kings Men

Nominated: Best Supporting Actor, Ralph Richardson

Who Won That Year: John Ireland, All the Kings Men

Nominated: Best Cinematography, Black and White, Leo Tover

Who Won That Year: Paul C. Vogel, Battleground
Won: Original Music Score - Aaron Copland
Won: Best Actress – Olivia de Havilland
Won: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Black and White
- John Meehan, Harry Horner, and Emile Kuri
Won: Best Costume Design, Black and White
- Edith Head, and Gile Steele

Biographies
Wikipedia is the source for the following biographies

Won: Original Music Score - Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an
American nationalist composer[1] of concert and film music, as well
as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly
American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of
American composers".[2] Copland's music achieved a balance
between modern music and American folk styles.
Film Scores
1930s: Of Mice and Men; Our Town
1940s: The North Star (nominated); The Red Pony; The Heiress
(won)
1960s: Something Wild
Copland also scored a couple of documentaries.

Won: Best Actress – Olivia de Havilland

Olivia Mary de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) is an American film and
stage actress. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. Along
with her sister, de Havilland is one of the last surviving female stars
from 1930s Hollywood. She is also the last living lead from Gone with
the Wind.

She won Best Actress Academy Awards for To Each His Own (1946)
and The Heiress (1949), and was also widely praised for her
Academy Award–nominated performance in The Snake Pit (1948).
This was one of the earliest films to attempt a realistic portrayal of
mental illness, and de Havilland was lauded for her willingness to play
a role that was completely devoid of glamor and that confronted such
controversial subject matter. She won the New York Film Critics
Award for both The Snake Pit and The Heiress.

Won: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Black and White

- John Meehan, Harry Horner, and Emile Kuri

John Meehan (June 13, 1902 – May 15, 1963) was an American art
director and production designer.

He was born in Tehachapi, California and attended the University of

Southern California. Meehan won three Academy Awards for his art
direction: William Wyler's 1949 The Heiress, Billy Wilder's 1950
Sunset Boulevard and Richard Fleischer's 1954 adaptation of the
Jules Verne classic for Walt Disney, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
He also worked on The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (one of his first
films in 1946), and It Should Happen to You in 1956.

Harry Horner (July 24, 1910 - December 5, 1994) was an Austrian art
director who made a successful career in Hollywood. He was born in
the town of Holitz, which now belongs to the Czech Republic, to
parents of the German-speaking minority in Austria-Hungary’s crown
land Bohemia.

He began his career working with Max Reinhardt in Vienna. When

Reinhardt moved to the United States in the early 30s, Horner went
along with him…

He won an Oscar in 1949 for his work on William Wyler's The Heiress
and another in 1961 for Robert Rossen's drama The Hustler.

One of his first notable successes was George Cukor's A Double Life
(1947) and he soon found himself up on the Oscar podium in 1949 for
his work on William Wyler's The Heiress. He worked with Cukor again
in 1950 on Born Yesterday and then tried his hand at directing on
several TV series, including Gunsmoke. He was nominated for a third
time in 1969 for Sydney Pollack's 30s drama They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?.

Horner directed a few films beginning with Red Planet Mars and
Beware, My Lovely both in 1952.

He retired after completing the Neil Diamond remake of The Jazz

Singer in 1980. He died of pneumonia in 1994 in Pacific Palisades,
Los Angeles. His son is the Oscar-winning composer James Horner.
His other son, Christopher Horner, is also working in several positions
in the film business.

Emile Kuri (11 June 1907 – 10 October 2000) was a Mexican-born

American set decorator. He won two Academy Awards and was
nominated for six more in the category Best Art Direction.[1]

He was born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, and died in Los

Angeles, California, United States.

[edit] Selected filmography: Kuri won two Academy Awards for Best
Art Direction and was nominated for six more:

Won
* 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
* The Heiress (1949)

Nominated
* Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
* Mary Poppins (1964)
* The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
* Executive Suite (1954)
* Carrie (1952)
* Silver Queen (1942)
Won: Best Costume Design, Black and White
- Edith Head, and Gile Steele

Edith Head (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American
costume designer who had a long career in Hollywood that garnered
eight Academy Awards—more than any other woman in history.

In 1924, despite lacking art design or costume design experience,

Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in
the costume department. Later Head admitted to borrowing another
student's sketches for her job interview. She began designing
costumes for silent films commencing with The Wanderer in 1925,
and by the 1930s had established herself as one of Hollywood's
leading costume designers. She worked at Paramount for 44 years
until she went to Universal Pictures on March 27, 1967, possibly
prompted by her extensive work for director Alfred Hitchcock, who
had moved to Universal in 1960.

During her long career she was nominated for 35 Academy Awards,
including every year from 1948 through 1966, and won eight times –
more Oscars than any other woman. She was responsible for some of
the best-known Hollywood fashion images of her day, with her
costumes being worn by the most glamorous and famous actresses in
films. Head's influence on world fashion was far reaching, especially
in the 1950s when she began appearing on Art Linkletter's television
program and writing books on fashion.

Gile Steele (1908 - 1952) was a Hollywood costume designer. His

career began at MGM in 1938 with one of his first assignments being
the Norma Shearer film Marie Antoinette. He also worked on many of
the company's prestige pictures including Pride and Prejudice and
Boom Town (both 1940), Blossoms in the Dust and Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde (both 1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). He
was one of the first nominees when the category for Best Costume
Design was introduced at the Academy Awards in 1948 for his work
on The Emperor Waltz. He won the Oscar for The Heiress in 1949
and Samson and Delilah in 1950. He died abruptly in 1952 at the age
of 43.