The Academy Award
April 17th, 1961,  Shirley Jones  takes home the Oscar  for Best Supporting Actress (1960)

Shirley accepted her Academy Award for her role as prostitute Lulu Bains in Elmer Gantry.
The place, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium , in Southern California


This glossy above was taken on Oscar Night at the Santa Monica Civic in 1965.

April 17th, 1961, Shirley, with Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor.
Burt earned the Best Actor award for "Elmer Gantry", and Elizabeth won Best Actress
for her role in "Butterfield 8". Best Supporting Actor was presented to Peter Ustinov for "Spartacus".

  March 19th '98, Shirley and Marty leaving their Beverly Hills Home
for last year's awards ceremony, which took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
This year the festivities on March 21st begin at 5:30 in downtown Los Angeles,
at the Music Center's massive Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Here is a rare copy of some photo proofs found at Cinema Collectors in Hollywood.
These were taken during a publicity photo shoot while Shirley was working on the film in 1960.

What follows is Shirley's recollection of the night
she was presented with her Academy Award.

"The funny thing about Oscar is that you actually plan your whole life to get one,
from childhood on. And the little kid dream never ends, even after the little kid does.

It only grows more vivid as reality brings you into some proximity.
You plan further - with every picture, every script, every idea -
'Maybe this one', 'maybe this one'.
Then, a good roll of the dice - one of them gets near the winner's circle,
and the dream is close. You plan the night, you plan the dress, and you plan the speech.
And there you are - the envelope open - my God, it's me.
The music, the cheers, the mike, and all the world awaiting the simple words
you've been planning for twenty years.

And you're a zombie; A babbling, giggling, slobbering zombie - without a
two-cent string of intelligible sounds to save your soul - and nothing left but
twenty years to look back and 'Plan' the way it should have gone!
Ah, Oscar, you WIN one, but you can't win!"

Shirley in the 60's and Today

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