Chapter 7
The Real Hollywood Marines
Tarawa Oscar
By Jennifer Castro, Cultural and Material History Curator
Featured artifact: Academy Award, With the Marines at Tarawa (1944) (1985.795.2)
This Oscar award was presented to the U.S. Marine Corps in 1945 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for “Best Documentary Short Subject” for the film With the Marines at Tarawa. The film was directed by Louis Hayward, a former actor who joined the Marine Corps in July 1942.[1] Captain Hayward led a team of photographers ashore at Tarawa Atoll on 20 November 1943, the first day of the Battle of Tarawa, where they took hundreds of photographs and 5,000 feet of motion picture film.[2] The film follows the story of the three-day battle that took place on the atoll, resulting in an Allied victory but costing the Marines more than 3,000 casualties. Filmed in color, it begins with Marines of the 2d Marine Division learning that they are going to participate in the invasion and concludes with the final capture of the island and the raising of the American flag. The Oscar was accepted by Lieutenant General Julian C. Smith, who had commanded the 2d Marine Division at Tarawa, on behalf of the U.S. Marine Corps at the Academy Awards ceremony on 15 March 1945 at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.

The plaster Oscar presented to the Marine Corps for the Best Short Documentary film With the Marines at Tarawa.
Photo by Jose Esquilin, Marine Corps University Press; the Oscar is a copyrighted and registered mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The label that was originally affixed to the plaster Oscar.
National Museum of the Marine Corps.
Made of plaster, unlike the better-known gold figurine awards, this award is referred to as a “plaque.” Prior to World War II, there were quite a few award categories that received plaques made of bronze rather than the gold statuettes as their official award from the Academy. A change of rules occurred for the 18th Academy Awards ceremony on 7 March 1946, at which the Oscar statuette was given to winners in nearly all the competitive award categories. The Academy permitted past winners in nonstatuette categories to exchange their plaques for a statuette.[3]
This Oscar is remarkable as it is one of the few remaining original plaster Academy Awards known to exist. Because of the metal shortage that occurred during World War II, the Oscar statues were made of painted plaster for a period of three years (1942–44), with the agreement that recipients could exchange their plaster awards for the traditional gold-plated ones following the end of the war. With the change in the rules regarding which categories received the Oscar statuette, the Marine Corps received the traditional statuette after the war was over. This Oscar has a small piece of paper affixed to its bottom that states the following:
ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES
HONORARY TROPHY
Please Handle Carefully
The plaster replica of the Awards Trophy will be replaced by the gold and bronze trophies as soon as metals are available. You will receive an official letter from the Academy immediately after March 15th which will constitute an order for your metal trophy. The Academy regrets that wartime restrictions make this substitution necessary.
Because award recipients were still unknown at the time of presentation, there were no engraved metal plates with the winner’s information affixed to these awards. The winners were directed to return the Oscar to the Academy to have an engraved plate made with their information attached. For some unknown reason, this Oscar did not have a metal plate. The National Museum of the Marine Corps is fortunate to have both the plaster plaque and the traditional Oscar for With the Marines at Tarawa. The Oscar statue received by the Marine Corps after World War II is currently exhibited in the museum’s World War II gallery.

A poster for the film With the Marines at Tarawa.
National Museum of the Marine Corps.

LtGen Julian C. Smith receives the Oscar from Charles Russell of Price Waterhouse while presenter Bob Hope, standing at Smith’s left, looks on during the 17th Academy Awards ceremony on 15 March 1944 at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, CA.
Norman T. Hatch Collection, Box 11, Folder 4, Collection 3395, Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division, Quantico, VA. Photo is also in the collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, photo ID number 700097.

The Academy Award presented to the Marine Corps for the Best Short Documentary film With the Marines at Tarawa is currently on display in the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ World War II gallery.
Photo by Jose Esquilin, Marine Corps University Press; the Oscar is a copyrighted and registered mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Endnotes
[1] “Marine Corps Schools Detachment, Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia, 1–31 July 1942,” Muster Rolls of Officers and Enlisted Men of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798–1958 (Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division, Quantico, VA); and “Louis Hayward Joins Marines,” New York Times, 11 July 1942, 11.
[2] James E. Wise Jr. and Anne Collier Rehill, Stars in the Corps: Movie Actors in the United States Marines (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999), 31.
[3] Libby Wertin, email messages to author, 12–20 May 2014.