The Pittsburgh Press (February 5, 1945)
Going My Way nominated for seven coveted Oscars
Crosby, Fitzgerald named for top acting awards – other films proposed
HOLLYWOOD (UP) – The heartwarming motion picture, Going My Way, whose star, crooner Bing Crosby, pulled the highest box office returns of any actor in 1944, today won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ nominations for seven coveted Oscar awards.
For his performance in the picture, Barry Fitzgerald became the first actor in Academy history to be nominated for awards for both the best performance by an actor and the best performance by a supporting actor.
Fitzgerald and Crosby, who was also nominated for the Oscar for best actor, played the roles of two Catholic priests in Going My Way.
Cited for seven others
The picture was also nominated as best movie of the year, the best written screenplay and the best original motion picture story. Its director, Leo McCarey, was nominated for achievement in directing and the tune “Swinging on a Star” was nominated best original song.
Nine thousand members of the film industry will participate in final balloting February 10 to select the winners, to be announced March 15.
‘Gaslight’ honored
The psychological chiller Gaslight was also nominated as best picture of the year, and its stars, Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Angela Lansbury, were named as best actress, best actor and best supporting actress, respectively.
Swedish Miss Bergman was nudged out of the award last year by newcomer Jennifer Jones, who was mentioned this year as a candidate for supporting honors for her role in Since You Went Away, nominated as one of the best pictures of the year.
Claudette Colbert, one-time Oscar winner, was nominated for a second for her starring role in the same film. Monty Woolley was nominated for supporting honors.
Others nominated
Other contestants for picture of the year was Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck as a cold-blooded murderess, who was nominated for what would be her first award as top actress, and Wilson, whose star, Alexander Knox, was nominated as top actor.
Two-time Oscar winner Bette Davis was nominated for her starring role in Mr. Skeffington and Greer Garson, for her role in Mrs. Parkington.
Cary Grant, who has never won an Oscar, was cited for his work in None But the Lonely Heartand Ethel Barrymore was nominated for her supporting role in the same picture.
Also named for supporting honors were Hume Cronyn for The Seventh Cross, Clifton Webb in Laura, Aline MacMahon in Dragon Seed and Agnes Moorehead in Mrs. Parkington.
Nominations for directing achievement went to McCarey, Billy Wilder for Double Indemnity, Otto Preminger for Laura, Alfred Hitchcock for Lifeboat, Henry King for Wilson.
“The Trolley Song” from the film Meet Me in St. Louis and “Long Ago and Far Away” from Cover Girl were among 12 nominees for best original song of the year.