Saturday, February 25, 2012 - Leading Ladies at the Oscars

Introduction

With the Academy Awards ceremony just days away, today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon takes us back to the early days of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and introduces us to two Canadian leading ladies who were among the first to win this much coveted award.


Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue

Across

1a   _MARY| PICK|FOR|D_ - hidden in (in) sumMARY PICK FOR Director

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford^[7] (1892 – 1979) was a Canadian-born [in Toronto, Ontario] motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary" and "The girl with the curls," she was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. In addition to her Oscar as best actress for Coquette^[7] (1929), she received an Academy Honorary Award for a lifetime of achievements in 1976. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute named Pickford 24th among the greatest female stars of all time.

9a   GU(MD)ROP* - anagram (agitated) of GROUP containing (†) MD (doctor)

10a   GANG|LIA< - GANG (band) + (with) reversal (returning) AIL (pain; as a verb)

11a   CO|QUETTE - edges (verges; as a noun) on (†) COdemning etiQUETTE

Mary Pickford won an Oscar for best actress at the second Academy Awards in 1930 for her role in Coquette^[7]. The award was somewhat controversial given that Pickford was a founding member of the Academy and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, was the president at the time.

12a   NATAL - double definition; "South African place" & "of birth"

13a   DIG|ITAL - DIG (like) + ITAL (Italian)

15a   TOT|ALLY - TOT (innocent; child) + ALLY (friend)

17a   P(A|GOD)AS - PAS (French [word meaning] not) containing (embracing) {A (†) + GOD (deity)}

19a   DI(LUTE)D - DID (performed) containing (holding) LUTE (string; stringed instrument)

20a   L(I|BE)L - {I ([Roman numeral for] one) + BE (act)} contained in (between) LL (the lines)

22a   DIVORCEE* - anagram (tossed) of DICE OVER

The Divorcee^[7] is a 1930 American drama film written by Nick Grindé, John Meehan and Zelda Sears, based on the novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and won Best Actress for its star Norma Shearer.

25a   {TI|TA|NI|A}< - reversal (back) of {A (†) + IN (popular) + AT IT (active)}

Titania^[5] is the queen of the fairies in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

26a   SE(N)E|GAL - {SEE (observe) + GAL (girl)} containing (around) N (north)

27a   NO|RM|A S|HEARER - NO (†) + RM (room) + AS (†) + HEARER (audience member)

Norma Shearer

Norma Shearer^[7] (1902 – 1983) was a Canadian actress [born in Montreal, Quebec]. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s. Her early films cast her as the girl-next-door but for most of the Pre-Code^[7] film era beginning with the 1930 film The Divorcee^[7], for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies. Later she appeared in historical and period films.

Down

1d   MA|GI - MA (mother) + (connected with) GI (soldier)

2d   ROME*|O - anagram (mad) of MORE + O (love; a tennis score of 0)

3d   PARQUETED~ - sounds like (in the audience) PARK (leave) + AIDE (assistant)

4d   C(A|PIT)AL - {A (†) + PIT (mine)} contained in (included in) CAL (California)

5d   FI(GMEN)T - GMEN (FBI agents; G-men) contained in (involved in) FIT (seizure)

6d   RU(N)-IN - RUIN (wreck) containing (around) N (ocean, ultimately; the last, or ultimate, letter of oceaN)

7d   P|LATE|LET - P (piano; in music, a direction meaning soft or softly) + LATE (in the wee hours) + LET (permitted)

8d   W(ALLEY)ED - WED (mate; as a verb) containing (taking) ALLEY (little-used street)

Walleyed^[3] (a new term to me) means having eyes wide-open and glaring, as in anger.

13d   DEPILATE -  anagram (fancier) of IDEAL PET

14d   GIG|A(BY)TE - BY (†) contained in (filling) {GIG (job) + (ATE (consumed)}

16d   T(OLE)RANCE - OLE ([Spanish] cheer) contained in (in) TRANCE (ecstasy)

18d   SIDEARM* - anagram (badly) of MISREAD

19d   DIVE(ST)S - DIVES (goes underwater) containing (carrying) ST (stone; British unit of weight)

21d   LENT|O - LENT (offered) + O (bagel; looks like the letter 'O')

In music, lento^[5] is a direction meaning slow or slowly.

23d   E(I)GER - I ([Roman numeral for] one) contained in (in) {E (East) + GER (Germany)}

The Eiger^[7] (3,970 m (13,025 ft)) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.

24d   B(L)UR< - reversal (the wrong way) of RUB (†) containing (about) L (Liberal)

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today - Falcon