Flashback: National Association of Theater Owners Awards 1971

The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) is the United States based trade organization whose members are the owners of movie theaters. Most franchises of the worldwide major theater chains are members, as are many independent theater operators; collectively, they account for the operation of over 32,000 motion picture screens in all 50 U.S. states and 81 other countries.

In 1971 the awards were held at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Actress Ali MacGraw was in attendance and was enjoying a wave of success after the film Love Story. She was accompanying her then husband - film producer Robert Evans. The following year she made The Getaway with the late great Steve McQueen who she would eventually marry in 1973.

During the NATO awards, there were some great photos taken of Clint and MacGraw talking together as well as some terrific individual shots of Clint. You may notice in a couple of shots that Clint is pictured with some kind of award, a piece of glassware. To this day I have never been able to find out what this award is or what it was presented for? I took the steps today to contact NATO in the hope that they may be able to reply with an answer. Whilst I have many lists of Clint’s awards, this one seems to be incredibly hard to find, regardless of many hours of internet research. 

Let’s hope that NATO can provide us with an answer.

Update: I recently discovered this rare trade magazine (Boxoffice magazine November 15th 1971) which covered this on their cover page. The information at the bottom of the cover also dates the event as October 28th - resulting in the first time we have been able to accurately date this event.