SWC75
Bored Historian
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“Ho9llywood lost its grip on the Academy Awards in 1961 and the out-of-towners took home the Oscars. Just about the only producer making money on a regular basis was Walt Disney, but Hollywood didn’t think “The Absent-Minded Professor” or “The Parent Trap” as Oscar material”.
The Best Picture nominees included on Hollywood action blockbuster made in Europe, “The Guns of Navarone”, a serious and topical drama “Judgement at Nuremburg”, “Fanny” a film based on Marcel Pagnol’s famous trilogy which had been done in French thirty years before. , “The Hustler” a look into the nation’s seedy pool halls and West Side Story, a musical about New York street gangs. The Best Actor nominees Included Charles Boyer from “Fanny”, a little-known Austrian actor named Maxmillian Schell and also Spencer Tracy from “Judgement at Nuremburg”, Paul Newman from “The Hustler” and another little-known actor, Stuart Whitman, who had taken a role no one wanted as a child molester trying to reform in an obscure British film called “The Mark”. The Best Actress nominees were Piper Laurie from “The Hustler”, Audrey Hepburn for playing what was basically a prostitute in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, Natalie Wood not for “West Side Story” but for William Inge’s “Splendor in the Grass”, Geraldine Page in Tennessee William’s “Summer and Smoke” and Sophia Loren in Vittorio De Sica’s “Two Women”. Not a Disney film in the bunch.
While out-of-towners took home the Oscars, some in-towners didn’t show up. Sophia Loren, who was delighted to be recognized as a serious actress for once, (“I am not a sexy pot”), at first said she would fly in from Rome for the ceremony but then announced “I decided that I could not bear the ordeal of sitting in plain view of millions of viewers while my fate was being judged” and stayed home. Elizabeth Taylor, who had been selected to present the best Actor award, declined because she was having too good a time making “Cleopatra” with Richard Burton. Audrey Hepburn did fly in from Switzerland but got a sore throat and watched the ceremony from her hotel room bed. “It was a long way to come to watch a television show in a hotel room. And I bought a pretty dress. Down the Hall Judy Garland, who got a supporting actress nomination for “Judgement at Nuremberg” and had also promised to come was down the hallway in another room, tending to her son Joey Luft, who had an earache. Meanwhile George C. Scott, a supporting actor nominee for “The Hustler”, refused to show up for a “weird beauty contest”, saying “I take the positon that actors shouldn’t be forced to out-advertise and out-stab each other.”
A new tradition was started when, for the first time, the awards were the site of a political protest. “A group calling itself the Hollywood Race Relations Bureau marched outside the auditorium with placards reading “Film Equality for Negroes” and “All Negroes Want a Break”.” In contrast, the ceremony itself started with Mary Costa singing “The Star Spangled Banner” as if it was the beginning of a sporting event.
For the first time the arrival of some of the celebrities was shown but we quickly move inside for Ms. Costa’s performance, followed by something called “The Oscar Fantasy Overture #1”, a medley not of tunes but of musical themes from recent film, which proved more dramatic than festive. The camera panned the audience, which had more than a few empty seats. Some of the shots were so close to the actors it seemed obtrusive. We see extreme close-ups of Gregory Peck, Stuart Whiteman and Paul Newman, The effect is more weird than glamorous.
Then Bob Hope was introduced and pronounced the occasion “Judgement t Santa Monica” he said “George C. Scott was sitting at home with his back to the TV set.” He then jabbed at Jackie Gleason, another absentee: “He’s afraid of planes and vice versa.” He said “the Hustler” was “about Bing’s obstetrician.” He also said that those in contention “are fella who played a gangster, a gambler and a poolroom hustler. Now you know why I turned down the title role in “The Alberts Schweitzer Story”. He said that Sophia Loren had been in “Two Women” and “she sure is”. Bob makes several jokes about Princess Grace coming back to Hollywood to make a picture for Hitchcock. This was to be “Marnie” but the Prince made her stay home.
Carolyn Jones and George Chakiris give out the best documentary award to a French documentary about an expedition into previously unexplored parts of New Guinea called “Le ciel et la boue”, or “The Sky Below and the Mud beneath”. On reviewer on the IMB said of it: “The film is painfully patronizing, while simultaneously insulting and embarrassing.” Another called it “The most succinct lesson in modern colonialism”. The producer accepts the Oscar in honor of “the three technicians who died in making the film and the eight others who were injured.” I hope it was worth it.
They continued the quaint tradition of showing off the best costume nominees by having young starlets model them. I recognized Anne Helm and Brooke Bundy, who did a lot of 60’s TV, Roxanne Arlen, who was kind of the Vanna White of the 1950’s on “Beat the Clock” and who almost nabbed the role of Della Street on Perry Mason, and the unfortunate Sharon Hugueny, whose promising career, (she’d written a play at age 14 and had won Troy Donahue in “Parrish”) was ruined by a bad marriage to Robert Evans, an auto accident and finally cancer:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0401102/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Shirley Jones “in a skin-tight gown” revealed that George Chakiris had won Best Supporting Actor. Shirley walks like she’d been wrapped up like a mummy. If she’s fallen over, she could not have gotten up. Chakiris has credits on the IMDB from 1947-1996 but this is basically the only role anybody remembers him for. The presentation of the short subjects awards isn’t short enough. The film editing award could have bene edited out, (although Rod Taylor and Angie Dickinson make an attractive couple.)
Greer Garson presented a special award to William Hendricks for “his outstanding and patriotic service in the conception, writing and production of the Marine Corps film, “A Force in Readiness”, which has brought honor to the Academy and the motion picture industry.” They show an extensive clip from the film, (an Oscar rarity), narrated by Jack Webb, describing Polaris missiles ready to “devastate the target” while Marines “seize beachheads…projecting sea power deep ashore…ready to launch airborne attacks over the beach and beyond”. Ms. Garson swoons at the clip and presents the Oscar to a Marine colonel. It might have been the first Oscar awarded for patriotism.
Tony Martin and Cyd Charrise presented the musical score Oscars, which were won by “West Side Story” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. They show a series of soundtrack albums and I think I’ve got them all.
“After a commercial in which Eve Arden showed how her maid poured fabric softener into her rinse water, Gene Kelly danced out to the music of “An American in Paris” and gave an honorary Oscar to Jerome Robbins for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film”. The smiling recipient thanked everyone except Robert Wise.” Unfortunately, we get the commercial but not Gene or Jerome. Robbins, the choreographer for the Broadway original, was co-director with Wise of the film until they had an argument about the production schedule and Wise ordered him off the set.
The sound awards snuck by without making too much noise. Then Rock Hudson presented the best Supporting Actress award to Rita Moreno, who simply says “I can’t believe it!” and leaves the stage. She didn’t even hand over Oscar to get it engraved so it could have been anybody’s Oscar.
Vince Edwards, whose show, “Ben Casey” was pre-empted nonetheless made an appearance to present the cinematography awards with Shelley Winters. The highlight of the evening came when Stan Berman, “The World’s Greatest Gate Crasher” waltzed onstage to present Bob Hope with a miniature Oscar. Hope said “Who needs Price Waterhouse? All we need is a doorman”
Richard Chamberlain, “Dr. Kildare” came out with Carol Baker to present the art direction awards. You wonder what Edwards said to Chamberlain and vice versa backstage. Jack Warner introduced Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, who presented the Foreign Film Oscar with his usual “Woooo”. Harriet Anderson accepted for Ingmar Bergman for “Through a Glass Darkly”, saying that Mr. Bergman “never leaves the country”. The ebullient Mr. Johnston was also the head of the US Chamber of Commerce and had helped organize the blacklist back in the bad old days.
Arthur Freed presented the Thalberg Memorial Award to Stanley Kramer, which some questioned on ethical grounds as he was also up as the producer of the Best picture and some thought it might unduly influence the voters, (it didn’t). Kramer said that his grandmother and Irving Thalberg’s mother used to play bridge together.
Debbie Reynolds gives Henry Mancini his second Oscar of the night for “Moon River”. Missing is Ann Margaret’s famous rendition of “Bachelor in Paradise”, another nominated song, which made her a star. “A finger-snapping hand emerged from behind a screen. Then a purring sound heralded an emerging female figure in a tight gown. The red-headed singer posed coquettishly throughout the song and was rewarded with a long ovation.“ One critic suggested she was auditioning for the role of a stripper in “Gypsy”. I found a recording of her singing the song. You’ll have to imagine what it looked like on the telecast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjLvlO4F1L4
Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, then filming “The Days of Wine and Roses”, presented Abby Mann with the Best Adapted Screenplay award for “Judgement at Nuremberg”. Mann said “I believe a writer worth his salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world in which he lives…not only to comment but maybe have a shot at reshaping that world.”. Backstage he wondered “I may have come across as too pompous out there.”
Roz Russell presented co-best director awards to Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for “West Side Story”. There was no sign of tension, except that neither mentioned the other in their acceptance speech while they both thanked everybody else. Joan Crawford announces Max Schell as Best Actor not by saying “And the Winner is…” but rather by saying “And his name is…”. Schell tells a story of a customs agent asking what he was doing in this country and then wishing him luck and says “Now I have it.” Later he said “I am America’s number one fan. I like your food- especially cornflakes.”
Burt Lancaster announced the Best Actress nominees and initially forgot Sophia Loren, who wins it. He said “I was saving it.” Sophia was back in Rome, waiting to hear after staying up all night, “smoking cigarette after cigarette and drinking cup after cup of coffee. (It was 6AM there.) It was getting the better of her and she started screaming “Someone else got it and no one has the courage to call me!” She finally went to bed, trying to sleep until the phone rang. It was her old paramour Cary Grant, who told her she had won. Later she told the press “I started as a sex symbol , but it was as a symbol of mother love that I won an Oscar. And that gives me extra satisfaction. “
Fred Astaire came out to present the Best Picture award and was obviously pleased when it was won by a musical. “West Side Story was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 10 of them, one short of Ben-Hur’s record. Robert Wise finally acknowledges Jerome Robbins “for his work on the wonderful stage show”.
Columnist Sidney Skolsky, disappointed at all the foreign winners and the Broadway musical that won seemingly everything wrote “Oscar today stands ironically as a symbol of Hollywood’s lost supremacy rather than of its present glory.”
She may have been a serious actress but she was also a “sexy pot”:
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