The 1954 Oscars (for 1953)

[SWC75]

- The first voice you hear is not a future President, but a future lawyer- Raymond Burr, who shouts the intro as if pleading before a jury.

- Bob Hope is not doing the hosting chores because Oldsmobile is a sponsor and Chrysler was Bob's TV sponsor. Donald O'Connor takes over with great enthusiasm, even if the jokes are no better than usual.

- Walt Disney got plenty of exercise, picking up 4 Oscars for documentaries and short subjects. It got so that he didn't both to sit down but simply waited in the wings, still clutching the last one. It's strange to see an Oscar winner come forward to accept when he's already got one in his hands.

- Jack Webb presents one of the early awards, with the Dragnet theme being played. His show was #2 on TV at the time, right behind I Love Lucy. He was planning his own movie career beginning with a Dragnet movie that came out that year. But it never really got off the ground and, after several attempts, he returned to television.

- A 30 year old Betty White can be seen in one of the Oldsmobile commercials. She and Kirk Douglas are likely the only people you see here who are still with us.

_ It's not show in these clips but Ann Blyth sang one of the nominated songs, "Secret Love" form Calamity Jane. There was some controversy about this as she was pregnant at the time and one of the lines is "My secret love is no secret any more". They decided to do a publicity release that Ms. Blyth was married so it was OK.

- You also don't see an Oscar being presented to Joseph Breen, "for his conscientious, open-minded and dignified management of the Motion Picture Production Code". As he approached the stage Andre Previn's orchestra played "Don't Fence Me In".

- She's remembered for her spectacular swimming production numbers but has anybody every looked more gorgeous and sexy than Esther Williams in that gown?

- Hal Mohr, nominated for black and white cinema photography, was my uncle's father in law.

- Like Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr was doing a play in New York and rushed over to the Century theater in case she won. Photographers wouldn’t let her get into the theater until she’d posed for pictures, including one kissing a security guard.

- This telecast was not plagued by the absences of winners we saw in the first televised ceremony. But Ian McClellan Hunter was criticized for being in mexico during the ceremony, which is why an unidentified surrogate was sent up to accept his award. Hunter was being investigated by HUAC at the time. What they didn't know is that Hunter, himself was a surrogate, fronting for Dalton Trumbo, one of the "Hollywood Ten". In 1993, the Academy gave Trumbo an Oscar for his script. But ti wasn't the same one as the deceased Hunter's son refused to give it up. In the 2003 DVD issue of Roman Holiday, Trumbo's name was placed on the credits in place of Hunter's. The presenter of the award in 1954 was Kirk Douglas, who would reinstate Trumbo's career and essentially end the blacklist by employing Trumbo to write the script for Spartacus and putting his name on the screen.

- Donna Reed stets a record for the fast run to the podium but Frank Sinatra is a close second. And Mercedes McCambridge set a record for vertical jump when she announced his award. After he got home he took a walk around Beverly Hills, where a cop stopped him, not recognizing him and demanded to know where he got the statuette from.

- William Holden spent so much energy celebrating, (and he knew how to do it), that he woke up in his living room easy chair, still in his tuxedo and clutching his award, surrounded by his kids and all their friends in the neighborhood who had come over to see the Oscar.

_ Audrey Hepburn was starring as a water sprite in "Ondine" by Jean Giraudoux. She had to rush to the Century Theater in New York with her eye make-up still on. Her acceptance speech is memorably sweet and natural. This classic picture was taken afterwards:

She'd survived the war, post-war poverty, (her mother, a baroness, had to become a housekeeper), and several years of struggle in show business and now everything was happening all at once- Broadway and movie stardom and the adoration of the world.