SWC75
Bored Historian
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I believe the opening voice is probably Mel Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn's husband and later the presenter of the scientific and technical awards.
Jerry Lewis was hosting this time and that was considered a stretch for the Academy as Jerry's image was that of idiotic buffoon. Of course, personally he was a very smart guy and this was his chance to show it and gain new respect in the industry and with the public. He did a good job and got favorable reviews which was important to him and his career. (Note that Academy President George Seaton says that he's gained a lot of respect for Jerry "in the last 24 hours"). Not all the jokes are good but Jerry had the comedian's instinct to turn the ones that don't work into something funny by reacting to their failures, (Johnny Carson, who hosted several Oscar ceremonies years later, was another master of that.) That new found respect would come in handy as Jerry and Dean Martin would break up the following July and not reconcile for 30 years.
See if you don't wonder as I did whether there was some canned laughter involved when Lewis told his jokes. A lot of the time the laughter seems exactly the same and to have ended at exactly the same point. Perhaps the applause might have been a bit "salted" as well.
Per "Inside Oscar", a lot of the action was outside the theater, (not shown here). A fan fainted in the crowd and was taken into the theater on a stretcher to be attended to. Someone said "That's an easy way to get in." Jack Lemmon was asked to pose for photographers and somehow managed to put his hand in a bucket of paint. (The reason the bucket of paint was there is not revealed.) Kim Novack entered just as a light above her exploded and showered glass on the people below. Columnist Mike Connolly noted the arrival of Jean Pierre Aumont and his young fiance Marisa Pavan, saying that the difference in their ages, (45 and 23) hardly showed. He then realized he was looking at Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood, (ages 24 and 17).
Susan Hayward took a dim view of her chances because she'd broken a mirror the day before. She really believed that was a harbinger of bad luck and tried to negate it by burying the mirror in her back yard. Edith Head had no such lack of confidence, saying "I had done an outstanding job and, in my estimation, the competition was very slim.." When she lost to Charles LeMaire for "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" she said that he was a good friend but "if Charles had wanted to, he could have purchased (the costumes) in Chinatown." Nice.
Jerry has some nice banter with Jimmy Cagney, (they imitate each other), Susan Hayward and , lucky guy, both Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Audrey plants a kiss on his cheek and Jerry wishes Grace luck in her new life as a Princess, (which began the next month). Jerry and Ernest Borgnine repeat the "Waddaya Wanna Do" scene from Marty and wonder if they can get the girls- Grace and Audrey to go out with them.
The notable thing about this ceremony was the number of notable beauties, even by the standards of Hollywood, that were there for this ceremony. Eleanor Parker and Marisa Pavan stand out but even they are eclipsed by this summit of two leading icons of beauty, elegance and charm:
Actually, this famous image was one of a series of photographs taken on that occasion:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Aud...=lTzxVPiGMbiKsQSrsYHwCg&ved=0CB0QsAQ#imgdii=_
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