Looking back on the first Oscars as Hollywood’s – Latest News
Take No. 98 of the Oscars
Hark! On March 15, at 7 p.m., ABC’s 98th Oscars factor, burbled by Conan O’Brien, begins — three weeks away. Oy, be nonetheless my coronary heart. The awards initially started in 1929. Underwhelmed, Time magazine gave it one paragraph afterward. Same web page, solely bigger paragraph, John D. Rockefeller III was reported “to have just been voted the third most pious” by his Princeton class. Also on the identical web page was information on a new Ford manufacturing unit being in-built England.
What could possibly be higher for California? It’s virtually as great as giving a 2-year-old lady a GI wardrobe.
At a good clip
The venue? Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The 270 who paid to attend spent $5. Another fin and you might’ve owned the entire lodge. The gown — black tie. No close-ups of boobs and behinds.
The entire ceremony, which had 13 awards, took quarter-hour. The reasoning? To cement Hollywood, to canonize the industry, to hype movie-making.
The oddity? Winners’ names had already been introduced months earlier, so no one understood why they schlepped to this occasion in the first place. The prizes obtained awarded in 5 minutes. Swallowing your gin and tonic whilst you smiled at losers took longer.
Douglas Fairbanks was the occasion’s president and the first host. Janet Gaynor received for one thing.
Realtime bigtime movietime biggies who had been at the first Oscars? Emil Jannings.
Anyway, by 1940, everyone, together with waiters, had been drained of the factor and needed to wake up the viewers, so in got here the Great Hope: Bob Hope. He holds the file for internet hosting the most Oscars — 19 occasions — and emceed the occasion in 1953 for its first televised occasion, and in 1966 for the first broadcast in colour.
Going off the script
A number of memorable quotes from Oscar-winning actors.
Morgan Freeman: “An overzealous guy once followed me into the men’s room for an autograph. So I finally asked him: ‘You want to hold this while I sign?’ ”
Hilary Swank: “First role I ever auditioned for was to play an animal. It was Bagheera, the black panther in ‘The Jungle Book.’ The director then put his arm around me and said, ‘Hilary, we need to talk.’ ”
Natalie Portman: “Prince Charles once asked me if I’d been in ‘Star Wars Phantom Menace.’ I didn’t mind because it could’ve been an upsetting experience, but I was only 12.”
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Snubs & dubs
Subsequently, little glitches. 1984’s “Amadeus” confirmed Mozart labored to beat an envious fellow composer, which smart-asses stated was “bulls - - t.” 1965’s “The Sound of Music” depicted the terrified Von Trapp household fleeing the Nazis by climbing over the Alps, when the actual Von Trapp household simply hopped a practice. Though the film was a hit at the Academy Awards the subsequent yr.
Much later Harvey Weinstein was as soon as sizzling to movie J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” But Salinger wasn’t . Harvey had stated: “Just put me in a room with that guy and I’ll get those rights.” Legal rights, nonetheless, have since put Harvey in his own tiny room.
LISTEN, I’ve to complete now as a result of as I’m typing, this winter is right here throughout our streets.
One factor. And I do know nothing. But, please, will the Nancy Guthrie investigators test Mexico. Types down there know issues, do issues. Get out of your identical terrain . . . go to Mexico.
