Oliver! became the only Best Picture winner to have received a G-rating prior to winning, the ratings system having replaced the old Hays Code on November 1, 1968 (though a number of Best Picture winners have received the rating retroactively). It was the last British film to win Best Picture until Chariots of Fire in 1981, and the last musical to win until Chicago in 2002.
Cliff Robertson's performance in Charly, which had received a mixed-to-negative reception from critics and audiences, engendered controversy when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Less than two weeks after the ceremony, TIME mentioned the Academy's generalized concerns over "excessive and vulgar solicitation of votes" and said "many members agreed that Robertson's award was based more on promotion than on performance."[5]
Also notable this year was the only instance to date of the Academy revoking an Oscar after the ceremony: Young Americans won the award for Best Documentary Feature Film, but on May 7, 1969, it was discovered that it had premiered in October 1967, thus making it ineligible. Journey into Self, the first runner-up, was awarded the Oscar the following day.[7]
A minor controversy was created when, in a sketch on The Tonight Show, which was recorded three hours before the awards ceremony, Johnny Carson and Buddy Hackett announced Oliver! as the winner for Best Picture and Jack Albertson as Best Supporting Actor.[8] Columnist Frances Drake claimed that most observers believed Carson and Hackett "were playing a huge practical joke or happened to make a lucky guess".[9] Referring to it as "The Great Carson Hoax", PricewaterhouseCoopers stated in a 2004 press release that it was "later proven that Carson and Hackett made a few lucky guesses for their routine, dispelling rumors of a security breach and keeping the integrity of the balloting process intact".[10] Carson would go on to host the ceremony five times.
The televised ceremony
The live ABC television audience was estimated, on the day after the broadcast, at 60 million in the United States.[11] It was the first Oscars to be widely broadcast throughout the world, licensed in 37 countries.[12][13]
The show opened outdoors at night in downtown Los Angeles. English actors Ron Moody and sixteen-year-old Jack Wild were in character as Fagin and the Artful Dodger, from Best Picture nominee Oliver!. Fagin assured Dodger that if they didn’t win the golden statuette, they would “pinch it.”[14][15]
The teleprompter was not yet invented, so the presenters read off of handwritten cue cards. During the Best Original Screenplay presentation (which was won by Mel Brooks for The Producers), comedian Don Rickles carried a cue card up to Frank Sinatra at the podium.[18]
Hope later observed that “Oscar is more naked than usual…They’re doing things on the screen today I wouldn’t do in bed…even if I had the chance.”[22]
Ruth Gordon won Best Supporting Actress as the nosy neighbour in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.[11] The 72-year-old actress exclaimed, “I can’t tell you how encouraging a thing like this is! …and thank all of you who voted for me, and all of you who didn’t - please excuse me.”[23][24]
The director and choreographer Gower Champion wanted the show to appeal to a younger audience.[14][16]He relaxed the dress code from white tie and tails to black tie and tuxedos.[25] He reduced the show’s length to two hours, partly by easing access to the stage with a wide center ramp over the orchestra pit.[17] The brevity of several speeches also contributed to the overall running time.[11][26]
Champion also targeted the youth market with a little help from Jane Fonda’s friends, The Soul Rascals. The rock group played cover songs to choreographed dancers decked out in each of the Best Costume designs.[27][28][29]
Throughout the ceremony Champion introduced rear-screen projection of photos and film excerpts onto five movable screens that filled the stage.[14][30]
Announcing the best actress winners, Ingrid Bergman gasped “It’s a tie!”[31]According to an Academy spokesperson in 1969, the actual vote count by the 3,030 eligible Academy members was "never divulged."[11]
Hepburn was not in attendance, so Anthony Harvey, the director of The Lion in Winter, accepted on her behalf.[32]
Streisand briefly tripped, stepping on the leg of her Arnold Scaasi-designed pantsuit, en route to the stage.[23][33][34] Streisand was subsequently shocked to discover the Scaasi suit appeared transparent under the bright stage lights and still photographers’ flashes.[32][33][35]
Looking down at her Oscar, Streisand recited “Hello, gorgeous!” the opening words from Funny Girl.[14] She acknowledged the honor of “being in such magnificent company as Katharine Hepburn.”[25]
Sidney Poitier had the distinction of presenting Best Picture, the final award of the night, declaring that “1968 was a vintage year for motion pictures.”[36]
Later that night at the Governor’s Ball held in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the show’s director Champion was applauded for his achievement.[37] The show earned mostly favourable reviews for its informality, look and pace, but some critics lamented the lack of glamour of previous Oscar nights.[16][27][30][32][37][38]
Don Rickles (Presenter: Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)
Rosalind Russell (Presenter: Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (Not a Musical), Best Sound and Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Awards)
Frank Sinatra (Presenter: Best Supporting Actor, Best Song Original for the Picture and Writing Awards)
Natalie Wood (Presenter: Best Art Direction and the Scientific or Technical Awards)
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. She worked in a varied range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, which earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer.
William Wyler was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Academy Awards. He holds the record of twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. For his oeuvre of work, Wyler was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being among the first performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT).
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.
The 42nd Academy Awards were presented April 7, 1970, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. For the second year in a row, there was no official host. This was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be broadcast via satellite to an international audience, though outside North America, Mexico and Brazil were the only countries to broadcast the event live.
The 43rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was held on April 15, 1971, and took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to honor the best films of 1970. The Awards, without a host for the third consecutive year, were broadcast by NBC for the first time in 11 years.
The 49th Academy Awards were presented Monday, March 28, 1977, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. The ceremonies were presided over by Richard Pryor, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Warren Beatty. Network and All the President's Men were the two biggest winners of the ceremony, with four Oscars each, but Best Picture and Best Director, as well as Best Editing, were won by Rocky.
The 54th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1981 and took place on March 29, 1982, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 22 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Howard W. Koch and directed by Marty Pasetta. Comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson hosted the show for the fourth consecutive time.
The 27th Academy Awards were held on March 30, 1955 to honor the best films of 1954, hosted by Bob Hope at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood with Thelma Ritter hosting from the NBC Century Theatre in New York City.
"Evergreen" is the theme song from the 1976 film A Star Is Born. It was composed and performed by American singer, songwriter, actress and director Barbra Streisand with lyrics by Paul Williams, and arranged by Ian Freebairn-Smith. The song was released on the soundtrack album to A Star Is Born.
The 35th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1962, were held on April 8, 1963, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, hosted by Frank Sinatra.
The 36th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1963, were held on April 13, 1964, hosted by Jack Lemmon at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. This ceremony introduced the category for Best Sound Effects, with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World being the first film to win the award.
Funny Girl is a 1968 American biographical-musical film directed by William Wyler and written by Isobel Lennart, adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title. It is loosely based on the life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
"Mon Homme" ,also known by its English translation, "My Man", is a popular song first published in 1920. The song was originally composed by Maurice Yvain with French lyrics by Jacques-Charles and Albert Willemetz. The English lyrics were written by Channing Pollock.
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Actor winner.
The David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress is a category in the David di Donatello Awards, described as "Italy's answer to the Oscars". It was awarded by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano to recognize outstanding efforts on the part of non-Italian film actresses during the year preceding the ceremony. The award was created during the second edition of the ceremony, in 1957, and cancelled after the 1996 event. The award was not granted in 1958.
References
↑ Champlin, Charles (April 15, 1969). "Streisand and Hepburn Tie; Robertson Voted Best Actor". Los Angeles Times. p.1.
1 2 3 Warga, Wayne (April 15, 1969). "Old Excitement Lives as Oscar Finds New Home". Los Angeles Times. p.3.
1 2 Streisand, Barbra (2023). My Name is Barbra Chapter 15, Hello, Gorgeous. Viking an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. pp.314–315. ISBN9780698405257.
↑ Graham, Sheilah (April 15, 1969). "Oscar's Love – 'Tis Capricious". Hollywood Citizen-News. p.9 Academy Awards Section.
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