Ray Richmond: There’s always been something magical about the Academy Awards – and there still is

Ray Richmond
·7 min read

When I was a little kid back during the Pleistocene era, there were annually three things you had to watch that were can’t-miss viewing: the annual broadcasts of “The Wizard of Oz” on CBS at Thanksgiving and “It’s a Wonderful Life” on NBC at Christmastime – and the Academy Awards in April. I didn’t have a particularly close family growing up, but we would all huddle on the couch and practically join hands while tuned to this trio of yearly spectacles. It’s hard to imagine now in our everything-on-demand viewing culture, but in the years before streaming and video, “Wizard of Oz” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” were once massive, once-a-year events.

And the Academy Awards still is.

More from GoldDerby

What’s that you say? The Oscar ratings have fallen off a cliff over the past several years? Well, maybe. But it doesn’t matter. They’re still the granddaddy (and grandmama?) of all entertainment spectacles, and to be sure nothing in awards culture comes close to matching its magnetic allure. As a young lad who grew up on the other side of the tracks, it was the one opportunity I had every year to watch fancy people in fancy clothes say fancy words while presenting and carting off fancy trophies. From where I sat, they were as close to a higher life form as I ever laid eyes on.

SEE‘Oppenheimer’ winning streak at the guilds could continue at Oscars

I’ve heard all the arguments about how all awards shows are orgies of self-congratulation, and the Oscars the biggest orgy of them all. And I don’t care. I’ve kind of had it with people smugly suggesting they don’t watch/care about the Oscars anymore, that they’re yesterday’s news, that young people couldn’t care less about any of it, blah blah blah. They’re still a big huge deal in my world, baby, and I’m pretty sure in yours, too.

Even if I didn’t work for Gold Derby, I’d be parked in front of ABC this Sunday at 4 p.m. sharp to watch Jimmy Kimmel crack wise, followed by a lot of beautiful folks bestowing and winning statuettes for doing amazing things on a movie screen.

The Academy Awards is still the standard against which all other entertainment spectacles are measured. It is, in fact, why the word “extravaganza” was even invented. It doesn’t matter if the host’s monologue jokes bomb, or the winners ramble in their acceptance speeches, or the clip packages prove lame and repetitive, or they forget too many worthy folks in the In Memoriam segment, or the whole thing drags on interminably. It doesn’t even matter if all the winners prove predictable and a single movie (say, “Oppenheimer”) walks off with three or four armfuls of the things. It still represents the ultimate confirmation or rejection of our own individual taste in cinema. Plus, the allure is still irresistible because it’s live and we never know when something unforgettable may happen.

SEEOscars 2024: New ceremony presenters revealed include Cynthia Erivo, Sally Field, Steven Spielberg

You might say that’s also true of any live kudofest centering on movies. But how many things can you remember from, say, a past Critics Choice Awards, or a Golden Globes? The Oscars stand alone in creating memories that endure years and even decades later.

Allow me to cite some specifics.

Let’s start with Hattie McDaniel’s becoming the first African American winner of an Oscar in 1940 for “Gone with the Wind” and intoning in her acceptance how she would “always hold it as a beacon for anything I may do in the future” – a humble and gracious speech, despite being seated in the room in a corner far from her castmates and production team.

There was Alfred Hitchcock’s winning the Thalberg Award in 1968 and giving the shortest acceptance in Oscar history, precisely two words: “Thank you.” He then thought better of it and, after the music struck up, added a barely audible, “…very much indeed.”

I still vividly recall the shocking tie in the 1969 Best Actress race between Katharine Hepburn for “The Lion in Winter” and Barbra Streisand for “Funny Girl.”  Hepburn wasn’t there, and a friend named Anthony Harvey accepted. Streisand memorably clutched her golden guy, looked at him lovingly, took a beat and said, “Hello gorgeous.” It was, in every way, perfect.

SEEWhen are the 2024 Oscars? Date, time, and everything to know

It was only three years later that what may stand as the greatest Oscar moment happened: silent screen legend Charlie Chaplin receiving an honorary Academy Award in 1972, years after years of being branded a Communist and denied entry back into the United States after years of living in Switzerland. He was overcome by the response and nearly tongue-tied following the Oscar record 12-minute standing ovation he received.

Then there were the more controversial but no less memorable moments, like Marlon Brando’s sending activist Sasheen Littlefeather up to the stage to reject his Oscar win for “The Godfather” in 1973. Littlefeather, who died in 2022, was later accused of having falsely claimed her indigenous heritage. But no matter; it was a riveting Oscar scene.

We’ll also naturally never forget the “Moonlight”/”La La Land” Best Picture mix-up in 2017 that had Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway reading the wrong card and declaring “La La Land” the winner and it was corrected as “Moonlight” onstage immediately

And of course, there was The Slap Heard ‘Round the World in 2022 when Will Smith took to the stage to smack Chris Rock upside the head for his alleged disrespect of Smith’s wife Jada Pickett Smith in one of his jokes. The reverberations from that are still being felt.

SEEOscars 2024: Ceremony presenters will include Bad Bunny, Regina King, Jennifer Lawrence

The thing is, anything inspiring, or poignant, or disturbing, or controversial that happens at the Oscars instantly becomes a part of American lore. There are few other annual events that carry anything close to the same weight. There’s also the Super Bowl, sure. But the Oscars got there first. This is the 96th one, let’s remember, and anyone who loves movies still sees it as the yardstick that measures whether a film was appropriately honored or not. And if it’s not, we all get to complain for days, weeks, perhaps even months after the fact.

We long for the unguarded celebrity moments. They may be few and far between, but when we get one, it’s epic. Too, in an age of such rampant social isolation, where we too often prefer our viewing to be a pact strictly between ourselves and our streaming service, the Oscars present us with one of the last great reasons to get together and party. They give us something to talk about at work. And if we do particularly well in our Gold Derby or office pool picks, we get to feel pretty smug and superior for a night – and maybe even the next day as well.

So I’m giving you permission to steer clear of all of those, “Are the Oscars losing their relevance?” and “How low will the ratings be this time?” stories. The Academy Awards, all nearly 100 years of them, are sacrosanct. And winning one is still the closest thing an entertainment professional will ever have to touching God. That’s not hyperbole, ladies and gentlemen. That’s fact.

PREDICT the 2024 Oscar winners through March 10

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.