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| Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, and choreographer Jack Cole. The actors performed a number called "It's Great Not to Be Nominated." |
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| Shirley Jones, Van Johnson, Marge and Gower Champion*, Betty Grable, and Bob Hope. |
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| Shirley Jones, Van Johnson, Mae West, Rock Hudson, Marge and Gower Champion, Janet Leigh, Rhonda Fleming, Bob Hope, and Shirley MacLaine*. |
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| Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds performed her big hit "Tammy" from Tammy and the Bachelor during the ceremony. |
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| James Stewart. Stewart, along with David Niven, Jack Lemmon, and Rosalind Russell shared the hosting duties with Bob Hope. |
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| Clark Gable. |
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| Doris Day and Clark Gable. The two presented the writing awards. |
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| Mae West and Rock Hudson rehearsing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside." |
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| Russ Tamblyn, at center. Lower right, Rock Hudson and Mae West. |
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| Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. |
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| Paul Newman and Doris Day. |
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| Shirley MacLaine and - just barely - Janet Leigh. |
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| At center, Janet Leigh and Shirley MacLaine. |
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| Shirley MacLaine. |
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| Zsa Zsa Gabor. In credits of the event, she's actually only listed as an audience member. |
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| Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, and David Niven. |
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The 30th Academy Awards ceremony was held on 26 March 1958 at the RKO Pantages Theatre, the venue for the event from 1949 to 1959.
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* I haven't been able to find an explanation for it, but Shirley MacLaine and the Champions don't appear in any credits list of the actual event.
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Wonderful! Rare glimpses into backstage Hollywood!
ReplyDeleteGreat behind the scenes photos. I especially like the one of Gable and Lancaster.
ReplyDeleteOld pre-war Hollywood Clark Gable and New post-war Hollywood Burt Lancaster.
Complete opposites politically, but able to sit side by side without a care in the world.
Ms. Gabor was there to rehearse a station break for the show.
Mae West and Rock Hudson, well what can one say.
A family favorite of the telecast were the acceptance speeches by Joanne Woodward and Miyoshi Umeki.
Back in 1961 and 1962 my aunt Lea and Uncle Joe rented a house in Westwood, where the 405 meets Sunset Blvd. The house was custom built in 1940 in the streamline modern style, influenced by ocean liners.
The floorplan was in the shape of a boat bottom. The house had white stucco with red and black trim and porthole windows. The roof featured a fake funnel structure that contained heating and air-conditioning equipment, a mast that carried a radio and tv antennae and an outside red ladder that took you up to the roof. The living room had a large circular window that made one feel like you were in an aquarium. Because the house was so unusual, they got a great rental deal. During that time there was the Bel-Air fire of 1961, many Hollywood celebrities lost their homes and rented in Westwood until their homes in Bel-Air could be rebuilt. (My aunt was concerned about moving there. The celebrity kids would be brats, far from it, most were quite normal despite their status, and some befriended their daughter Linda.)
Burt Lancaster became their neighbor. According to my aunt and uncle, Burt was a great guy.
My cousin Linda would often play with his kids and went to public school with them. My grandmother on one of her visits didn't believe it, until Mr. Lancaster himself came over to get his kids. Ma was left in shock.
My aunt would go to PTA meetings and Mr. Lancaster would sometimes be there trying to get more field trips scheduled for the kids, a class act ! Not to mention seeing in person Bette Davis and Marilyn Monroe in the summer of 1962. Bette at a restaurant with a film executive and her agent, Ma just about fell out of her chair she was so nervous to see in person her favorite actress. Aunt Lea got Ma to say hello to Ms. Davis and Ms. Davis talked about a movie she was shortly to begin filming, she could only say her co-star was to be Joan Crawford and the script was a winner. Marilyn Monroe, Aunt Lea saw her at a pharmacy on Robertson Blvd. looking at combs and hair-care products and lamenting to Lea that she destroyed her hair bleaching it for the studio.
My aunt at first didn't recognize Marilyn, she was wearing sunglasses, a scarf with a shock of platinum hair sticking out and was modestly dressed. Once Marilyn took off the sunglasses and spoke my aunt couldn't believe it. Sadly, Marilyn was gone about a month or so later. -Rj/IE
Wow, Rj, such wonderful stories! Thank you so very much for sharing these. : )
DeleteHave a few more, #1 Doris Day - Aunt Lea seeing her at the Brown Derby dining at lunch wearing a diamond ring big enough to choke a horse. #2 Lea taking my grandmother to the JW Robinson dept Store in Beverly Hills for the first time, my grandmother wanted to purchase a red coat, but the tag was torn and they couldn't determine the price. There was a white-haired saleslady, so they thought, putting a blouse back on a display table. My granma tapped the saleslady on the shoulder, low and behold if it wasn't actress Barbara Stanwyck who merely just got done looking at the blouse. Ms. Stanwyck was kind enough to show and walk my granma to where the saleslady was stationed in the store, my granma kept that coat til it was thread-bear. #3 On Sunset Boulevard, which even then was a busy street, my aunt Lea
Deletewould at times encounter a lunatic that drove a Rolls-Royce, the type that tail-gates, runs stops signs on occasion, nearly collides into cross traffic and going faster than the speed-limit. Must be some young jerk that borrows daddy's Rolls, so Lea thought. One nice sunny day, Lea is driving her 1959 Olds 88 Holiday coupe, when the Rolls gets right on her bumper on Sunset Blvd. The Rolls passes Lea in attempt to beat the traffic light, but instead had to stop at the light, right alongside Lea. Finally, Lea gets to see who this damned lunatic is. Lea looks to her right and smiling back laughing is none other than Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Or as my aunt Lea would tell me many years later, that damned crazy Zsa Zsa Gabor ! Needless to say, aunt Lea wasn't surprised when Zsa Zsa got in trouble after slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer, as Lea said, "They would finally caught that crazy thing." -Rj/IE
Wonderful! : )
DeleteWonderful collection of photos.
ReplyDelete