Most readers remember the night of February 26, 2017 when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty entered the stage at the 89th Oscar ceremony. This year “La La Land” was nominated for a whopping 14 Oscars, which gave the nomination recording of films such as “Titanic” and “All about Eva”. In the best picture category, it was against “arrival”, “fences”, “hell or flood”, “Hacksaw Ridge”, “Hidden Figures”, “Lion” and “Manchester by the Sea”. They were all defeated by Barry Jenkins’ subdued queer drama “Moonlight” (most would rightly argue).
When the best picture was announced, a confusion was of course unveiled. Beatty and Dunaway accidentally received a backup envelope for the best actress. Emma Stone had just won the best actress for “La La Land”, but the “replacement” envelope was still behind the stage. When Beatty opened it in front of a billion dollar audience, he looked a little confused. He showed Dunaway the envelope and she only saw the title “La La Land” under Stone’s name. She announced that “La La Land” was the best picture and his producers jumped up with joy. They entered the stage and kept them to thank them.
After two minutes, the host of the ceremony, Jimmy Kimmel, made in front of the microphone to announce that there was a mistake. Fred Burger, a “La La Land” producer, interrupted his own speech to say “By the way, we lost.” “Moonlight” was the best picture winner. The actual envelope was opened and the winner was unveiled in front of the camera. It was a mistake that became an immediate part of the Oscars story.
And funny story, it was not the first time that such a confusion occurred. As early as 1964, Sammy Davis Jr. was announced to announce the winner of the best music score (adapted) at the 36th Oscars. He announced that the winner was John Addison for “Tom Jones”, who was not even nominated in this category.
Sammy Davis Jr. announced the winner in the false music category
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMI9SOTT4
It is worth remembering that there were two goal categories in 1964. One was referred to as the “best music score – essentially original”, while the other was called “best scoring of music adaptation or treatment”. The two categories were necessary because many remarkable stage musicals were adapted to film at that time. The Akademie voters believed that the adaptation of an existing Broadway score to the large screen required a different ability than to write a new score wholesaler. Therefore, they divided the skills into two categories.
In the 39th Oscars, Sammy Davis Jr. should announce the winner for the adaptation or treatment category. The nominees this year were Johnny Green for “Bye Bye Birdie”, Leith Stevens for “A new kind of love”, Maurice Jarre for “Sundays and Cybele” and George Bruns for “The Sword in the Stone”. The ultimate winner should be Andre Previn for his work on “Irma La Douce”. However, Davis opened the envelope and proudly announced that the winner John Addison was for “Tom Jones”, the winner of the essentially original category. The audience that Addison had already seen was confused.
You can see the Kerfuffle in the clip above and Davis’ complete professionalism. He quickly pointed out that “they gave me the wrong envelope.” Then he immediately joked until the Naacp hears about it. ” When he received the right envelope, he put on a couple or glasses and said: “I will not make a mistake this time, baby.” What a class. Previn received his award and the rest of the evening went smoothly. “Tom Jones” won the best picture.
The Oscars that we all have to remember are a live show that was typically built without a trial with full caste, and mistakes often occur. In view of the fact that there was only two remarkable envelope in the 98-year history of the show, I would say that the track record is pretty clean.
Sammy, meanwhile, is still planned for a biopic.
