Will Rogers hosted 1934 Oscars
It’s been a few weeks since 2009 Oscar night. It’s been 75 years since Will Rogers hosted the Academy of Arts and Sciences (now more commonly called Oscars) awards night.
The setting was the Ambassador Hotel, the date was March 16, 1934.
While he didn’t mention it in his “Daily Telegrams,” archives of his unpublished papers turned up notes he prepared for host duties (most of the grammar and spelling is as he wrote in his notes).
Will had a way of putting things in perspective. “There is great acting in this room tonight, greater than you will see on the screen. We all cheer when somebody gets a prize that every one of us in the house knows should be ours, yet we smile and take it, boy that’s acting.”
Making light of the Oscars he said, “they are lovely things, they were originally designed for prizes at a nudists colony bazaar, but they dident take em.”
He also said “we may run out of these things and have to send down to Frank Borsae (Frank Borzage, winner of two previous year’s Academy Awards for directing) and get another dozen, he was using em for ten pins one night I was there.”
He made light of the name Arts and Sciences, saying “I think that name has bluffed out more people that it has attracted. This is the highest sounding named organization I ever attended. If I dident know so many of the people who belonged to it personally, I would have taken that name serious.”
He said “I will tell you what gave me courage to come here tonight among this galaxy of feminine lovliness, and masculine intellect. Looking over the backs of chairs it looks like ermines last roundup.”
We don’t know if he said all the things he had in his notes, but he for sure fooled his friend Frank Capra. In his usual rambling way he referred to “Frank,” convincing Capra he had won the director’s award — and Capra bolted out of his chair when Will Rogers announced “come and get it, Frank” only to realize it went to Frank Lloyd.
Will later brought May Robson and Diana Wynard to stage, gave then a kiss and congratulated them on their performance — and then announced Katherine Hepburn had won the award.
He had this to say:
About cameramen – “The best camera man is the one with the best assistant.”
About sound – “This goes to you for bringing up the good lines and drowning out the bad ones.”
About photography – “Photography is an art where if you shoot enough weird shots that you get the audience mind off the actors, you will get a medal, not only by the Academy, but by the audience.”
About the art director – “He must make it look like a room, but not a room that anyone ever lived in.”
The best actor that year was Charles Laughton, who played the lead in “The Private Life of Henry VIII.” Hepburn won the best actress award for “Morning Glory” and Floyd was best director for “Cavalcade,” a Fox film which won top movie. “State Fair,” staring Will Rogers was a movie nominee, according to a 1934 Oscar nominee website, but Will did not mention that in his notes. It was also nominated for “best writing.”