Whoopi Goldberg opened the 74th annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. (Ken Hively / LAT) |
Hilary Clinton is running for president, and Ellen DeGeneres is hosting the Academy Awards.
These two things are not exactly equivalent--after all, we've never had a female president, while the Academy Awards has had a female host. One.
Whoopi Goldberg is the only woman to have served as the sole host of an Oscar ceremony, something she's done four times since 1994. (Over the years, 26 different men have handled the job solo.)
Sure, females have served as occasional co-hosts: Beginning in the mid-1950s, women occasionally emceed in years when multiple hosts were used. Rosalind Russell was one of five in 1958, Carol Burnett one of four in 1973, Jane Fonda one of four in 1977 and one of three in 1986…
Still, if you take Goldberg's four shows and add in all the fractions from other female hosts (one-fifth of a show from Russell, one-fourth from Burnett, etc.), you end up with a paltry six and three-quarters Oscar shows, out of 78, that have been hosted by women.
(The list: Russell, Helen Hayes, Burnett, Diana Ross, Shirley MacLaine, Goldie Hawn, Ellen Burstyn, Fonda, Liza Minnelli.)
Which is not to say that the women in charge haven't had a few opportunities to shine over the years. A sampling:
The first female star to be listed as host in the academy's official histories was Rosalind Russell, the fourth of five co-emcees in 1958.
Russell, though, was not given much of a role in the show; the most notable aspect of her hosting stint, aside from the fact that she was the first, may have been her outfit, a beaded pajama suit that was part of her wardrobe for the film she was shooting at the time, "Auntie Mame."
* * * *
Fast-forward 41 years, and the host's wardrobe again drew attention. In 1999, Goldberg made her entrance as Queen Elizabeth in an enormous gown and full whiteface. Over the course of the show she made 11 costume changes, modeling clothes from all of the films nominated for costume design, from "Shakespeare in Love" to "Velvet Goldmine."
"About halfway through that show, I started sensing a little regret," says stage manager Garry Hood. "I could see her thinking, maybe I shouldn't have done this."
* * * *
Things had been tenser for Goldberg in 1994, five years earlier, when she became the first woman to emcee the show on her own. Taking note of the dire predictions of some who'd grown accustomed to four years of Billy Crystal, Goldberg began her monologue by referencing her naysayers.
"There haven't been so many show business executives so nervous…over one woman since Heidi Fleiss," she said.
* * * *
"An interesting thing happened in films last year," said Shirley MacLaine from the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1975. "Not many of us women were in any."
MacLaine co-hosted with Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. that year, and wound up in the midst of a political controversy that had nothing to do with the paucity of women in film.
Early in the show, the Vietnam film "Hearts and Minds" won the award for best documentary, and producer Bert Schneider's speech included some pointed political rhetoric.
At the urging of Hope, Sinatra read a statement in which the academy apologized for Schneider's comments.
Backstage, MacLaine reportedly screamed at Sinatra, "You said you were speaking on behalf of the academy! Well, I'm a member of the academy and you didn't ask me!"
* * * *
More politics: In 1996, Jesse Jackson threatened to picket the Oscars to protest African-American under-representation in Hollywood, and the backstage green room sported four baskets of different colored ribbons for stars who wanted to lobby for one cause or another.
"I want to say something to all the folks who brought me ribbons to wear," Goldberg said early in her monologue. "You don't tell a black woman to buy an expensive dress and then cover it with ribbons… I got a red ribbon for AIDS awareness…a yellow ribbon for the troops in Bosnia…a green ribbon to free the Chinese dissidents…a milky white ribbon for mad cow disease…a fake-fur ribbon for animal rights…a seersucker ribbon to let Martin Landau finish his speech from last year… Enough with the ribbons."
* * * *
Veteran stage and film actress Helen Hayes, one of four co-hosts in 1972, used her opening line to address a controversy specific to the Oscars: George C. Scott's refusal to accept the best actor trophy the previous year.
When Hayes took the stage as the first of the show's hosts, she was greeted with resounding applause. "As George C. Scott didn't get around to saying last year," the 71-year-old actress told the audience, "thank you."
* * * *
Midway through the show in 1999, Goldberg offered a warning to those in attendance. "I've been asked to remind the people here, please behave responsibly at the parties after the show," she said. "Apparently last year one producer got so drunk he left with a woman his own age."
The camera cut to a shot of Warren Beatty, age 61, sitting next to his 40-year old wife, Annette Bening. Both were smiling--she more broadly than he.
* * * *
In 1987, Goldie Hawn was one of two hosts saddled with trying to follow a confusing presentation of the best actor trophy to Paul Newman for "The Color of Money."
A seven-time loser, Newman chose not to appear--so one of Newan's former directors, Robert Wise, accepted on his behalf from presenter Bette Davis. Wise attempted to read a statement from Newman, but Davis kept interrupting.
Director Marty Pasetta finally turned off their microphones and cut to the other side of the stage, where Hawn and Chevy Chase were supposed to introduce Dustin Hoffman. Hawn and Chase tried to talk, but the audience was still watching Wise and Davis, and laughing at their hapless banter. Finally, Hawn asked an entirely sensible question: "Are you guys done yet?"
* * * *
"I thought the blacklist was me and Hattie McDaniel," said Whoopi Goldberg the year that controversial director Elia Kazan received an honorary Oscar. At that point, Goldberg and McDaniel were the only two African-American women to have received acting Oscars.
In 2002, Halle Berry was added to the list, and she responded with a tearful, impassioned speech that began by paying tribute to Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne and four minutes later got around to thanking her agent and lawyer.
It was the kind of speech that Goldberg might be expected to comment upon the next time she took the stage; like all hosts, she kept writers with her in the wings, ready to craft new material as events demanded it. Goldberg's team quickly came up with a variety of punchlines -- but before she retook the stage, the host decided that the import of Berry's award was too big to mess with.
"First of all," said Goldberg the next time she appeared, "I would like to congratulate Miss Halle Berry." Then she moved on.
These two things are not exactly equivalent--after all, we've never had a female president, while the Academy Awards has had a female host. One.
Whoopi Goldberg is the only woman to have served as the sole host of an Oscar ceremony, something she's done four times since 1994. (Over the years, 26 different men have handled the job solo.)
Sure, females have served as occasional co-hosts: Beginning in the mid-1950s, women occasionally emceed in years when multiple hosts were used. Rosalind Russell was one of five in 1958, Carol Burnett one of four in 1973, Jane Fonda one of four in 1977 and one of three in 1986…
Still, if you take Goldberg's four shows and add in all the fractions from other female hosts (one-fifth of a show from Russell, one-fourth from Burnett, etc.), you end up with a paltry six and three-quarters Oscar shows, out of 78, that have been hosted by women.
(The list: Russell, Helen Hayes, Burnett, Diana Ross, Shirley MacLaine, Goldie Hawn, Ellen Burstyn, Fonda, Liza Minnelli.)
Which is not to say that the women in charge haven't had a few opportunities to shine over the years. A sampling:
The first female star to be listed as host in the academy's official histories was Rosalind Russell, the fourth of five co-emcees in 1958.
Russell, though, was not given much of a role in the show; the most notable aspect of her hosting stint, aside from the fact that she was the first, may have been her outfit, a beaded pajama suit that was part of her wardrobe for the film she was shooting at the time, "Auntie Mame."
"About halfway through that show, I started sensing a little regret," says stage manager Garry Hood. "I could see her thinking, maybe I shouldn't have done this."
"There haven't been so many show business executives so nervous…over one woman since Heidi Fleiss," she said.
MacLaine co-hosted with Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. that year, and wound up in the midst of a political controversy that had nothing to do with the paucity of women in film.
Early in the show, the Vietnam film "Hearts and Minds" won the award for best documentary, and producer Bert Schneider's speech included some pointed political rhetoric.
At the urging of Hope, Sinatra read a statement in which the academy apologized for Schneider's comments.
Backstage, MacLaine reportedly screamed at Sinatra, "You said you were speaking on behalf of the academy! Well, I'm a member of the academy and you didn't ask me!"
"I want to say something to all the folks who brought me ribbons to wear," Goldberg said early in her monologue. "You don't tell a black woman to buy an expensive dress and then cover it with ribbons… I got a red ribbon for AIDS awareness…a yellow ribbon for the troops in Bosnia…a green ribbon to free the Chinese dissidents…a milky white ribbon for mad cow disease…a fake-fur ribbon for animal rights…a seersucker ribbon to let Martin Landau finish his speech from last year… Enough with the ribbons."
When Hayes took the stage as the first of the show's hosts, she was greeted with resounding applause. "As George C. Scott didn't get around to saying last year," the 71-year-old actress told the audience, "thank you."
The camera cut to a shot of Warren Beatty, age 61, sitting next to his 40-year old wife, Annette Bening. Both were smiling--she more broadly than he.
A seven-time loser, Newman chose not to appear--so one of Newan's former directors, Robert Wise, accepted on his behalf from presenter Bette Davis. Wise attempted to read a statement from Newman, but Davis kept interrupting.
Director Marty Pasetta finally turned off their microphones and cut to the other side of the stage, where Hawn and Chevy Chase were supposed to introduce Dustin Hoffman. Hawn and Chase tried to talk, but the audience was still watching Wise and Davis, and laughing at their hapless banter. Finally, Hawn asked an entirely sensible question: "Are you guys done yet?"
In 2002, Halle Berry was added to the list, and she responded with a tearful, impassioned speech that began by paying tribute to Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne and four minutes later got around to thanking her agent and lawyer.
It was the kind of speech that Goldberg might be expected to comment upon the next time she took the stage; like all hosts, she kept writers with her in the wings, ready to craft new material as events demanded it. Goldberg's team quickly came up with a variety of punchlines -- but before she retook the stage, the host decided that the import of Berry's award was too big to mess with.
"First of all," said Goldberg the next time she appeared, "I would like to congratulate Miss Halle Berry." Then she moved on.
