61st Academy Awards

61st Academy Awards
Date	Wednesday, March 29, 1989
Site	Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, California
Host	None
Producer	Allan Carr
Director	Jeff Margolis
Highlights
Best Picture	Rain Man
Most awards	Rain Man (4)
Most nominations	Rain Man (8)
TV in the United States
Network	ABC
Duration	3 hours, 19 minutes
Ratings	42.77 million
< 60th Academy Awards 62nd >

The 61st Academy Awards were presented on March 29, 1989 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The date had been moved from its usual Monday telecast due to Easter, which was on March 26. For this show, there was no "official" host as the show opened with a stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow White and Rob Lowe. Another change was that the producers attempted to change the traditional line "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to...". This broadcast is also noted for being the final public appearance of actress Lucille Ball, who died less than one month later.

Awards

Films with multiple nominations:

8 - Rain Man

7 - Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning

6 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Working Girl

5 - Gorillas in the Mist

4 - The Accidental Tourist, Die Hard

3 - A Fish Called Wanda, Tucker: A Man and His Dream

2 - Big, Coming to America, Little Dorrit, Pelle the Conqueror, Running on Empty, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Willow

Films with multiple wins:

4 - Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (One of them was the Special Achievement award)

3 - Dangerous Liaisons

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.^[1]

Academy Honorary Awards

• National Film Board of Canada
• Eastman Kodak Company

Special Achievement Award

• Richard Williams

Production background

The producers of the ceremony attempted to change established Oscar traditions for this year's show. One noticeable difference was that instead of an award presenter saying, "and the winner is.." they'd say, "and the Oscar goes to...". Many however, continued announcing winners with the traditional line. In addition, there was no official host for the ceremony this year. The show's opening number consisted of an elaborate stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow White (portrayed by actress Eileen Bowman) and Rob Lowe - the latter two singing a showbizzy rewrite of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". ^[2]

The Walt Disney Company considered suing for defamation of character for use of the likeness of Snow White, but later dropped the suit. This debacle, in addition to the changes made by the producers, led to the television broadcast receiving a disastrous reception. Consequently, producer Allan Carr would not return to produce the ceremony again, and future ceremonies would not open with a lavish "Broadway-style" opening number for the next 13 years.

Additional notes

Lucille Ball at the 61st Academy Awards, her last public appearance.

This was the last public appearance for Lucille Ball, who died less than one month later. Ball introduced a musical number along with her long-time friend and frequent co-star Bob Hope.

Right before Cher was to present the award for Best Picture, she had an anxiety attack. Jack Nicholson was brought backstage to help calm her down and almost had to present the award with her.

Best Actor winner Dustin Hoffman, upon realizing that he had forgotten to thank his Rain Man co-star Tom Cruise and the film's director Barry Levinson in his acceptance speech, asked Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (who were presenting next) to thank them for him before presenting their award, which Russell did. Then, when Hoffman and Cruise took the stage later in the show to present the Best Actress award, Hoffman said "In my nervousness, I left out the director's name, and I left out Tom's name. Tom, thank you very much. I love you very much."

Presenters

• Anne Archer (Presenter: Dangerous Liaisons Film Clip)
• Lucille Ball and Bob Hope (Presenters: "I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner" Musical Number)
• Candice Bergen, Jacqueline Bisset, and Jack Valenti (Presenters: Best Foreign Language Film)
• Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges, and Lloyd Bridges (Presenters: Best Visual Effects)
• Michael Caine, Sean Connery, and Roger Moore (Presenters: Best Supporting Actor)
• Cher (Presenter: Best Picture)
• Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman (Presenters: Best Actress)
• Billy Crystal (Presenter: Tap Dancing Montage)
• Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman (Presenters: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration)
• Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum (Presenters: Best Documentary Short)
• Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines (Presenters: Best Original Song)
• Angie Dickinson (Presenter: Scientific & Technical Achievement Awards)
• Bo Derek and Dudley Moore (Presenters: Best Costume Design)
• Michael Douglas (Presenter: Best Actor)
• Robert Downey Jr. and Cybill Shepherd (Presenters: Best Makeup)
• Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving (Presenters: Best Original Screenplay)
• Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal (Presenters: Best Film Editing)
• Jane Fonda (Presenter: Rain Man Film Clip)
• Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson (Presenters: Best Supporting Actress)
• Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (Presenters: Best Director)
• Carrie Fisher and Martin Short (Presenters: Best Live Action and Animated Short Film)
• Charles Fleischer and Robin Williams (Presenters: Honorary Award to Richard Williams)
• Barbara Hershey (Presenter: The Accidental Tourist Film Clip)
• Anjelica Huston (Presenter: Mississippi Burning Film Clip)
• Ali MacGraw (Presenter: Working Girl Film Clip)
• Walter Matthau (Presenter: Introduction of Lucille Ball and Bob Hope)
• Demi Moore and Bruce Willis (Presenters: Best Cinematography)
• Olivia Newton-John (Presenter: Introduction of Donald and Kiefer Sutherland)
• Kim Novak and James Stewart (Presenters: Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing)
• Edward James Olmos and Max von Sydow (Presenters: Best Documentary Feature)
• Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Quaid (Presenters: Best Adapted Screenplay)
• Donald Sutherland and Kiefer Sutherland (Presenters: Honorary Award to National Film Board of Canada)
• Patrick Swayze (Presenter: Best Original Score)

Performers

• Keith Coogan, Patrick Dempsey, Corey Feldman, Joely Fisher, Tricia Leigh Fisher, Savion Glover, Carrie Hamilton, Melora Hardin, Ricki Lake, Matt Lattanzi, Chad Lowe, Tracy Nelson, Patrick O'Neal, Corey Parker, Tyrone Power Jr., Holly Robinson Peete, Christian Slater, and Blair Underwood ("I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner")
• Army Archerd, Eileen Bowman, Coral Browne, Cyd Charisse, Dale Evans, Alice Faye, Merv Griffin, Dorothy Lamour, Rob Lowe, Tony Martin, Vincent Price, Buddy Rogers, Roy Rogers, and Lily Tomlin ("I Only Have Eyes for You"/"You Are My Lucky Star"/"I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"/"Proud Mary"/Hooray for Hollywood")

See also

• Academy Award
• Academy Honorary Award
• 61st Academy Awards nominees and winners
• 46th Golden Globe Awards
• 9th Golden Raspberry Awards
• 1988 in film
• List of Academy Awards ceremonies
• Submissions for the 61st Academy Award for Best Foreign Film
• 31st Grammy Awards
• 40th Primetime Emmy Awards
• 41st Primetime Emmy Awards
• 42nd British Academy Film Awards
• 43rd Tony Awards
• Governors Awards

References

• "The Official Academy Awards Database". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 61st Academy Awards

Academy Award portal

• Official website
• LA Times Story on Production Background
• Reuters story on recalling the show