EPISODE 76 - “MEMORABLE OSCAR SPEECHES OF THE GOLDEN ERA OF HOLLYWOOD” - 2/24/2025

Winning an Oscar is a dream for most people who work in Hollywood. But you can’t just win the Oscar; you must have a good speech once your name is called to the podium. There have been some great ones — OLIVIA COLEMAN’s funny and cheeky speech hit the right tone, and who can forget JACK PALANCE’s one-arm push-ups or CUBA GOODING’s exuberance? There have also been some bad ones — don’t we all still cringe a little at SALLY FIELDS’ “You Like Me” speech? As we prepare to celebrate the 97th annual Academy Award ceremony, Steve and Nan reflect on some of their favorite Oscar speeches and why they resonate. So please put on your tux, don the gown and jewels, pop the champagne, and join us for a fun talk about … well, people talking.  

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources:

“Five Times The Oscars Made History,” January 20, 2017, www.nyfa.edu;

“Hollywood History: How World War II Forced the Academy to Rethink the 1942 Oscars,” April 16, 2021, Entertainment Weekly;

“Charlie Chaplin vs. America Explores the Accusations that Sent a Star Into Exile,” October 24, 2023, byTerry Gross, www.npr.com;

“The Most Memorable Oscar Speeches in Oscar History,” March 6, 2024, by Shannon Carlin, www.time.com;

Wikipedia.com;

TCM.com;

IMDBPro.com;

www.Oscars.org;

Movies Mentioned: 

Stella Dallas (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, & Alan Hale;

Gone With The Wind (1939), starring Vivian Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, Thomas Mitchell, & Barbara O’Neil;

How Green Was My Valley (1941), starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, & Donald Crisp;

Sergeant York (1941), starring Gary Cooper, Joan Leslie, & Walter Brennan; 

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), staring Jean Arthur Robert Cummings, & Charle Coburn;

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), starring Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains, & Evelyn Keyes;

Ball of Fire (1942), starring Barbara Stanwyck & Cary Cooper;

Double Indemnity (1944), starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray & Edward G Robinson;

Key Largo (1948); starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G Robinson, Claire Trevor, & Lionel Barrymore;

All The King’s Men (1948), starring Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, & Mercedes McCambridge;

Pinky (1949), starring Jeanne Crain, Ethel Waters, Ethel Barrymore, Nina Mae McKinney, & Wiliam Lundigan;

Marty (1955); starring Ernest Borgnine. Betsy Blair, Joe Mantell, & Esther Minciotti;

The King and I (1956), starring Yul Brenner, Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno, & Rex Thompson;

Elmer Gantry (1960), starring Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Shirley Jones, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, and Patti Page;

West Side Story (1961), Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chikiris, & Russ Tamblyn;

Lillies of the Field (1963), starring Sidney Poitier; 

In the Heat of the Night (1967)l starring Rod Steiger, Sidney Poitier, & Lee Grant;

The Producers (1967), starring Zero Mostel & Gene Wilder;

Rosemary’s Baby (1968), starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, & Charles Grodin;

Faces (1968), starring Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, & John Farley; 

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), staring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, Cecily Tyson, Stacey Keach, & Percy Rodrigues;

The Last Picture Show (1971), starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, & Eileen Brennan;

Murder on the Orient Express (1974), starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Martin Balsam, & Jacqueline Bisset;

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