It’s Time to Rock The Red Carpet! Photos, Facts & Crazy Events Of Oscars Past
“The truth of the red carpet today is that it is one big P.R. party and the goal is to get noticed.” So said Joan Rivers, who should have indeed known! But perhaps you didn’t know that the iconic walkway on which stars dream of getting noticed made its debut in 1961 at the 33rd Academy Awards, or that its rich hue is a bit misleading, since the carpet is dyed with an exclusive blend of shades to make it appear “Nancy Reagan Red” on TV, then sealed against the depredations of pricey stilettos. It has also grown to a behemoth length of 16,500 square feet that takes two days to install and must be replaced every two years.
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Still, as Joan could also have said, no rug will ever be as noteworthy as the celebrities who walk it … and they, like the rug, require some preparatory maintenance for that annual exhibition. Liposuction and Pilates may not have existed in vintage Tinseltown, but yesteryear’s stars had their own punishing beauty routines to prepare them for the biggest night of their careers: Think Marilyn Monroe’s raw eggs in milk, Greta Garbo’s “celery loaf” (whatever that was!) or MGM management barring poor Judy Garland from ingesting anything other than noodle-free chicken consommé at the commissary. As female attendees’ attire gradually prioritized ever more daring scantiness over classic glamor, it’s not hard to imagine a lot of growling stomachs under all that sparkle.
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Of course, some stars not only cared little for red carpet glitz, but also viewed the Oscars in general with a jaundiced eye. Dudley Nichols, winner of the Best Screenplay award for 1935’s The Informer, was the first to refuse his statuette, participating in a boycott of the Academy Awards by fledgling actor, writer and director guilds. Other no-shows included Best Actor winners George C. Scott in 1971, who called the awards ceremony a “two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons,” and Marlon Brando in 1973, who sent Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to read part of a statement he’d written denouncing Hollywood’s role in “degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing him as savage, hostile and evil.”
Even those thrilled to publicly accept their awards had to also accept a bit of patriotic sacrifice when the Academy banned formal dress in the first year after the U.S. entered World War II (many men donned military uniforms instead), and handed out plaster rather than metal statuettes. Once the fighting was over, a more traditional trade-up was available.
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James Stewart in a United States Army Air Corps uniform, with actress Ginger Rogers in 1942
Nowadays? The more things have changed, the more they’ve stayed the same. Some lament that old Hollywood classiness is forever gone; others prefer their celebs more down to earth. Black actors have left the back of the room, but protests still flare over racial diversity. Yet behind all the controversies, the jeers at fashion faux pas and claims that voters got it wrong, who among us doesn’t still occasionally wonder how it feels to shimmer and pose like royalty on that fabled path of scarlet?
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Halle Berry made history in 2002 as she was the first African American actress to take home a statue for Best Actress in Monster’s Ball
Take a walk down memory lane with some of these classic Oscar arrivals and wins throughout the years.
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1939: Shirley Temple presents Walt Disney with one large and seven small statuettes for his outstanding cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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1945: Barry Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby hold their Oscars for their roles in Going My Way
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1954: Donna Reed signs an autograph while holding her Oscar trophy, she won best actress for From Here to Eternity
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1962: Warren Beatty and actress Natalie Wood on the red carpet
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1962: Gregory Peck arrives with his wife Veronique and are being photographed
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1964: Crowds gathered outside the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in Hollywood
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1965: Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn celebrate Andrews’ win for Best Actress in the film, Mary Poppins
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1966: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton celebrate her win for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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1972: Raquel Welch, Gene Hackman and Cloris Leachman back stage. Leachman won Best Supporting Actress for The Last Picture Show
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1974: Elizabeth Taylor laughs as streaker Robert Opal upstaged her before presenting the Oscar for Best Picture
The Oscars
March 2022
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