| 61st Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
 Official poster | |
| Date | March 29, 1989 |
| Site | Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Produced by | Allan Carr |
| Directed by | 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 | 42.68 million 29.81% (Nielsen ratings) |
The61st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the bestfilms of 1988 and took place on March 29, 1989, at theShrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 6:00 p.m.PST / 9:00 p.m.EST.[1] During the ceremony, AMPAS presentedAcademy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States byABC, was produced byAllan Carr and directed byJeff Margolis.[1] Ten days earlier, in a ceremony held at theBeverly Hills Hotel inBeverly Hills, California, theAcademy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hostAngie Dickinson.[2]
Rain Man won four awards, includingBest Picture. Other winners includedWho Framed Roger Rabbit with four awards,Dangerous Liaisons with three, andThe Accused,The Accidental Tourist,A Fish Called Wanda,The Appointments of Dennis Jennings,Beetlejuice,Bird,Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,The Milagro Beanfield War,Mississippi Burning,Pelle the Conqueror,Tin Toy,Working Girl, andYou Don't Have to Die with one award each.
The telecast drew in over 42 million viewers in the United States, making it the most-viewed ceremony up to that point, until it was surpassed by the70th Academy Awards in 1998 (the yearTitanic swept), which garnered a viewership of over 57 million.[3][4] The ceremony featured changes such as the introduction of the phrase "And the Oscar goes to..." and the absence of a traditional host. The ceremony's opening number, featuringSnow White andRob Lowe, received heavy criticism. Allan Carr faced significant backlash, leading the Academy to form a committee to address the criticisms and evaluate the ceremony's production.
The nominees for the 61st Academy Awards were announced on February 15, 1989, at theSamuel Goldwyn Theater inBeverly Hills, California, by Richard Kahn, president of the Academy, and actressAnne Archer.[5]Rain Man led all nominees, with eight;Dangerous Liaisons andMississippi Burning tied for second with seven each.[6]
The winners were announced at the award ceremony on March 29, 1989.[7] Best Actress winnerJodie Foster became the eighth person in history to win the aforementioned category for a film with a single nomination. The last person to achieve this feat wasSophia Loren when she won forTwo Women in1961. Best Actor winnerDustin Hoffman was the fifth person to win the aforementioned category twice.[8]Sigourney Weaver became the fifth performer to receivetwo acting nominations in the same year[9] but did not win in either category.[10]John Lasseter andWilliam Reeves won Best Animated Short Film forTin Toy, which wasPixar's first Oscar ever and the firstCGI film to win an Oscar.[11]
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Winners are listed first, highlighted inboldface and indicated with double dagger (‡).[12]
The following 17 films received multiple nominations: | The following three films received multiple awards:
|
The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers:[16]
| Name(s) | Role | Performed |
|---|---|---|
| Marvin Hamlisch | Musical arranger | Orchestral |
| 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 Lily Tomlin | Performers | "I Only Have Eyes for You" fromDames |
| 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 D. A. Pawley Tyrone Power Jr. Holly Robinson Christian Slater Blair Underwood | Performers | "(I Wanna Be an) Oscar Winner" |
In an attempt to attract viewers to the telecast and increase interest in the festivities, the Academy hired film producer and veteran Oscar ceremony executive talent coordinatorAllan Carr to produce the 1989 ceremony.[17][18] In interviews with various media outlets, he expressed that it was a dream come true to produce the Oscars.[19]
Notable changes were introduced in the production of the telecast. For the first time, presenters announced each winner with the phrase "And the Oscar goes to..." rather than "And the winner is...".[20] The green room where Oscar presenters, performers, and winners gathered backstage was transformed into a luxurious suite complete with furniture, pictures, refreshments, and other amenities called "Club Oscar".[21] Instead of hiring a host for the proceedings, Carr heavily relied on presenters, often grouped in pairs that had some connection, either through family or the film industry (a theme he billed as "couples, companions, costars, and compadres");[22][23][24][25] not until2019 would another ceremony lack a host.[26]
Several other people were involved in the production of the ceremony. Jeff Margolis served as director of the telecast.[27] Lyricist and composerMarvin Hamlisch was hired as musical supervisor of the festivities.[28] Comedian and writerBruce Vilanch was hired as a writer for the broadcast, a role he filled until 2014.[29] Carr had also rounded up eighteen young stars, includingPatrick Dempsey,Corey Feldman,Ricki Lake, andBlair Underwood, to perform in a musical number entitled "I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner".[30] Unlike in most Oscar ceremonies, however, Carr announced that none of the three songs nominated for Best Original Song would be performed live.[24]
The telecast was also remembered for being the final public appearance of actress and comedianLucille Ball, where she and co-presenterBob Hope were given a standing ovation.[31] On April 26, almost a month after the ceremony, she died from adissecting aortic aneurysm at age 77.[32]
In an effort to showcase more glamour and showmanship in the ceremony, producer Carr hired playwright Steve Silver to co-produce an opening number inspired by Silver's long-running musical revue,Beach Blanket Babylon.[33] The segment consisted of an elaborate stage show centered on actress Eileen Bowman, dressed asSnow White fromDisney'sSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, who comes to Hollywood and is entranced by its glamour.[33] LikeBeach Blanket Babylon, the opening act also featured dancers wearing giant, elaborate hats.[33] In a setting designed to resemble theCocoanut Grove nightclub, Hollywood dignitaries such as actressesAlice Faye,Dorothy Lamour,Cyd Charisse, her husbandTony Martin, as well asBuddy Rogers andVincent Price were prominently featured, while singer and television producerMerv Griffin sang a rendition of the song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" (of which he had had a hit recording in 1949). Bowman and actorRob Lowe then sang a reworked version ofCreedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", with lyrics rewritten to refer to the film industry; it is this song for which the act is infamously remembered.[33]
The majority of media outlets panned the show.Los Angeles Times television criticHoward Rosenberg lamented, "the Academy Awards telecast onABC was surprisingly devoid of magic. It was on the musty side, and compared withlast month's Grammycast, absolutely moribund."[34] Film criticJanet Maslin chastised the opening number, saying it "deserves a permanent place in the annals of Oscar embarrassments". She also bemoaned that the "I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner" number "was confusingly shot and inspired no confidence in Hollywood's future".[35] Television editor Tony Scott ofVariety complained, "The 61st Annual Academy Awards extravaganza—seen in 91 different countries including, for the first time, theSoviet Union—turned out to be a TVnyet" He also observed that the "Break-Out Superstars number" looked like they were "cavorting around a giant Oscar as if it were thegolden calf".[36]
The telecast also received a mixed reception from professionals within the show business industry. Talent agentMichael Ovitz praised Carr, saying that he had "brought show business back to the movie business". ActressJennifer Jones thanked Carr in a written letter to the producer, which read, "You delivered."[37] On the other hand, seventeen people, including actorsPaul Newman,Gregory Peck, andJulie Andrews, and directorsBilly Wilder andJoseph L. Mankiewicz, signed an open letter deriding the telecast as "an embarrassment to both the Academy and the entire motion picture industry".[38]
Just outside the auditorium, on Jefferson Boulevard, a group of San Franciscodrag queens, calling themselves the Sisters of Perpetual Indignity, stood inMae West wigs and gowns, saying that they had come “to show our support for Allan Carr” for producing the first “gay Oscars.”[39] There has been speculation that some of the blowback against the ceremony, which was the first produced by anopenly gay person and which prominently featured a musical number based on agay nightclub show, washomophobic in nature,[40] although others, such as Bruce Vilanch and David Geffen, have challenged that assessment.[41]
In addition,The Walt Disney Company filed suit againstAMPAS for use of the likeness of Snow White.[42] The lawsuit demanded unspecified damages for "copyright infringement, unfair competition, and dilution of business reputation".[4] Academy President Richard Kahn immediately issued an apology to the studio, and the lawsuit was subsequently dropped.[43]
Bowman has claimed that she was made to sign agag order the next day, prohibiting her from speaking to the press about her performance for the next 13 years. She finally spoke about it publicly in a 2013 interview, in which she described the performance as looking "like a gaybar mitzvah".[44]
Despite the criticism regarding the production of the ceremony, the American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 42.68 million people over its length, which was a 1% increase from theprevious year's ceremony.[3][45] The show also drew higherNielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony, with 29.81% of households watching over a 50.41 share.[3] It was the highest-rated Oscar broadcast since the56th ceremony, held in 1984.[4]
Nevertheless, AMPAS created an Awards Presentation Review Committee to evaluate and determine why the telecast earned such a negative reaction from the media and the entertainment industry.[4] The committee later determined that Carr's biggest mistake was allowing the questionable opening number to run for 12 minutes. Producer and formerDirectors Guild of America presidentGilbert Cates, who headed the committee, said that Carr would not have received such harsh criticism if the number had been much shorter.[4] Cates was subsequently hired as producer of thesucceeding year's telecast.[46]
According to various showbiz insiders and reporters, the criticism and backlash from the ceremony resulted in Carr never again producing a film or theatrical show. He died from complications resulting fromliver cancer on June 29, 1999, at the age of 62.[33][4]
At the time of the nominations announcement on February 15, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $188 million, with an average of $37.7 million per film.[47]Rain Man was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees, with $97 million in domestic box office receipts.[47] The film was followed byWorking Girl ($42.1 million),The Accidental Tourist ($24.2 million),Mississippi Burning ($18.6 million), and finallyDangerous Liaisons ($6.69 million).[47]
Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 52 nominations went to 13 films. OnlyBig (3rd),Rain Man (5th),Working Girl (21st),The Accused (32nd),The Accidental Tourist (38th),Gorillas in the Mist (40th),Mississippi Burning (45th), andTucker: The Man and His Dream (50th) were nominated for Best Picture, directing, acting, or screenwriting. The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations wereWho Framed Roger Rabbit (1st),Coming to America (2nd),Die Hard (7th),Beetlejuice (9th), andWillow (12th).
