Big Moments on the Big Night

Everyone has their favorite Oscar moments--from David Niven encountering a streaker to a frail John Wayne’s final appearance to Cuba Gooding Jr.’s effusive acceptance speech. Gilbert Cates, who celebrates his ninth year as producer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences awards show Sunday night, recently recounted his most fond memories.

George Lucas Receives the Irving J. Thalberg Award (1992)

I had an idea to try and get the Oscar in the space shuttle. We tried to do it one year, but the space shuttle was not going to be in orbit. So we carried it over until the next year when there was a special award [given to] George Lucas. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be a neat way to give him that award to have the crew of the space shuttle present it to him while they were in orbit.” So we arranged with NASA to have the Oscar put aboard the spaceship. What I didn’t know was, because it is a public project they have to publish a public manifest. When the spaceship took off there was, in the records, the fact a box was aboard that came from the academy. A couple days before the show, I got a call from [Variety columnist] Army Archerd saying I understand there is something on the spaceship. Could it be an Academy Award? I told him, “No.” Obviously, it was a secret. Then we were at the Shrine Auditorium and the screen came down and the captain saluted Lucas. As he said it, the Oscar floated weightlessly in space.

Bart the Bear’s Debut as a Presenter (1998)

It seemed like a great idea to have Bart the Bear present an Academy Award. So we sent him a letter asking if he would serve as a presenter, and his trainer said he would. Bart weighs 1,200 pounds. He’s 10 feet tall and he eats 25 pounds of apples a day and 200 chickens. He likes these flame-broiled chickens. We had to get him to the theater and acclimate him to the theater and what he would be doing on stage. We had to do it without anyone knowing that we were doing it. Only about 25 people knew. The day before he made his entrance, we sent out a memo asking people not to wear exotic perfumes [to the awards show] and women going through their menstrual cycle not to be onstage for a period of time [before Bart’s appearance]. I must confess people receiving that memo probably thought we were all nuts.

Reunion of Former Oscar winners (1998)

There were two parts [to the event]. The obvious time is when we did it live on the show. When the curtain lifted, there was an audible gasp from the audience. The audience stood and applauded 70 times for 16 minutes. There was the moment before then that I really loved, which was when we had them all come to rehearsal on Saturday. That was extraordinary. We called them “POWs”-past Oscar winners. All of these people came--major faces that you remember all of your life and more obscure faces. They all acted like kids at camp. Here were all of these big stars, and they couldn’t wait to meet one another. It was honestly the most special reunion.

Federico Fellini’s Honorary Oscar (1993)

Fellini’s was amazing because we got Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren to present the award to him. We didn’t know if he was going to come. I had spoken to him a few times on the phone and communicated to him by letter and tried to urge him to do it. Finally he came. He was very charming and Guilietta Masina, his wife, was in the audience and was very emotional about it.

Kirk Douglas’ Honorary (1996); Douglas, Lancaster Soft-Shoe (1985)

Can I mention two Oscar moments that I didn’t produce?

The courage it took Kirk Douglas to get up there to speak in front of a billion people having had the stroke and then to look and see his four sons in the audience. My God, that was like an extraordinary, extraordinary thing. The second moment from all the Oscar shows prior to when I started doing it was Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas singing, “It’s Great Not to Be Nominated.” They did a little soft-shoe. I think it was wonderful. You can’t get stars today to have the courage to do that. It was an astonishing moment.

Silent Film’s Hal Roach Breaks His Silence (1992)

Hal Roach was so interesting. We were honoring, I guess, comedy in the movies and we were talking about silent film comedies, so I called Mr. Roach to invite him. He was about 100 years old. His first question was, “How much do I get paid?” I said, “No. This is not for money. We just want you to be there to honor you. I can’t pay you, but I can send you a car.” About a day later, a woman called who was a friend of his and she thought it was a terrific idea. We sent a car for him and he made the point to me that clearly he was not going to say anything and that all he would do would be to stand up and acknowledge the applause. Then Billy Crystal, who is great, acknowledged Hal Roach. I guess he was so overwhelmed by the audience reaction that he started to talk. We didn’t have a microphone near him. Everybody was going nuts in the audio department. Then Billy Crystal made his great comment, “I think it’s only fitting, because Mr. Roach started in silent pictures.”

Stanley Donen’s Musical Acceptance Speech (1998)

That was Stanley’s idea. When I called Stanley after [it has been announced] he had been given the award, he asked me if it would be OK if he would do a little soft-shoe with it. I told him I thought it would be a great idea. We arranged for him to have a dance studio in New York to practice.

“The 71st Annual Academy Awards” airs Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on ABC.