The 17th Academy Awards
By Susan King
World War II changed the Academy Awards. No longer were they glittery annual events.
Evening attire gave way to more cocktail ensembles. The ceremony eventually moved out of nightclubs and banquet halls such as the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel or the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. Beginning in 1944, the Oscars moved to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre so members of the armed services could attend while fans could watch their favorite stars’ arrivals.
The 17th Academy Awards, which took place March 15, 1945, at the Chinese Theatre, was the final wartime Oscars. The war would end in Europe two months later and Japan surrendered in August after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ceremony also marked the first to be broadcast in its entirety on the Blue Network which later became ABC Radio, and the last time plaster statuettes were given to the winners.
Going into the big night, Leo McCarey’s sentimental feel-good “Going My Way” and Darryl F. Zanuck’s pet project, the solid and stolid biopic “Wilson” lead the nominations with ten while David O. Selznick’s World War II epic “Since You Went Away,” amassed nine nominations and Billy Wilder’s film noir masterpiece “Double Indemnity” earned seven nominations.
Bob Hope returned for the fifth time as host of the proceedings; this time sharing the duties with noted director John Cromwell — the father of actor James Cromwell — who had helmed “Since You Went Away,” though he was snubbed that year in the best director category.
Within six years, though, Cromwell would be personae non grata in Hollywood, a victim of the Hollywood blacklist. So was screenplay presenter, writer Hugo Butler, who would move to Mexico in 1951. He and his wife wouldn’t return to Hollywood until 1964. Best actor nominee Alexander Knox (“Wilson”) would also find himself at odds with HUAC; the Canadian-born actor would continue his career in England.
Timing is everything when it comes to the Oscars. War-weary filmgoers needed some joy in their life. And they and the Academy members found it in “Going My Way,” starring Bing Crosby as a young priest assigned to a parish that has seen better days and clashing with the elderly-by-the-book priest played by Barry Fitzgerald. Not only was “Going My Way” the top box office hit of the year, but it also dominated the Academy Awards. Everything went the movie’s way — winning seven including best picture, actor, supporting actor, director, song — “Swinging on a Star” — original story by McCarey, and screenplay by Frank Butler and Frank Cavett.
Ironically, Crosby didn’t think he was going to win, so he was playing golf Oscar day. His friends tracked him down and his mother even put in a call ordering him to go. Crosby didn’t even have time to put on his toupee when he arrived at the Chinese. “I can’t be more surprised if I won the Kentucky Derby,” Crosby noted when he accepted the Oscar. And for the first and only time, Fitzgerald was nominated for best actor and supporting actor. He had won the New York Film Critics Circle best actor for the film, but the Oscars gave him supporting actor.
Fitzgerald had had legal problems just prior to the nominations being announced. In 1944, he was charged with manslaughter for his role in a car crash which caused the death of an elderly woman and injuries to her daughter. Charges were dismissed in January due to lack of evidence. According to “Inside Oscar,” the presiding judge “sharply reprimanded the district attorney’s office for issuing the complaint.” The incident didn’t hurt his career. Would have been interested to see what would have happened in today’s social media world.
“Wilson,” which wasn’t amongst the top ten box office champs of the year, managed to earn five Academy Awards. According to reports, Zanuck was not happy his beloved biography of Woodrow Wilson lost the top prize. He did receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award which was handed out by Thalberg’s widow Norma Shearer who had retired from films three years earlier.
Best actress went to Ingrid Bergman for the thriller “Gaslight” — the first of her three Oscars. The film also marked the film debut of a teenage Angela Lansbury, who earned her first of three supporting actress Oscars.
Though Hope would always joke that the Oscars were known as Passover at his house because he never won a competitive Academy Award. Still, he managed to receive five honorary awards including 80 years ago when he was given a lifetime membership in the Academy for “his many services to the Academy.”
Hope wasn’t the only performer who won a special award that year. In fact, the comic actor presented a miniature statuette to eight-year-old Margaret O’Brien, who played Judy Garland’s adorable little sister Tootie in the endearing musical “Meet Me in St. Louis,” for outstanding child actress of 1944. She and June Allyson were also known for being championship criers on the MGM lot.
O’Brien told the L.A. Times in 2019, she still had vivid memories of the evening.
“I was more thrilled to see Bob Hope,” she recalled. “My mother would let me see all the Bob Hope movies, so I was sort of tongue-tied when I got onstage because Bob Hope was presenting me the award. “
Susan King was a film/TV/theater writer at the Los Angeles Times for 26 years specializing in Classic Hollywood.
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