Mark Evanier, whose excellent blog, "News From ME", is linked to the left, also made note of the "In Memoriam" travesty on the Oscars telecast and embedded that same YouTube version I linked to earlier. I mentioned my disappointment that Patrick McGoohan had not been mentioned, but Evanier had even more who should have been given the nod:
"As usual, there are those grousing that some who should have been in the montage were omitted. Patrick McGoohan was in some pretty good movies and George Carlin was in more than you might think...but neither was included. Nor was Eartha Kitt. Nor was composer Neal Hefti. Nor were Harvey Korman, Earle Hagen, Mel Ferrer, Alexander Courage, John Phillip Law, Irving Brecher, George Furth, Beverly Garland, Guy McElwaine, Ellen Corby or Lawrence Tierney. There were several studio execs and one publicist included but not Bernie Brillstein.
But the startling omission, of course, was Don LaFontaine, who not only became a superstar of movie trailers but also served as the announcer of the Oscars several years. Don may have sold more movie tickets than everyone else in the segment combined."
If it is true that only Academy members are recognized, then one of my commenters was right - the practice is elitist. All of those people listed above should have had their moment in the spotlight one last time. (Although I'm surprised to see Evanier list Ellen Corby, as I thought she passed away awhile ago.)
What I would have done would have been to kick off the tribute with the voice of Don LaFontaine intoning, "In a world where...." and then follow through with the rest of that video but with those missing included. Cut one of those stupid montages if you need the extra time, but let us salute those who gave us so much pleasure at the movies.
BCnU!
Toby O'B
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