Oscar's Most Memorable Moments

HOLLYWOOD'S BIGGEST NIGHT HAS ALWAYS BEEN FULL OF SURPRISES

Grace Beat Judy!

"This is the biggest robbery since Brink's," joked Groucho Marx in a telegram to Judy Garland. "Judy obviously deserved the Oscar for 1954's A Star Is Born. It's one of the greatest performances in film history," says TomO'Neil, founder and editor of website Gold Derby. Instead, Grace Kelly won for The Country Girl, shocking everyone but Judy! "I knew I wouldn't get it," she said. "They wouldn't give it to me, although I deserved it.”

Judy went into labor with son Joey the night before the Oscars, but TV cameras were set up in her hospital room in anticipation of her win!

She Had Better Plans

Katharine Hepburn earned 12 Oscar nominations second only to Meryl Streep - and won four times, but never showed up to hear her name called!“For me prizes are nothing," Katharine said. "My prize is my work." She attended the Oscars only once, in 1974, to present an honorary award to producer and friend Lawrence Weingarten.

A First Step

In 1940, Gone With the Wind's Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award, but her triumph only went so far. The Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove nightclub, where the Oscars were held that year, was still segregated. GWTW producer David O. Selznick had to call in a favor to get Hattie inside. She wound up seated at a small table alone with her escort and her manager. Still, Hattie showed grace in her speech. "I sincerely hope that I shall always be a credit to my race and the motion picture industry," she said as tears flowed. "My heart is too full to tell you how I feel."