[Video Clips] Vintage Oscar clips to check out

The official Oscars YouTube Channel uploaded some neat video clips recently.

Here are some of the coolest I watched:

1968 Oscars: Humanitarian Award to Martha Raye

Bob Hope (who was not hosting that year) comes out and does a little comedy bit before giving an honorary Oscar to his former radio & film co-star Marta Raye, honored for her service in Vietnam.

1985 Oscars: Honorary Oscar to composer Alex North ("Cleopatra", "Spartacus")

After a comedy bit by Oscar co-host Robin Williams, Quincy Jones comes onstage to give an honorary Oscar to Alex North, who was nominated for 15 Oscars but never won. One of his nominated scores was for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?", which I have some issues with because there is very little music in the film.

In his speech, he makes a plea for Hollywood to have less gratuitous sex and violence in movies, which is followed by applause, interestingly.

 


1938 Oscars: Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy and Deanna Durbin winning Oscars

From February 23, 1939. Newsreel footage from the Oscar ceremony. This is a treat! Rare, hard to find footage!!



Thank you, Oscars, for uploading these gems!

"Popeye's Twentieth Anniversary" (1954)

Hooray for Popeye the Sailor Man! In 1954, Parmount decided to celebrate 20 years of Popeye cartoons with a nonsensical "20th Anniversary" special cartoon (though they were a year late: the first Popeye cartoon came out in 1933). The toon features a testimonial banquet dinner in Popeye's honor; in attendance for this black-tie formal affair is Olive Oyl, Popeye's perennial love interest, and Bluto, Popeye's arch nemesis (bad idea to invite him-who's idea was this?)

The master of ceremonies? None other than Bob Hope himself (with an odd-sounding Southern accent). Also in attendance are stars from Paramount motion pictures, including Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Durante, and Bing Crosby.

Popeye shows clips from two of his cartoons, "Tops in the Big Top" and "Rodeo Romance" (in both clips, Bluto takes a beating!). All this is too much for Bluto to take, so he decides to smack Popeye with his Spinach trophy just after Bob Hope presents it to him. You'll have to watch the cartoon to see what happens, but you can be sure it involves spinach!

The caricatures only appear for a few seconds...the majority of the cartoon features the two Popeye clips. Watch it below:



Caricatures in order of appearance: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Durante.