My night at the Oscars

It was 1980, and I had my ticket to the Academy Awards telecast at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The ticket cost $200 dollars and came from Raquel Welch via her public relations representative. When I arrived at the theatre, I was greeted by a young man in a red jacket (I was driving a rental car)...at first I was confused....why is he approaching my car when no one is at the long line of cars in front of me? Then, of course, I realized that the other cars were limos. I was the ONLY guest arriving in a private car....a Pontiac rental at that! (Flew to LA from NYC for the weekend in my capacity as tv programming executive based in Manhattan).

I quickly exited the car and turned to enter the theatre. But, wait not so fast...ahead were two carpets, one on the left was red, the other was blue. Standing between the carpets was a a tall man in the uniform of the night, a tux, He, ever so discreetly motioned to me, with the slightest wag of a finger, that I was to walk on the blue carpet. No red carpet for me. The stars, of course, Burt Reynolds, Jane Fonda, etc. were walking on my left...on the red carpet.

Positioned at the entrance to the building was a long bleacher type stand for the fans to get a view of the arrivals. It seemed that everyone in the stands was equipped with a flashing Kodak Instamatic camera, remember the type that used film! Here comes the tough part; as if the crowd of fans were a Greek chorus, the silent message I heard was "Is he anybody?"....."he's nobody!"

The highlight of the telecast at the 52nd Academy Awards on April 14, 1980, was Miss Piggy and host Johnny Carson conversing about her failure to garner a Best Actress Nomination for her work in The Muppet Movie. To her question whether or not he thought her to be "Oscar material," he replies "Oscar Mayer maybe." Kermit the Frog performed his nominated song, "The Rainbow Connection."

Speaking of the fabulous Miss Piggy (She's not as beautiful in person as she photographs! Keep this a secret between us) Here we are together on the set of  "John Denver and the Muppets Christmas Special" at ABC Hollywood.  

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