Billy Wilder receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Award

[Music] good evening I'm Jack lemon the Irving Thalberg Irving G Thalberg award is the most unique honor that the Academy can bestow it is the only a major award that is not an Oscar as you can see it is a bust of a young genius who died at the age of 37 and left behind a remarkable legacy of movies that he had produced or otherwise nurtured and it is also the heaviest award that we give Paul Berg died in 1936 and within a year the Board of Governors voted to keep his name and his ideals alive by creating a special award that would be given from time to time to an individual normally a producer whose body of work showed the same passionate commitment to quality that had marched all Berg's career in 1937 they gave the first Irving Thalberg award to Darryl zanuck and in the 50 years since they have seen fit to award it to just 24 other individuals so mere mortals need not apply the roster of past Thalberg award recipients includes David O Selznick walt disney Hal Wallis Sam Goldwyn George Stevens Sam Spiegel the list runs on to include William Wyler Robert Wise Alfred Hitchcock Ingmar Bergman and last year's recipient Steven Spielberg now the man that we are honoring tonight maybe a little sardonic about this whole thing but oh he will fit right in with the crowd that he is joining he is a man who has chalked up an even dozen nominations for screenwriting another eight for directing and he may have to get a new mantelpiece to hold this little sucker because the one he's got now already has six Oscars on it he has produced some of the most memorable and remarkable pictures that this industry has ever made a master of the art of the movies unfailingly true to himself and his audience ladies and gentlemen [Music] thank you very much I understand that this is the most prestigious of what you can get with the possible exception of the Nobel Prize of thought I would like it to take this because I repeat brick I would especially like to thank after having thanked the the governors of the of the Academy and the members and all the millions of fans I have all over the world in in the civilized parts of the world I would tell very much like to thank one specific gentleman without whose help I would not be standing here tonight I forgot his name but I have never forgotten his compassion he was the American Council in Mexicali Mexico I imagine it's 1934 it's a year after the Hitler puch we are all in exile Zurich London Paris then I get lucky I set a story to Hollywood and I get a visitor's visa for six months then I come here and start working but six months go by very very fast well I don't want to leave I would like to stay in America so I I am big dope that I need an immigration visa for which reason you I mean you have to leave the country get the immigration visa and then come back in order to reenter with the proper papers so I go to Mexicali which is the closest American consulate right over there across the border from California and as they showed me into the office affair of the of the council I was I was drenched in sweat was not the heat it was just a panic the fear I knew that I needed a a whole bunch of documents affidavits official proof of former residents shuang Testaments that I had never been a criminal or an anarchist I had nothing zilch just my passport and my my my birth certificate and from letters from a few American friends vouching that I was harmless it looked hopeless the council he looked a little bit like like Will Rogers examined my meager documentation is that all you have he asked and I said yes I have to explain that you know I had to get out of Berlin on very short notice like 20 minutes a neighbor had tipped me off that that two men in uniform had been looking for me at just enough time to to slow in the few things in the suitcase and get on the night train to Paris the council just stared at me and said I mean how do you expect me to with just those papers and I told him I tried to get them attacked from denies from Nazi Germany but they just would not respond of course I could get them if I if I if I went back to Germany then they would put me naturally on the train and to ship me off to Dachau so he just kept staring and staring at me and i i i i was not sure what i was getting through to him i have heard of whole families who have spent years they are waiting for the visa and other guys who never got it and to believe me i wanted to get back to America it looked bad so we just sit there and stared at each other the council and I in total silence finally asked me what do you do I mean professionally and I said there I write movies he said that so he got up and started pacing kind of behind me but I felt that he was measuring me then he came back to the desk picked up my past but opened it and took the rubber stamp and when handed me back the passport and he said I write some good ones that was 54 years ago I've tried ever since as certainly I certainly did not want to disappoint the dear man in mexicali enter you know as I look back and I've lived a charmed life I never expected something like this like they thought about the world you are without any doubt this the most generous people in the world and I hope you're watching IAL because part of this is yours so get well will you thank you very very much [Applause] you

Channel: Oscars

Views: 77,507

Keywords: oscar, oscars, academy, awards, billy, wilder, thalberg, sabrina, ninotchka, double, indemnity, the, lost, weekend, fortune, cookie, jack, lemmon

Id: kebqj_grGC0

Length: 7min 45sec (465 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2009