How Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn Tied for Best Actress

everything at the 1969 Academy Awards was proceeding as usual when Ingrid Bergman stepped up to announce the award for best actress she nots the nominees opened the envelope and then this happened the winner it's a tie wait what the winners are in Lyon in the window and Barbra Streisand at that point there had only been two ties in Academy history in 1931 for Best Actor and in 1949 for documentary short so understandably the auditorium was a little shocked as usual Catherine declines to attend to the Oscars so the lion in winter director Anthony Harvey accepted in her place so how on earth did we get here to explain this we'll look at why Catherine and Barbara's personal narratives helped them stand out the trends that contextualized voters thinking and finally why this guy is the real cause of it all if you're watching this video I'm gonna go ahead and assume you know a little bit about Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand so I won't do too much background but it's important to get into the mindset of the voters by understanding what people generally thought and knew about them in 1969 so painting that picture we see two women at very different points in their careers Barbra Streisand had yet to make her film debut but as a Tony nominee with four platinum records four Grammys and Emmys and multiple TV specials under her belt it's not like nobody knew who she was by the way she was 26 years old just in case he wanted to feel like an underachiever today Columbia purchased the rights to Barbara's star making vehicle on Broadway funny girl and agreed that she should transition the role to the big screen Barbra plays Fanny Brice a comedic star of the Ziegfeld Follies who falls for a suave businessman and struggles to maintain their relationship as he Gamble's away his income having already played Fanny for almost two years Barbara knew exactly what she was doing plus under the direction of William Wyler who had directed Betty Davis Greer Garson and Audrey Hepburn to Best Actor winning performances she was in the best possible hands to succeed and did she ever Rex Reed said she gave quote the most remarkable screen debut I will probably ever see in my lifetime Newsweek's Joseph Morgenstern said quote miss Streisand delivered the most accomplished original and enjoyable musical comedy performance that has ever been captured on film those are the kind of reviews studios dream of for every newcomer to them there was no way Barbara wasn't going to be a huge deal and audiences agreed funny girl became the highest-grossing musical since The Sound of Music which as we'll see later is important catherine by contrast was a respected established icon who outlasted many of her studio system peers and had proven her skill on screen many times over in 1967 she retreated to the east coast to mourn the loss of Spencer Tracy who had passed away shortly after filming wrapped on the last of their nine films together guess who's coming to dinner his death ended what the LA Times called a remarkable legacy of association as beautiful and dignified as any this town has ever known sympathy for Katherine's enormous loss the topical nature of the film and her performance filled her second Oscar win in 1968 as she mourned Peter O'Toole approached her with a script thinking it might be what she needed to get her mind off of things in true Katharine Hepburn fashion she called him up and said do it before I die the lion in winter chronicles the lives of King Henry ii and his semi estranged Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine as they battled to determine who of their three sons will inherit the throne the lion in winter wasn't actually a comeback since she'd barely took a break from working but it kind of read that way it proved not only would she return after her loss but she would return stronger than ever the reviews were positive and focused on the strength of the actors but definitely made an effort to point out some of the sloppier witticisms Henry's that Henri's province he can people it with sheep for all I care which on occasion is done Catherine gave what is in my opinion one of her most comprehensive performances Renata Adler of the New York Times wrote quote there's something about an actress with this degree of presence and a wholly distinct pleasant and idiosyncratic voice that gets her through even misplaced weepy or extravagant scenes review after review noted her brilliance and often predicted another Academy Award in her future come on season the premonitions came true this nomination her eleventh marked a milestone it broke her tie with Betty Davis for actor with the most nominations and if she won she would be the first actor with three Oscars and only the third ever to win back-to-back after Spencer Tracy and Louise Reiner did it in the 30s so to sum it all up we have two very clear narratives a sentimental favorite of the industry who picked herself up dusted herself off and had the chance to make history and we have a newcomer an exciting new personality with a bright future ahead who could bring in a lot of money their fellow nominees included Joanne Woodward who was nominated for Rachel Rachel the directorial debut of her husband Paul Newman Patricia Neal fought her way back from a series of strokes to star in and earn a nomination for the subject was roses and Vanessa Redgrave sported an American accent as dancer Isadora Duncan in Isadora all were great performances in their own way and many of the nominees received attention for their work outside of the Oscars Vanessa Redgrave won best actress at Con Joanne Woodward won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama but in the 1960s neither of these awards were accurate predictors of the Academy Award in fact in that decade none of the actresses who won the Golden Globe for a dramatic performance won the Oscar if you include the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a comedy and musical they only match up twice for Barbra and Julie Andrews why well each voting body has its own motivators the Academy has more business interests than a film festival or the Foreign Press which helps explain why it's usually a little more conservative and keen on trends rather than innovation you can see how this aspect of the Academy played out in 1969 Barbara and Katherine's performances were incredible and their personal experiences compelling but their films also participated in industry-wide trends which created a favorable environment for the Academy to receive them first the lion in winter is British the British Invasion of the Beatles the Rolling Stones and the like was not limited to the music industry London British culture its films were cool and more importantly they were financially vital to the film industry sustainability as movies crew and scale to compete with TV so did the time and resources it took to make them this resulted in a quantitative decline from on average 400 films released per year in the 1940s to 300 in the 50s and in 1968 only a hundred and seventy-six of the 380 films released in America were actually American British films filled in the gaps Hollywood left open as Emanuel levy notes the 60s were a watershed decade for British films during this decade we also see the rise of British talent like Peter O'Toole Julie Andrews Michael Caine Julie Christie 90 Smith Richard Burton a list goes on New York Times critic Bosley Crowther commented unquote a shadow of Eclipse into which Hollywood has been cast by foreign imports and the weakness of its own energies in the past several years obviously Katharine Hepburn is not British but the line in winter is extremely British Oscar Beatty British no it was a kind of showy big glossy historical movie and despite her american-ness she somehow still fits in that world even pauline kael bought it she wrote quote her accent is so particularly hers that we just accept that's the way she talks and it seems proper for a queen to sound like Hepburn the culture liked British content the industry needed it and welcomed it the lion in winter was a mix of that appeal and the glossy historical epic that the Academy has always loved the other thing they'd like to see succeed was the movie musical the late 50s and early 60s saw a decline in the movie musical when the triple whammy of Mary Poppins My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music happened together these films won 18 Oscars so studios as Pauline Kael put it looked at the profits on a few big musicals and thought big musicals or a safe investment and tied up enormous sums of money in them the problem was musicals felt very out of step and frivolous for the time escapism might have worked in the 1930s but in the extremely turbulent 1960s audience tastes veered toward realism still the studio's flung their resources at films like Star and Camelot and Doctor Dolittle those films needed to do really well to justify how expensive they were to make but they didn't perform nearly well enough and we're qualitatively mediocre at best funny girl is happily an outlier here partly because of William Wyler's deft touch but mostly because funny girl is a Barbra Streisand vehicle it never pretends to rely on anything outside of her singular vast talent it avoids many of the problematic artistic decisions flops like paint your wagon made under financial pressure like casting trendy popular actors who couldn't sing just get butts and seeds what does this have to do with the Oscars as Steven Roberts of the New York Times put it quote although the awards themselves involve no money they possess enormous economic value it is generally believed for example that in the heat of the night made five million dollars extra after winning an Oscar last year studios thought musicals were important and knew that musicals needed to make money Awards validate decision making and give a financial boost therefore we see an inflated importance of musicals at the Oscars at a time when they weren't really performing that well and didn't really reflect the culture all of this the Anglophilia the insistence on musicals conspired to make what is in retrospect a very weird year at the Oscars and explains why films like faces Rosemary's Baby and 2001 the Space Odyssey earns collectively won Oscar but films like Oliver the lion in winter and Rome and Juliet walks away with multiple Oscars each Oliver the British musical won Best Picture these trends arguably worked in Katherine and Barbara's favor but that doesn't take anything away from the winds because these performances hold up they both did their jobs really well and we can see why Katherine and Barbara individually could have won how they tied is a different question sentimental favorite versus new kid on the block is a pretty common dynamic that we see almost every year and trends are more or less at play every year too only very specific conditions can manifest a tie and in this case its membership in 1967 Gregory Peck became president of the Academy he realized that America was changing and endeavored as president to make the Academy quote increasingly responsive to contemporary attitudes and to the ideas of a new generation of film professionals his quest for inclusivity took many forms for example in 1969 a diverse group of 10 actors representing the old and new Hollywood teamed up to host ceremony one of his primary moves was to update Academy membership at the time once you joined the Academy you remained a full voting member for life this meant membership and therefore voting were heavily weighted towards older members many of whom were no longer active in the business advantage Kathryn Gregory wanted new blood younger members with younger tastes to help balance the votes so he offered barbara streisand membership before funny girl was even in theaters this was a tad controversial because in order to become a member you had to have either won an Academy Award or have three film credits but Gregory had seen Barbara filming funny girl and need new talent when he saw it he wrote off the controversy saying quote when an actress has played a great role on the stage and is coming into films for what will obviously be an important career it's ridiculous to make her wait three years for membership end quote so without having ever sold a movie ticket Barbara Streisand joined the Academy according to Academy rules you have to have the exact same number of votes to tie that wasn't always the case wallace Beery came up one vote short to Frederick March in 1931 but back then it was the Academy's policy that if a runner-up received within three votes of the winner both would be awarded student after that they changed it to requiring an exact tie for some reason the internet will tell you that Barbara and Katherine received 3030 votes each they did not there were 3030 members of the Academy and we don't know how many votes they each got only that they got the exact same number of them by becoming a member Barbara became eligible to vote so assuming she voted for herself her one vote became the deciding factor in the results of this race allowing for an exact tie so really if she should have thanked anyone that night probably should have been Gregory Peck hello gorgeous Peck continued his mission to include younger members the following year by majorly recalling the membership policy and demoting inactive members to associate status where they could only vote for best picture people will debate this Oscar and that's valid have at it but I kind of like that Kathryn and Barbara share this moment that you have a lot in common both almost always play a version of themselves to a certain extent but it doesn't matter because they have such a vitality and are such exceptional individuals that you would follow those personalities with all of their quirks and charisma into any context we love them that way both of them challenge and in some cases redefined what women could achieve in film by being themselves so to me this tie which occurred at such a pivotal turning point in Hollywood culture in history symbolizes a veteran passing the torch of that strength to a newcomer who could harness it and do something absolutely unique with it ties are a little bit dramatic but they can represent something so much bigger than just a number of ballot [Music] you

Channel: Be Kind Rewind

Views: 647,614

Keywords: katharine hepburn oscar, barbra streisand oscar, academy awards, katharine hepburn, barbra streisand, funny girl, best actress, oscar, the lion in winter, 1969, interview, patricia neal, joanne woodward, gregory peck, vanessa redgrave, barbra streisand katharine hepburn tie, musicals, peter o'toole

Id: r5ly_iAmEOE

Length: 15min 22sec (922 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 27 2018