Hooray for Hollywood? Not So Much!

I am certain that the crowd that filled Concord’s Red River Theatre for their annual Oscar event had a much better time than the attendees at the actual Oscar Ceremony in Los Angeles did on Sunday night. For that matter, more fun than many of the television viewers who tuned in with the hope of enjoying a few hours of entertainment.

It may be just nostalgia or a memory that isn’t sharp, but I recall Billy Crystal as being a very funny host the numerous times he helmed the show in the past. A quick visit to YouTube assures me that there were hilarious times during his past stints.

Whether it was excessive use of Botox or just bad writing, the talented Crystal was pretty much left to his own devices, and for the most part they weren’t enough to raise the lethargy that quickly settled over the show. The Academy Awards ain’t what they used to be.

Once upon a time, for film fans, moviegoers and lovers of the cinema, Oscar Night was tantamount to the Super Bowl. For weeks before, you eagerly anticipated the show with its gaudy, ostentatious and sometimes very badly but weirdly amusing opening production number. It was a chance to see old and new Hollywood mix and mingle and to see some of the best acting of the years on the faces of those who lost the award as they attempted to show they were good sports about it.

Watching Sunday night’s dirge, I found myself wondering how the motion picture industry, which frequently turns out films that are amazing for their style, skill, ability to move an audience or just to entertain, can’t seem to get it right on what should be their most important night of the year.

I’ve attended the Academy Awards twice and must confess that I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I looked to my left and then to my right and spotted dozens of household names. It was fun and glamorous and, in person, all that it seemed to be when televised in the 60’s and 70’s.

Perhaps today’s stars are just lacking in that certain something that made the stars of yesteryear seem so stellar. Today we are often overexposed to everyone, often finding out a lot more than we ever cared to know thanks to entertainment shows, paparazzi, tabloids and reality programs. The mystique that once embraced a star is somewhat burnished in the light of this new millennium.

I guess congratulations are in order for the winners, which certainly do not include audience members at the former Kodak Theatre and those at home, struggling to stay awake and interested in the proceedings.

Mercifully it didn’t go on until the wee hours – it just felt like it.

Maybe next year I’ll join the revelers at the Red River Theatre and see if perhaps that will re-ignite that “Old Feeling”.