SINS OF OMISSION
Picture: Singin' in the Rain, The Bad and the Beautiful
Director: Vincente Minnelli - The Bad and the Beautiful
Actor: John Wayne - The Quiet Man, Ralph Richardson - Breaking the Sound Barrier
Actress: Judy Holliday - The Marrying Kind
Supporting Actress: Ethel Waters - The Member of the Wedding, Katy Jurado - High Noon
Song: "Angel Eyes," "Make 'Em Laugh"

ROLE REVERSALS
Stanley Kramer wanted Marlon Brando or Montgomery Clift to play the sheriff in High Noon, but his major backer for the independent production insisted on Gary Cooper.

UNMENTIONABLES
· The House Un-American Activities Committee was in full throttle and subpoenaed High Noon screenwriter Carl Foreman while the film was still in production. Foreman plead the Fifth and moved to England.
· Michael Wilson, screenplay winner for 1951's A Place in the Sun, was nominated for Five Fingers. Called before the H.U.A.C. in 1950, he'd also refused to testify.
· Unable to sell The Quiet Man to the major studios, 3-time directing Oscar® winner John Ford made a deal with Republic Pictures -- the home of cowboy and pulp adventure movies.
· In The Star, Bette Davis grabs a statuette and exclaims, "C'mon Oscar, let's go get drunk." She used one of her own Oscars® for the scene.
· Not learning his lesson from 1951's The African Queen, director John Huston rushed Moulin Rouge to a last-minute opening to qualify for this year's Awards.
· Gloria Grahame co-starred in 3 films this year: Sudden Fear, The Greatest Show on Earth, and The Bad and the Beautiful. It was MGM who campaigned for her Supporting Actress nomination.
· Darryl Zanuck listed Richard Burton, the star of My Cousin Rachel, as a supporting actor to keep him out of the way of High Noon's Gary Cooper and Viva Zapata!'s Marlon Brando.
· One week before the show, U-I, Columbia, Republic and Warner Bros. announced they were pulling their funding the Awards show. It was 1948 all over again. RCA, parent company of the NBC television network, immediately bought the rights to telecast the show for $100,000 and agreed to set up an East Coast hook-up from New York. The show would go on!
· The climax of the telecast was to be a lineup of 25 Oscar® winners, each proudly fondling his or her statuette, filmed the Sunday before the ceremony. Only 24 stars showed up. Vivien Leigh had suffered a nervous breakdown in Hollywood and was rushed to a sanatorium in England. While she was there, thieves broke into her Chelsea home and stole clothing, silverware and her Oscar® for A Streetcar Named Desire.
· During a break in filming the lineup of stars, Paul Muni chatted with Janet Gaynor, then turned to a reporter and asked, "Tell me -- what was the name of the young lady I was talking to?"
· Many of the nominees were hesitant about appearing on television, and several more were either gainfully employed on location or laid up in the hospital.
· The network informed the gentleman that harsh television lights made white shirts photograph too glaingly, so they were requested to send their tuxedo shirts to the network for a complimentary blue tint job. Women were told to wear pale colors like blue or gray. In case anyone had any questions, he or she could consult the official fashion adviser, Edith Head. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Supporting Actress nominee Terry Moore showed Head her "sexy black gown," and the fashion guru promptly told her, "It won't photograph well." Claire Trevor, on the other hand, was way ahead of the game -- she painted her hair gold. "It was too dark for TV," the Oscar® winner explained, "and I wouldn't bleach it for one night."
· It rained on Awards night, and an early-arriving starlet named Sandra White slipped and fell down. When she discovered her crinoline slip had come off during the tumble, the young actress threw the undergarment into her limo as the fans cheered. Pantages attendants sprinkled sawdust on the pavement to prevent further mishaps.
· The set for the show consisted of ersatz marble columns, pots of shocking pink azaleas and a giant blue birthday cake decorated with neon-lighted replicas of the Oscar®. Every time an Award was given in the course of the evening, the Oscars on the cake would light up with a celestial harp accompaniment from the orchestra pit. The giant Oscar on top of the cake, however, would not be lit until the climax of the show.
· Hollywood emcee Bob Hope had been considered a Benedict Arnold for defecting to television and hadn't been asked to host the Oscar® show since 1946. But, now that the Academy, too, had sold out, Bob was back.
· The big surprise of the night was The Greatest Show on Earth's Best Picture win. Even though TGSOE was the year's biggest box-office hit, the odds-on favorite had been High Noon.
· As the big Oscar® on top of the cake lit up, Cecil B. DeMille accepted his Thalberg Award, the last award of the night, saying, "I understand millions are watching on TV." They weren't -- the network had switched off after the Best Picture Award.