March 30, 1955: And the Winner Is… Grace Kelly?

Left to right: William Holden, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby

March 30, 1955: The Academy Awards ceremony is held at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Bob Hope is the host, and the ceremony is broadcast live on NBC.

On the Waterfront was nominated for 12 "Oscars," and received 8, including Best Picture, Best Director for Elia Kazan, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint.

Brando, still only 28 years old, had beaten out some heavyweights: Humphrey Bogart for The Caine Mutiny, Bing Crosby for The Country Girl, James Mason for a remake of A Star Is Born, and Dan O'Herlihy for a new version of Robinson Crusoe.

The nominees for Best Actress were, in alphabetical order: Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones (an all-black musical version of the opera Carmen), Judy Garland for A Star Is Born, Audrey Hepburn for Sabrina, Grace Kelly for The Country Girl, and Jane Wyman for Magnificent Obsession.

Dorothy Dandridge

Dandridge was the 1st black person nominated for a lead role, and, in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling, there was a lot of support for her to get Best Actress. Many people thought it should go to Garland, because they were longtime fans of hers, and knew she had gone through a lot to get to that point. Time magazine had labeled her performance as "just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history," and she had already received the Golden Globe Award for the role.

James Mason and Judy Garland,

in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born

Garland could not attend the Oscar ceremony, having recently given birth to her son, Joey Luft, only the day before. Cameramen were present in her home, ready to broadcast her acceptance speech. In spite of the sentiment for Dandridge, Garland was considered that much of a favorite.

And then there was Kelly. She wasn't a "blonde bombshell" like Marilyn Monroe. Rather, the wealth and sophistication to which she was born gave her an onscreen persona that made her seem, well, graceful, and unattainable, but still very much desirable. In 2006, writing The Great Book of Philadelphia Sports Lists, with some lists having nothing to do with sports, the authors, radio talk-show hosts Big Daddy Graham and Glen Macnow, put her on top of their list of the most beautiful women ever to come from Philadelphia and environs.

Oh, she was desired. And some of those desires came true. She had an affair with Gary Cooper while filming High Noon, even though he was 28 years older. She had an affair with Clark Gable while filming Mogambo, even though he was also 28 years older. She had an affair with Milland while filming Dial M for Murder, even though he was 22 years older. She had an affair with Aly Khan, a notorious Pakistani prince who later married another of the era's leading actresses, Rita Hayworth; he was a mere 18 years older.

In 1954, she filmed The Country Girl, playing the wife of a character played by Crosby -- and the mistress of a character played by Holden. Holden, 11 years older, couldn't resist her, and rumors flew that he was going to leave his wife for her.

But she dumped him for Crosby, 26 years older. He was a strict Catholic with his family. With himself, not so much, although it should be pointed out that, at the time, he was widowed, not married. Grace and Der Bingle had an affair, and it was still ongoing on March 30, 1955, the night of the Academy Awards.

Garland was the favorite. Dandridge had her supporters. If either one had gotten the Oscar, it would have been a great story.

Instead, it went to Kelly. The Country Girl was hardly her best work, and she was not better in it than Garland or Dandridge were in their nominated roles. 

The camera crew set up in the Garland house packed up, and were out of her bedroom before Kelly even got to the stage. Groucho Marx sent Judy a telegram, telling her that her loss was "the biggest robbery since Brink's," referring to the famous armored car heist of 1950.

People began to ask questions like, "Who did Grace Kelly have to sleep with to get that Oscar?" It wasn't Bing Crosby: That night, he expected to, um, celebrate with her. But when he walked into her hotel room, she was, um, celebrating with Brando. (He was only 5 years older. As far as I know, this is the only time a holder of Best Actor and a holder of Best Actress have ever been sexually involved.) In a weird twist of events, Kelly had been offered the female lead in On the Waterfront, but turned it down, leading to Saint being cast in her first film, and she won Best Supporting Actress for it.

Crosby dumped Kelly, but the affairs with him and Holden -- two co-stars in one film -- became the worst-kept secret in Hollywood: Nobody would report on it, but everybody seemed to know about it. She was branded a "homewrecker." Finally, she was set up with Prince Rainier III of Monaco. It meant the end of her acting career, but more money and security than she would have had otherwise.

Sidney Poitier won Best Actor in 1964, for Lilies of the Field. It would take until 2002 for a black woman to win Best Actress: Halle Berry, for playing the title role in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. (Both Dandridge and Berry were natives of Cleveland.)

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March 30, 1955 was a Wednesday. In more recent years, the Oscar ceremony has been held on Sundays.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. No games were scheduled for the NBA. And the Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but no games were played on this day. So there were no scores on this historic day.