April 20, 1977: "Annie Hall" Premieres

April 20, 1977: Annie Hall Premieres. It is often considered Woody Allen's best film, as both an actor and a director.

This is in spite of the fact that it just missed the record of having the earliest spoiler in film history: While Death of a Salesman gives away the ending in the title, Woody's character, Alvy Singer, says in the 1st minute of the film that he and Annie had already broken up. So you know, going in, that it's being told in flashback, and that the relationship has failed.

The film is basically "Woody's Allen's Greatest Hits": Musings on sex, relationships, pop culture -- bringing the real Marshall McLuhan in to shut up a guy who thinks he knows about McLuhan's work is a classic -- and being Jewish, his own perception of it and other people's perceptions of it.

Annie is played by Diane Keaton, who was born as Diane Hall. Art was imitating life: She and Woody had been an unmarried couple for a few years, but had since broken up, and yet remained friends. She would also stay friends with ex-boyfriends and ex-co-stars Al Pacino (The Godfather) and Warren Beatty (Reds). That would not be the case with Woody and his later partner, actress Mia Farrow, with very nasty results.

Annie Hall won 4 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Allen, Best Actress for Keaton, and Best Original Screenplay for Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen was nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Richard Dreyfuss for The Goodbye Girl.

The Best Picture win was over fellow nominees The Goodbye Girl, Julia, the ballet-themed film The Turning Point, and, to the dismay of the film's passionate fans, Star Wars. It reached the point where, when Mad magazine parodied Star Wars, imagining it as a musical, it had Obi-Wan Kenobi say he felt a great disturbance in The Force. When Luke Skywalker asks him if it's over the destruction of Alderaan, he says, no, it's fans of the original film whining over losing Best Picture to Annie Hall.

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April 20, 1977 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

Football was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA Playoffs:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 113-101 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets, 101-100 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 115-106 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Of course, the Warriors view the Lakers as their arch-rivals, but it's never been the other way around: The Lakers' rivals are the Boston Celtics. In this game, in defeat for the Warriors, Rick Barry scored 40 points, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led the Lakers with 27.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but no games were scheduled. There were 2 games in the World Hockey Association Playoffs. The Winnipeg Jets beat the San Diego Mariners, 3-0 at the Winnipeg Arena. And the Houston Aeros beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.