Remembrances from Oscars past

I blame my mother.  My first memory of watching the Oscars was when I was 7 years old and Grace Kelly won as Best Actress.  She was like an angel, the most beautiful woman I ever saw, all blonde and pink, holding a gold statuette.  On our black and white TV the blonde and the pink and the gold parts were all gray, but still...)

My mother thought it was an outrage that Judy Garland didn't win that year.  Understand that my mother was usually pretty even-keeled and I never heard a swear word from her until I was a grown-up with my own grown childlren, and she said the "s" word.  Mom didn't swear that night but it was indelibly imprinted in my brain, that this Oscar thing is some kind of big deal.

In later years we'd watch the Big Show and she'd tell me who was going out with whom and who was a drunk.  For you kids out there they didn't have drug addicts or gay people in the 50s.  They also didn't have the Internet, but I'm guessing you're still stuck on what a black and white TV means.

I think mom got her information from Photoplay Magazine, which was a precursor to Entertainment Weekly.  Either that or she just made it up.  I was 12, how would I know.  When Eddie left Debbie it was like a death in the family.

This Sunday is Oscar night, which I consider a national holiday.  I celebrate by surrounding myself with my favorite junk foods, turning off the phone and watching pre-game shows starting at noon - going right through to the after-party on "E".  I take the next day off to recoup and finish the leftover junk food.  See now, I lied. There's rarely junk food left over.  The rest, though, is true.

I used to host a big party on Oscar night, but when I found out that people wanted to talk during the show, well, that was the end of that.  There's no talking during the Oscars - only during commercials.  And with a DVR there aren't even commercials!

These days we're inundated with award shows.  Make no mistake I watch them all.  Some of the bloom is off the rose when the same people win the Globes, Sags, Independent Spirits, Critic's Choice, People's Choice and on and on.  But then again, there are football games every Sunday (and Monday and some Saturdays), but there's only one Super Bowl.

Mom's gone now, but I feel her spirit with me on this night of nights. She taught me to love the movies and I'm grateful for that.  So pop the cork and the corn, and settle in - it's gonna be a great show.