The 44th Annual Academy Awards

... in probably the most memorable Academy Award show for good reasons I ever watched. One of the less memorable movies to ever win Best Picture - The French Connection - was awarded that night. It won Best Picture, Actor (Hackman), Director (William Friedkin), Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Tidyman), and Editing (Gerald Greenberg).

That is pretty much a sweep of the important Oscars, and yet not that many people remember it today because it hasn't aged that well. They remember the winner the year before - Patton - and the winner the year after (Godfather). But I digress.

The big event of the evening? Charlie Chaplin at age 83 showing up to receive his honorary Oscar for his body of work. The following year he would win the Academy Award for Best Score for 1952's Limelight. Yes folks, this 20 year old film had not had a proper opening according to Academy rules when it came out in 1952 because Chaplin was considered a Communist sympathizer resulting in him permanently moving to Europe. At any rate, at this award ceremony in 1972 he was met with a standing ovation, did his Little Tramp walk with a borrowed cane, and it was actually much like the ending of the film Limelight itself. Life imitating art.

I remember my younger sister and I looking at each other and saying "That guy is 83!" "Wow!" At 62 that no longer seems so old.