Earlier than Will Smith ever slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars, John Wayne almost brought on his personal headline-grabbing scene. On the 1973 Academy Awards, the True Grit icon needed to be bodily restrained by six safety guards as a result of he was seconds away from storming the stage.
That 12 months, The Godfather dominated the night time. Marlon Brando received Greatest Actor however ditched the ceremony. In his place, activist Sacheen Littlefeather appeared on stage. Wearing conventional Apache apparel, she calmly rejected Brando’s Oscar whereas drawing consideration to the portrayal of Native Individuals in Hollywood and the continued Wounded Knee Occupation.
The group wasn’t prepared. Boos echoed by means of the room. Some listened. However behind the scenes? It received actual. John Wayne was allegedly ready within the wings, able to cost. It wasn’t a dramatic metaphor. He reportedly tried to get on stage till six guards blocked him from doing one thing he’d most likely remorse eternally (by way of Folks). A long time later, Sacheen Littlefeather addressed the incident saying, “I bear in mind the faces within the crowd… John Wayne, backstage, needed to be restrained by six males from coming to get me and pull me off the stage.”
Littlefeather stood her floor. She solely had 60 seconds to talk. If she went over, she was informed she’d be arrested. No shouting, no swearing, only a measured message that pushed laborious truths into an uncomfortable highlight. Later, she defined what occurred subsequent to Leisure Weekly:
“I didn’t put up my fist in protest; I didn’t use profanity… We didn’t have jobs within the trade, we had been excluded… They boycotted me; they went round to the manufacturing corporations and mentioned for those who rent her we are going to shut you down… I used to be not allowed to be on any speak reveals, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, and the like.”
Hollywood didn’t simply shut the door on her; it slammed it. John Wayne, nonetheless fuming, reportedly criticized Brando for sending “some little unknown lady and dressing her up in an Indian outfit.” His frustration was uncooked, however his selection of phrases revealed how tone-deaf Hollywood nonetheless was.
However, Marlon Brando stood by the second (by way of EW): “I used to be distressed that individuals ought to have booed and whistled and stomped, although maybe it was directed at myself. They need to have at the very least had the courtesy to hearken to her.”
It wasn’t simply an Oscars speech. It was a battle cry. A quiet one, however one which shook the room. And almost triggered a full-on stage storm from one in every of Hollywood’s strongest males. Finally, it turned one of many wildest chapters in Academy Awards historical past. And a sobering reminder that standing up, even silently, can come at a steep value.
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