Compared to the Forty-Fifth and Forty-Sixth Academy Awards ceremonies, the Forty-Seventh was much less interesting. Whereas the Forty-Fifth was marked by the ascension of the animated movie, the official announcement of the EPCOT Center coming to Disney World, and Marlon Brando's refusal of the Oscar for Best Actor in protest of the mistreatment of Native Americans in the industry, and the Forty-Sixth by a streaking incident in which a man named Robert Opel ran across the stage in the nude flashing a peace sign with thousands of eyes and cameras trained on him, the Forty-Seventh was just back to same-old, same-old.
The Godfather Part II walked away from the celebration with five Oscars to its name, almost twice as many as its predecessor and utterly dominating the event. However, other great movies of 1974 put up a hell of a fight for it, with
Chinatown very nearly beating
The Godfather Part II in every category they went up against each other, but never quite pulled it out. Disney's
The Island at the Top of the World was nominated for three awards, those being Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material, Best Costume Design, and Best Art Direction (this one being its only victory), and their
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too short won Best Animated Short Film.
Awards Won at the 47th Academy Awards
Best Picture: The Godfather Part II
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola,
The Godfather Part II
Best Actor: Art Carney,
Harry and Tonto
Best Actress: Ellen Burstyn,
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro,
The Godfather Part II
Best Supporting Actress: Ingrid Bergman,
Murder on the Orient Express
Best Original Screenplay: Chinatown, Robert Towne
Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material: The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo
Best Documentary Figure: Hearts and Minds, Peter Davis
Best Documentary Short Subject: Don't, Robert Lehman
Best Live Action Short Film: One Eyed Men Are Kings, Paul Claudon and Edmond Sechan
Best Animated Short Film: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, Don Bluth
Best Original Dramatic Score: The Godfather Part II, Nino Rotta and Carmine Coppola
Best Scoring: Original Song Score and Adaptation or Scoring: Adaptation: The Great Gatsby, Nelson Riddle
Best Song: "We May Never Love Like This Again
,"
The Towering Inferno, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn
Best Sound: Earthquake, Ronald Pierce and Melvin Metcalf Sr.
Best Foreign Language Film: Armacord, Italy
Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby, Theoni V. Aldredge
Best Art Direction: The Island at the Top of the World, Peter Ellenshaw
Best Cinematography: The Towering Inferno, Joseph Biroc and Fred J. Koenekamp
Best Film Editing: The Towering Inferno, Harold F. Kress and Carl Kress
--------------------------------
Walt Disney's Office, Burbank, CA
April 8, 1975
The air in Walt's office was electrifying, chatter shooting back and forth as the television spouted out the Oscar celebration in the background. Everyone briefly paused when they heard the accolades for
The Island at the Top of the World and
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too and clapped, before returning to their discussions.
"Everybody" entails Walt, Roy, Rolly Crump, and Tony Baxter. The rest of the studio's staff had gone home for the night many hours before, and only these four were left.
"So, what have you all come up with for video game ideas? I've given you all about six months to come up with something better than Pong. Let the ideas flow," announced Walt.
Crump was up first. "Well, Tony and I had this concept for a game that's basically single-player Pong. Instead of a second paddle on the right side, there's a bunch of smaller, hittable targets--"
"--and hitting those targets increases your score," interjected Baxter. "The goal is to get the highest score possible, and it'll display the top ten on the machine when it's not being played. That way--"
"That way the people at the bar or the restaurant will be coerced into playing by the idea that
they could get the high score, and
boom! Another quarter dropped in," finished Roy.
Walt had a sort of half-smile on his face. "I like it. That's good. But what about..." He took the art Crump had sketched, depicting the cabinet's screen, and flipped it vertically. "
...that."
Crump looked at Baxter. Baxter looked at Crump. "Why didn't we think of that?" asked Baxter incredulously.
"I do really like the name, though. 'Breakdown' just catches the eye and sounds... what do the kids say today? Cool, that's right. Breakdown sounds
cool."
"And this cabinet art looks cool as well, you two," praised Roy, holding the other pieces of concept work in his hands. "I mean, for a game about hitting colored squares with other colored squares, it really shouldn't look this good. But it does!"
The cabinet design he was referring to was rather "cool." It was sleek and yellow, almost gold, with a great shiny black lightning bolt streaking across the sides vertically. The paddle hitting the ball was shown also on either side, the paddle being black and the ball white. Emblazoned across the tops of the front and sides was the title, "Breakdown," in big, bolded white text. There was only one control stick on the front, as that was all the game needed, as well as two slots for quaters. No other buttons, just a smooth surface.
"I like it too," said Walt. "'Course, that screen will have to be flipped long-ways up with the game being played vertically now."
Suddenly, the TV seemed to grow louder as everyone picked up on what was being announced by O. J. Simpson, star NFL running back. "And the winner of the award for Best Art Direction goes to... Disney's
The Island at the Top of the World, done by Peter Ellenshaw!"
Walt's whole office was filled with whooping and applause, as the four grown men celebrated like children on Christmas morning.
