The Best Supporting Acting Oscars were presented early on as usual, and Joe Pesci gave perhaps the shortest Oscar acceptance speech in history, when he simply said "It's my privilege, thank you" for winning for GOODFELLAS.
Before that, though, a joyous applause greeted the Best Supporting Actress winner, Whoopi Goldberg for her performance in GHOST. Whoopi was genuinely overwhelmed and excited about winning the Oscar, saying that when she was growing up, "you were who I watched," and she enthused how genuinely happy she was to be an actor.
Out of all the performances of the nominated songs that year, the one worth noting was Reba McEntire, who agreed to perform the nominated song from POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE called "I'm Checking Out," only a day after her band had died in a plane crash, and her performance was vintage Reba, and Billy Crystal made special mention of thanking her for making it to the telecast in the midst of such tragedy.
And of course much ado was made of Madonna's appearance to perform the nominated song from DICK TRACY, which ultimately won. She appeared visibly nervous and almost fell out of her dress.
One of the most memorable moments of the telecast was a surprise appearance by a true legend, Bob Hope. Bob Hope, besides being a legendary personality, is still known for being one of the icons of the Oscars, hosting the telecast more times than anyone else. Just as Billy Crystal has become the favorite Oscar host of the '90s, and as Johnny Carson was the favorite in the '70s, Bob Hope was associated with Oscar for a long time during Hollywood's Golden Age. At the 63rd Oscars ceremony, Bob Hope slowly walked onto the stage to a long-lasting applause. It would be the last time he would grace the Oscar stage in such good health. He was there to first salute the fighting men in Saudi Arabia, who at the time were embroiled in the Gulf War conflict, which again provided another reminder of Bob Hope's days entertaining the troops in past wars. He continued through some good jokes, particularly when he said "It's great to be here ... I couldn't be here in spirit, so I'm here in person." Then he introduced a piece of film put together by Chuck Workman, in which Hollywood actors, both young and old, became nostalgic and discussed the first films they ever saw. It is still one of my favorite Oscar film packages, because everybody has such fond memories of their first times they experienced a movie, and it was fascinating to see Hollywood stars and directors discussing their first films with such fond remembrance. For me, my first film was STAR WARS in 1977, in a drive-in theatre. I was changed forever by the magic of the movies. Shortly after that, it was PINOCCHIO, and I was hooked. In the film package, it was fascinating to hear Katharine Hepburn talking about John Gilbert and Greta Garbo ... for Michael Douglas, it was LILLY, which he saw 9 times ... Candice Bergen talking about the experience of seeing SNOW WHITE ... a very good idea for a film package for the Oscars.
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