Dimitri Tiomkin holds his Academy Award statuette for “The High and the Mighty.”
Dimitri Tiomkin, a four-time Academy Award-winning composer, left behind an enviable musical legacy. When the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in mid-city Los Angeles one year ago Tiomkin’s 1955 Academy Awards acceptance speech was chosen for inclusion in the Academy Awards History gallery. The Academy Awards ceremony was first televised live in 1953. In only its third presentation on television Tiomkin’s speech caused a stir in Hollywood and nationwide, it went viral decades before that term came into popular use in relation to Internet posts and videos.
The Academy Awards History gallery, part of the ongoing exhibition “Stories of Cinema,” includes two floor-to-ceiling opposing walls covered by large screens that come to life, one at a time, to feature a memorable acceptance speech.
Academy Museum visitors watch a clip of Dimitri Tiomkin’s 1955 Academy Awards acceptance speech.
The 1955 audience seated in the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood might have been expecting the winners to thank studio executives and fellow workers (keep in mind the speeches of a handful of winners that night consisted of just two words, “thank you”; some gave no speech; and others thanked crew, staff, or a film studio); so when Tiomkin wants to give “appreciation to very important factor what make me successful” and begins to name a diverse range of American, European, and Russian composers, all no longer living, the audience breaks out in laughter then rambunctious applause. Note Tiomkin did not say “important people,” but rather “important factor.” Since factor is defined as an “influence that contributes to a result or outcome,” his words should have been interpreted as his acknowledging composers that influenced his career as a musician in Hollywood.
Tiomkin’s speech made headlines in Variety the following morning, “Tiomkin Tops Hope,” referring to the host, comedienne Bob Hope. Tiomkin “hit the laugh high of the evening when he commented that he’d been working in Hollywood for 25 years and wanted to thank the people who had helped him—Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss, et al.” In their report, Variety paraphrased the speech, incorrectly adding Bach to the mix of composers—this in the days before streaming, DVRs, and VCRs when there wasn’t an easy way to review a live broadcast.
Columnist James Bacon, an Associated Press staff writer, called Tiomkin’s speech the night before “satirical” and misquotes the composer as wanting to thank his “collaborators.” Bacon’s incorrect interpretation and misquotation spread far and wide across the country in every big and small town paper that carried the AP story.
Observations from watching the clip on YouTube: the envelope handed to presenter Bing Crosby has already been opened and the card placed outside the envelope and while that may have been a time saving device it takes Tiomkin twenty-five seconds to reach the podium and begin speaking; the audience reaction comes after Brahms and Strauss are named, as Tiomkin says Richard Strauss there is some laughter that immediately turns to a buzz in the auditorium and rapid progressively louder applause that drowns out the speaker before he ends with a simple, “thank you”; Tiomkin’s speech is one of the longest of the evening.
In the following years the exact words spoken by Tiomkin that night were often repeated incorrectly, incompletely, or out of context. The Acceptance Speech database at oscars.org contains official transcripts of speeches by Academy Award winners, brought to you by the arts organization that hands out the Oscar® statuettes each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
DIMITRI TIOMKIN:
Lady and gentlemen, because I working in this town for twenty-five years, I like to make some kind of appreciation to very important factor what make me successful to lots of my colleagues in this town. I’d like to thank…(see the entire transcript here…)
© Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Please Don’t Hate Me
“Now I must tell you how I became ‘famous,'” begins the final chapter in Dimitri Tiomkin’s autobiography, Please Don’t Hate Me. Tiomkin relates that the reason was not for the occasion of winning his third Oscar, but for providing the “laugh of the evening.” “A howl went up all over the country. A prize-winning Hollywood composer kidding Hollywood, poking fun at motion picture music.”
“Unfortunately I didn’t intend to be funny. I was misunderstood. What I wanted to express was a musician’s homage to the heroes of the musical past.” To…”the masters who developed the art of music and created traditions that we, their humble successors, follow.”
For example, among those named by Tiomkin in his speech, American composer George Gershwin developed a musical language that continues to influence musicians to this day. Tiomkin was an early adopter of Gershwin’s music in the 1920s, when he performed in a two-piano arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for a ballet at the Hippodrome and when he performed the piano part at the European premiere of Gershwin’s Concerto in F at the Paris Opera, with the composer present.
Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971
An unprecedented exhibition, “Regeneration,” opened at the Academy Museum this month. Years in the making it stretches across the entire fourth floor in the space previously filled with a popular Hayao Miyazaki exhibition.
Among the gems on display is a theatrical release poster for The Negro Soldier (1944). A monitor nearby plays clips from the film scored by Dimitri Tiomkin.
The Negro Soldier theatrical poster from the Margaret Herrick Library on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
During World War II, the U.S. government sought to document the participation of “Negro Americans” serving their country in previous wars in which the United States was involved. The Negro Soldier included dramatic footage shot with actors and had a more narrative structure than other government propaganda documentaries. Originally intended to be screened solely for black troops, The Negro Soldier was released commercially after various groups, inspired by its message, sought its exposure to a wider audience. The film’s national profile and impact are evident by reviews in the New York Times and Time magazine and a Hollywood-style press book.
Music from The Negro Soldier can be heard on this Film Music Society release.
William Grant Still and choir master Jester Hairston, both of whom worked with Tiomkin on Lost Horizon, received $75 a week and a flat fee of $275, respectively, for their work on Negro Soldier. Hairston, who arranged the spirituals, later became Tiomkin’s go-to choral arranger after the war. “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” accompanies a montage of marching troops.
Popular tunes and spirituals supplemented the original music. Tiomkin and Hairston attended the Los Angeles premiere in April 1944 at the Ambassador Hotel Theater.
When you visit the Museum don’t miss the stunning view of Hollywood from the Dolby Family Terrace atop the David Geffen Theater, one of the many highlights from architect Renzo Piano.
The Dolby Family Terrace at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures offers stunning views of Hollywood and the Hollywood sign.
Timed entry to the Academy Museum must be reserved online in advance. Admission is free for Museum members and children age 17 and under, thanks to a generous gift, the George Lucas Family Grant.
Sources
“‘Waterfront Wins’ 1954’s Oscar Race,” by James Bacon, Associated Press Staff Writer, Miami News, March 31, 1955
“Telecast of Oscar Parade Award-Worthy Performance,” and “Oscar Parade Panoply,” Variety, March 31, 1955
Please Don’t Hate Me by Dimitri Tiomkin and Prosper Buranelli (Doubleday, 1959)