The 20th Academy Awards Memorable Moments

20th Oscars

Best Picture: Gentlemen's Agreement


Gentlemen's Agreement also won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm) and Directing (Elia Kazan). 


In January 1947, aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found gruesomely murdered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. She posthumously became known as The Black Dahlia.


In February 1947, Christian Dior introduced the New Look at his first couture show in Paris.


In April 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.


In May 1947, the Christmas-themed Miracle on 34th Street was released in theaters. It was nominated for four Academy Awards and won three.


On May 22, 1947, David Lean's film Great Expectations, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, opened in New York.


In November 1947, the television show Meet the Press made its debut on NBC.


On November 20, 1947, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were married at Westminster Abbey.


On December 3, 1947, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, and Kim Hunter, opened on Broadway.


Special Award

To Colonel William N. Selig, Albert E. Smith, Thomas Armat and George K. Spoor (one of) the small group of pioneers whose belief in a new medium, and whose contributions to its development, blazed the trail along which the motion picture has progressed, in their lifetime, from obscurity to world-wide acclaim.


Special Award

To Bill and Coo, in which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of the medium of motion pictures.


Special Award

Italy – To Shoe-Shine - the high quality of this motion picture, brought to eloquent life in a country scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity. 


Special Award

To James Baskett for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world in Walt Disney's Song of the South.