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Leslie Bricusse deserved to win for his gorgeous score
There are only a few minutes of score in MILLIE
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My opinion on this has changed over the years. The other nominees were substantial contributions by major composers. Based on what others have said about the collaborative nature of TMM, it does seem that giving the scoring statuette just to Mr. Bernstein was a faux pas. I remember being thrilled at the time watching the Oscars on TV because Mr. Bernstein has always been one of my heroes, and I love TMM, so my outrage is very muted -- almost to the point of quietude.
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. I dug out two old BBC Radio interviews with Bernstein and have transcribed what he had to say about Thoroughly Modern Millie.
thank you for doing the transcribing, James, and brightening our day with this!
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Since I retired from work early last month I've had a chance at last to sort through some old cassettes, etc, to either discard them or to deem the contents worthy of preservation on CDRs. Today I came across another old BBC radio interview (this time with Roy Pickard, circa 1991) where EB mentions THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. His opening remarks go over old ground, but his description of the night he got his Oscar is of interest -
"By the time I won an Academy Award, I think it was a conscience award on the part of the Academy, by that time having lost with such things as The Man With The Golden Arm, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven, finally I was given the Award for the music for a film called Thoroughly Modern Millie. There's a curious story about that too; actually it was a split credit because it had a dramatic score but it also had a song score in it, that was arranged and conducted by Andre Previn. But I got the Award for my part in it. To tell you the truth, I mean I haven't seen the film in a very very long time, but I can't help but believe that the Academy has a way of paying it's debts, you know, and I'd lost on so many other occasions. And actually, to be quite fair about it, I don't think it was a strong year for scores when I won anyway".
Roy Pickard : "Weren't you actually conducting the orchestra at the Academy Awards that evening?"
EB : "I was indeed. And for those in the audience who don't know these things, people often ask me - how do they know what music to play immediately that the winner is announced. Well, the way it happens is that the musicians, for each category, have a kind of one-line piece of music and they're just given numbers, one-two-three-four-five and your assistant as conductor, the moment the award is announced, he holds up the right number of fingers, let's say, whatever the picture is, is number four and he'll just hold up number four and you would just go off and play it.
I was absolutely sure that I wasn't going to win. What I thought was going to win that year was a score that Quincy Jones had written for In the Heat of the Night (sic) and I had my baton in the air, literally ready to play number four when, I think it was Gene Kelly or maybe Angie Dickinson said, 'And the winner is Elmer Bernstein for Thoroughly Modern Millie' and I just dropped the baton out of my hand and went up on stage!"
(PS - Yes, I know Quincy was nominated for In Cold Blood that year, not for In the Heat of the Night. Elmer got his "INs" wrong.)
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