Date:08/04/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/04/08/stories/2009040855390603.htm

Miscellaneous - This Day That Age

dated April 8, 1959: Oscar awards

Two British stars – David Niven and Wendy Hiller – won golden “Oscars” at the 31st annual Motion Picture Academy Award presentations in Hollywood on April 6, both for their performance in the film of Terence Rattigan’s “Separate Tables”. Their awards were two of the highlights of a glamorous, star-packed two-hour show which also saw Susan Hayward achieve at last the dream she has cherished through four previous nominations and failures – a Best Actress award for “I want to live.” But the film which swept the board, taking the awards for Best Film and Best Director as well as for half-a-dozen production categories, was “Gigi”, the colour musical made from Colette’s famous novel and the play adapted from it. It was another shining triumph for Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, the pair who wrote the music and book of the phenomenal “My Fair Lady.”