My ticket stub.

A  friendship with Swedish reporter Berteil Unger would end up meaning many things to me; often he gave dinner parties at his Beverly Hills home for other members of the Foreign Press, or friends from Sweden who were visiting.  I was usually invited. On one such night he invited me to be his date to the 48th Academy Awards on Monday, March 29, 1976 which I accepted without hesitation.

Berteil Unger and I in 1975.

I was twenty-seven years old and while it is true I had gone to the Golden Globe Awards earlier that year, nothing could have been more glamorous or special than to go in person to the real deal.  Berteil had an identical twin brother, Gustav who was a producer.  Both were distinguished in stature but perhaps the most striking thing about them was the fact that both wore monocles.

My husband and I with L/Gustav, R/Berteil and Guns of Navarone producer Lou (w/wife Marilyn) Moorheim at our wedding reception in 1983.

I bought a long black gown (from Frederics of Hollywood, all I could afford, but lovely anyway) for the occasion and made a hair appointment for noon that Monday in Santa Monica, where my hairdresser was. It was to be a most exciting day for me.  Here I was in Los Angeles for six months and I was going to the most coveted of events, the Academy Awards. 

I had a longer shag haircut, very Jane Fonda, which was carefully blow-dried straight for me. The only problem was since the weather was unusually hot, I mean around 100º. As I made my way along the 101 freeway in heavy rush hour traffic, with no a/c in my car, I began to sweat heavily. As if it weren’t enough my car began to overheat. The only thing I could do was turn on my heater to relieve some of the engine heat and pray I would make it.  I sweated even more profusely besides being worried the car would break down and I would be late missing the awards. There were no cell phones in 1976.

I made it but me and my hair were hardly red carpet worthy. I quickly showered at Berteil’s, blew out my hair as best I could and slithered into my gown. When I was finally ready Berteil told me a lady friend of his and another Foreign Press member wanted me to feel special that night, to feel glamorous.  What it meant was she was loaning me her full length black mink coat to wear! Tears welled up in my eyes as he slipped it onto my shoulders, both from gratitude and the knowledge I also needed to make my entrance at the awards looking cool, calm and collected despite the heavy fur coat and the searing heat.

Soon we made our way out to his air-conditioned Cadillac. I absentmindedly reached into the pocket of the coat and found a note from the lender.

Indeed I would.  When we finally got to the red carpet and began the walk arm and arm into the venue the people in the stands were shouting out to me, “WHO are you?”  I just smiled knowing full well who I was; undoubtedly the luckiest girl in the world.

Once inside I realized we would be sitting in the balcony, about as far away from the stage as possible, but I didn’t care I was there.

                             And  the winners were:    

Best Picture:  Rocky

Best Actor:  Peter Finch for Network

Best Actress:  Faye Dunaway for Network

Supporting Actor:  Jason Robards for All The President’s Men

Supporting Actress: Beatrice Straight for Network