The Surprising, Queer History of the 1974 Oscars Streaker

Explicit content warning

03/10/23 • 38 min

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The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran across the stage butt naked, right as the Best Picture category was being announced. New Yorker magazine writer and Oscars aficionado Michael Schulman recounts the queer, wonderful, and historic life of the 1974 Oscars streaker.

You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/what-became-of-the-oscar-streaker

You can find Michael Schulman’s new book Oscar Wars here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/what-became-of-the-oscar-streaker

You can find Michael Schulman’s new book Oscar Wars here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The New Etiquette Rules

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Tipping. Dinner parties. Canceling plans. We could all use an etiquette guide that teaches us to live without pissing people off. Luckily, New York Magazine has one – and it went viral. We (politely) asked Choire Sicha, who edited that guide, to come on our show.

You can read the full list from New York Magazine here: https://www.thecut.com/article/tipping-rules-etiquette-rules.html

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Story of the Week with Joel Stein - The Surprising, Queer History of the 1974 Oscars Streaker

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:15.263

Pushkin. I'm Michael Schulman, and I wrote Ballad of the Oscar Streaker for The New Yorker and it's the story of the Week. Five weeks before the two thousand and nine Oscars, I got a call from Hugh Jackman's producer.

Speaker 100:00:32.743

Jackman was hosting the show and he wanted to know if I would be one of the show's writers. Like so many things in my career, I figured somebody just made some kind of mistake. I