Oscar Night in Sonora By Greg Kristapovich
Paparazzi and tabloid reporters attack celebrities and VIPs as they enter the Opera Hall! Here, Zack Price (with microphone) and Jackie Grieff (with camcorder) attempt to get a scoop by grilling three “celebrities”, (left to right): Terry Gonzales, Susan Somers and Wanda Griffin. (The reporters are actually students of Connections Academy.)
They called it “Hollywood’s Big Night!” February 22nd! And for that night, Friends of the Tuolumne County Film Commission (FOTCFC) decorated the Sonora Opera Hall to look like the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, replete with illuminated six-foot tall “Oscar” statuettes (rice paper lanterns from IKEA), and a red carpet entrance! One by one, local celebrities, VIPs and everyday people arrived for the gala and were seated at lavishly decorated tables (centerpieces were replicas of directors’ clapboards!).
Attendees dined on a complete dinner featuring braised chicken breast, covered with demi-glaze sauce and stuffed with rice, butternut squash, leeks and raisins! (Prepared by Bannys). Wine was provided by Mt. Brow Winery. While dining, the movie fans watched a telecast of the 81st Academy Awards ceremony on a big screen television. And, during the time commercials would have ordinarily been viewed, trivia questions about movies – that were actually filmed in the Mother Lode – entertained the audience! During other commercials, song and dance was performed by a sixteen-member ensemble of the Connections Visual & Performing Arts Academy, an award-winning charter school based on the Summerville High School campus in Tuolumne City! This was a very special event says Jim O’Neil, Chairman of FOTCFC. “This event talks about the things that this county truly does culturally and historically. At one time, Tuolumne County was considered the back lot of MGM! Some of the most famous films have been filmed in this county! So there’s a very rich culture and rich history that we want to restore. And the way to do that, we thought, was to have an event like this!” Instrumental in this event, also, was Jerry Day, Tuolumne County Film Commissioner. What did he think of the Academy Awards? “It was incredibly predictable, but some people picked Mickey Rourke to beat out Sean Penn, but all the other favorites won. Slumdog Millionaire was expected to roll, and if Heath Ledger had not won for best supporting actor, I think there would have been riots on Hollywood Boulevard!” What a night!
