25 Years Ago

To nobody's surprise, Fonda called out Hoffman's name, and he kissed his girlfriend, his mother, Justin Henry, Meryl Streep, and Jack Lemmon on his way to the stage. Looking at his first Oscar, he said, ''He has no genitalia, and he's holding a sword. I'd like to thank my parents for not practicing birth control. I'm up here with mixed feelings. I've been critical of the Academy, and for reason. I refuse to believe that I beat Jack Lemmon, that I beat Al Pacino, that I beat Peter Sellers.'' After thanking all the people with whom he worked on the picture, Hoffman jerked a few more tears. ''We are a part of an artistic family. There are 60,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild, and most actors don't work.... A few of us are so lucky to have the chance. And to that artistic family that strives for excellence, none of you have ever lost, and I am proud to share this with you, and I thank you.''

EVERYBODY LOVES RAE

What must Richard Dreyfuss have been thinking that night? He had left the role Roy Scheider played in All That Jazz and was replaced by Michael Douglas in the part of the TV newsman in The China Syndrome. And now Fonda was among the nominees he was reading, along with Sally Field, Jill Clayburgh (who had also turned down Norma Rae), Bette Midler, and Marsha Mason. Opening the envelope, Dreyfuss tried to joke, ''I'm not going to tell ya.'' When he called out Sally Field's name and she rushed to the stage, you had to wonder if she was shaking her fist at Dreyfuss or in triumph.

And what must Burt Reynolds have been thinking that night? Actually, he did reveal to a reporter what it was: ''I sat home alone like a wounded Citizen Kane, visualizing [Field] dancing with Dustin Hoffman at the Academy ball. After that, nothing was the same.''

HOLY MOSES

There were four pictures — All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Norma Rae — competing with Kramer vs. Kramer, but the result was preordained, and who better to deliver the news than Charlton Heston? After he called on Kramer vs. Kramer to enter the Promised Land of Oscar winners, the telecast broke up to the tune of ''That's Entertainment,'' and the party moved next door for the Governors Ball. There, Meryl Streep temporarily misplaced her Oscar — in the ladies' room. ''How could I have done that?'' she screamed.

Now, there's a question a lot of the voters should've been asking.