We're likely well past the point of believing that the Oscars are some sacred ceremony on the level of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. Mixing up the best picture in 2017, the truly baffling duet between Rob Lowe and Snow White in 1989,Seth MacFarlane singing about actresses' breasts in 2013, or Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage just last year, the Academy Awards have had no shortage of truly undignified moments. I guess that's live television for you, trying to balance commemorating what's supposed to be the best of prestige cinema and keeping the attention of the average viewer.
Some are failed attempts at fun and hijinks, some have been those in attendance going rogue, and more innocent ones that are fondly remembered are just happy accidents. But there is one moment that doesn't quite fit into any category. So we all know what streaking is, right? Anyone who keeps up with events involving massive crowds and live cameras would be familiar with the idea of someone stripping down to their birthday suit and taking a lap. It's a concept we're all so weirdly used to, just a casual display of public nudity in front of people who did not ask to witness it. Wrestlemania almost had one, many sporting events have had quite infamous moments that'll I'll let you look up for yourself, and yes, the Academy Awards had a streaker.
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So let's break down what the audience saw on that fateful night in 1974, at The 46th Academy Awards. The ceremony's host, actor David Niven, was introducing Elizabeth Taylor who was presenting the award for Best Picture, the seminal part of the night that The Sting would end up winning. Niven was making a speech about how the world was, quote, "having a bit of a nervous breakdown," and that film provides an escape from the harshness of reality. You hear a bit of commotion coming from the crowd, then from stage right, there he is. A man wearing nothing but his mustache runs across the screen, throws up a peace sign, then just vanishes off-camera without saying a word. Niven, after having a bit of a chuckle and maintaining a truly ungodly amount of composure as the orchestra plays on cue and then abruptly stops, tells the crowd: "Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen... But isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?" And the show continues as if nothing happened.
Pats on the back for Niven, for keeping his cool in such a strange situation, the one behind the camera who made sure the streaker's extremities didn't end up on live television, and for The Oscars' official YouTube channel, which has archived this moment and put it online for everyone to see. It wasn't a train wreck by any means. When we get a view of the crowd, everyone seems to have a sense of humor about it, but it happened. And the fact is that someone — a surprisingly fascinating person to research named Robert Opel —was able to pull it off.
How Does Someone Manage To Streak At The Oscars?
Before we go into the man himself, it's important to mention that this would've been quite the operation. It's one thing to sneak into the Oscars, but to make it on stage, strip, and run across? That must have been some Ocean's 11 business behind the scenes, and it kind of was. For this to work, Opel had to sneak past security, pose as a journalist, and cut through quite an expensive piece curtain that would be used for projected images, and then make it to the other side of the stage.
With all of that said, the property damage, the public indecency, why then was Opel answering to the press at the end of his night rather than, say, the police or event security? This is where the all-but-confirmed theory comes in: That this was all, as they say in the wrestling business, a work. That it was encouraged by producer Jack Haley Jr, that Niven had written the one-liner before he came up to present, the fact that instead of carting him out of the building they re-dressed him and let him speak backstage. It holds water, needless to say, but it's difficult to entirely buy into because if it was all staged, why would they allow such a new and expensive piece of equipment, the backdrop, to be destroyed? It's certainly one of the more harmless conspiracies to wrap your head around, like cinema crypto-zoology.
The Man Behind The Moment
Robert Opel: who really was this guy, the 1974 Oscars Streaker? Before this incident occurred, he was far from just a nobody. Opel was known as being something of a provocateur in a staunchly homophobic society, already changing the spelling of his last name to keep his family uninvolved. He was incredibly involved in queer counter-culture at the time, rubbing elbows with John Waters and Divine as a part-time photographer for The Advocate. The Academy Awards wasn't even his debut as a streaker; he would protest Los Angeles council meetings the same way.
Opel acknowledged that streaking at the Oscars would be one hell of a thing to kickstart his career, and while he did have quite a good resume within the California LGBTQ community, he got some mainstream attention as a rogue. He appeared on The Mike Douglas Show as a guest, where he announced he would be running for president, with slogans that took shots at Richard Nixon such as "Not Another Crooked Dick." (We'd vote for him.)
This story, however, does not have a happy ending. Fast-forward to 1979, a year after Harvey Milk was assassinated, and his killer Dan White was only given a seven-year sentence. Opel opened a queer-centered art gallery in 1978 in San Francisco, Fey Way Studios, which gave an audience to artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe. On July 7, 1979, burglars had broken into his studio, and in a confrontation, shot and killed Opel. He was 39 years old, and Fey Way Studios closed soon after. For a more in-depth analysis of the life and career of Opel, his nephew, also named Robert Oppel, made a 2010 documentary titled Uncle Bob, with Oppel and curator Rick Castro briefly revitalizing Fey Way, and Opel's legacy.
When looking at weird historical stories, or weird cinema stories, it's all too easy to look at it in a vacuum. This was a strange little blip in history, a fun story to tell your friends or to read about online. The disastrous production of a film, the mysterious death of an actor, curses, and conspiracy theories. So when you look at the title of this article, about someone streaking at the Academy Awards, there's a temptation to look at this moment the same way, I sure did before I started researching for this article. But I urge you to look into the man behind the moment, and what a small, but undeniably tangible impact he had on LGBTQ+ history, and you'll find a tale far more interesting.
