8/14/2019 Former Student's Night at the Oscars - Union - March 2006

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i worked my first Academy Awar4s in 1996. But it was

notbing like my return engagement this year.

The first time around, I was new to L.A. I' d arrived

from Mass achusetts less than a year before, and landed a

job slinging booze at Olto's Grill and B eer Bar, a eafe in the

ground-level space at the Music Center in downtown Los

Angeles.

The Academy Awards were being held on site that year

at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and I was scheduled to

work. After only a few short months in town, I found myself

working L.A. 's biggest, most star-studded event.

II was excited.

On show day, I anived to the restaurant early, in a crisp

white shirt, my best black pants and got right to work. I

lugged umpteen ice buckets, stacked dozens of champagne

cases and cut a mountain of fresh fruit.

I also stole a moment for myself, sneaking outside the

backstage door to look around and take it all in.Throngs of spectators lined the sidewalks. A steady

stream of media types moved in and out of the crowds

while policemen lined the limo-filled streets. When I turned

around to get back to work, singer Lyle Lovett opened the

door for me and tipped his hat.

I was living exactly the kind of amazing adventure I' d

only dreamed about back home.

Another dream I'd had back home was college. No one

in my family had been able to pull it off. Seemed there was

always too much work to do, too many mOllths to feed, too

many bills to pay.

I came to California, because I'd heard a rumor that col

lege here was free and open to all. After arriving, I learnedthat while this wasn't exactly true, there was some truth

e t's night the Osc ,rs

PEN

to the tale. While not free, community college was at least

affordable for working stiffs, and anyone who could drag

themselves to class was welcome to sign up.

So during the day, I dragged myse lf in to joumalism

classes at EI Camino. At night, I made martinis.

Last weekend, I had my second tum at the Oscars.

Again I showed up early, ready to work and wearing

black, but this time in a formal gown, not a waiter's uni

form. This time I covered the event from behind the scenes,

in the Kodak Theatre's pressroom as a repOlier for the Daily

Breeze, not making martinis.

During the show, I nervously kept one eye and ear on

the TV broadcast and the other eye and ear on the trophy

winning movie stars, who came to the pressroom to answer

reporters' questions. But I was so busy, I didn 't ask any

questions. I furiously scribbled notes and copied downquotes as fast as I could.

After the Oscar broadcast concluded, I had just one

hour to write and file a news story that would run the next

day on the front page to be read by tens of thousands of

people. There was no time to waste, so I started writing.

Hundreds of other journalists from around the world were

doing likewise, and the loud sound of keys clicking filled

the room. It sounded like an avalanche of pebbles.

The deadline quickly drew near, but I again stole a mo

ment to look around.

Well-known movie critic Roger Ebert was seated 10

feet away, sharing a table with a reporter from the Boston

Herald, a newspaper I' d grown up reading. Pulitzer Prize

winning stOlyteller Larry McMurtry was close enough to

Former EC journal-

ism student Kate

Mclaughlin gets

dressed up to cover

the Oscars for the

Daily Breeze.

Photograph

courtesy of Kate

McLaughlln.

say, "Howdy," and George Clooney was near enough for me

to lose all concentration. FOliunately. I held it together and

filed my story in time to run in the paper the next day.

I'm looking forward to the Oscar!> n ~ x t   year, and thanks

to what I learned at EI Camino, I'll probably go back.

Thanks to EI Camino, my job is no longer mindless labor.

But also, thanks to EI Camino, working the Oscars was

a lot more nerve-wracking than it was the first time.

Work that requires thinking is a lot harder than work

centered on drinking, but it's a lot more rewarding in the

end. Bartenders don't get bylines.

-Kate McLaughlin,Daily Breeze reporter