Oscar Night (Limited Edition): 75 Years of Hollywood Parties

by Graydon Carter, David Friend

This Special Limited Edition of Oscar Night
* A special page signed by the authors, Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and David Friend
* A unique, glossy red slipcase that matches the cover
* An 8 X 10 glossy photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow signed by celebrity photographer Jonathan Becker

From the first Academy Awards black-tie dinner dance in 1929 to the glittering Vanity Fair gala in 2004, from the 1940s gatherings at the most fashionable nightspots in Los Angeles–Ciro’s, Mocambo, Romanoff’s, Chasen’s–to the star-studded parties thrown by legendary agent Swifty Lazar from the 1960s to the 1990s, here is a photo history of all those events, presented by Graydon Carter and David Friend. More than five hundred archival and personal black-and-white and color photographs–many never seen before–have been collected in Oscar Night . There is an afterword by Dominick Dunne and a look at every detail, from menus to matchbooks to seating charts.

You’ll see intimate and unposed photographs of such classic icons as Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, Gloria Swanson, David O. Selznick, and Alfred Hitchcock, among many others, at the formal dinners of the 1930s through the 1950s. Here also are amazing photographs of another generation of icons at the exclusive Governors Jack Nicholson, John Travolta, and John Belushi, Dennis Hopper with Michelle Phillips, and a very young Ali MacGraw dancing with Robert Evans. And here is a mix of New York and Hollywood at Swifty’s parties, with pictures of Bianca Jagger, Sam Shepard, Michael Caine, David Geffen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Ahmet Erteguns. Here, too, is the Hollywood that gathers today at the Vanity Fair Oscar Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman, Scarlett Johansson, Charlize Theron, Sofia Coppola, Sigourney Weaver, Fran Lebowitz, Sean Combs, and Renée Zellweger.

Irresistibly sumptuous–and juicy– Oscar Night is a book full of elegance and egos, of glamorous pictures that you will want to look at again and again.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published October 26, 2004

About the author

Graydon Carter is a Canadian journalist, editor, and publisher best known for his tenure as editor of Vanity Fair from 1992 to 2017. Before joining the magazine, he co-founded the satirical publication Spy in 1986 alongside Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips. Under his leadership, Vanity Fair became known for its mix of celebrity profiles and investigative journalism, winning 14 National Magazine Awards and earning Carter a place in the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame.
Carter's editorial influence extended beyond print, as he played a key role in producing several documentaries, including Public Speaking (2010), His Way (2011), and Gonzo, a film about Hunter S. Thompson. He was also an executive producer of 9/11, a CBS documentary about the September 11 attacks, which won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award. In 2019, he co-launched the newsletter Air Mail with Alessandra Stanley, targeting a global readership.
Beyond journalism, Carter has been involved in the restaurant business, co-owning The Waverly Inn in New York and previously partnering in the historic Monkey Bar. His contributions to media and culture were recognized in 2017 when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.