“Niven had a good comeback for the streaker. I wonder if he knew ahead of time it would happen.”
Since security is so tight at the Oscars, I imagine that the streaker
had help getting inside.
Which increases imho the chance that Niven knew he was coming.
I doubt it because security was NOT that tight in that era. Some high profile celebrities had body guards, but security was mostly rent-a-cops. I can see this idiot going to a close off-stage men' room and then doing his streak.
That was a classic Oscars that I watched, and Niven stopped his speech after wondering what the crowd was laughing at. He caught the idiot out the corner of his eye and then looked. Niven had a big pause and a confused look and smiled and said something like, "Guess he showed us his short-comings". Yes, he was an actor, but to me it looked spontaneous. Streaking was the thing back then. I never got the humor of it with those dumb asses.
No, I don't watch any of the self-aggrandizing award shows anymore...haven't for years since Billy Crystal who was actually funny. His thing was like a roast on the attending celebrities instead of some political crap.