Behind the scenes at the Oscars with the first Corkman nominated (no, not Cillian)

Cork filmmaker Louis Marcus was nominated for Academy Awards in 1974 and 1976. His eventful trips to both ceremonies included encounters with Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, and Ava Gardner 

Elizabeth Taylor and others onstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1976 for the Academy Awards, an event also attended by Cork nominee Louis Marcus.  (Photo by ABC/Disney via Getty Images) 

Mae West and Groucho Marx were two of the elder celebrities treading the red carpet when Cork film-maker Louis Marcus first attended the Oscars 50 years ago.

The two former vaudeville stars whose careers stretched back as far as the 1929 inception of the Academy Awards when ‘talkies’ were in their infancy, were among the great and the good of Hollywood making an appearance as Marcus represented Ireland’s nascent film industry after receiving the first of two Oscar nominations.