For the past 25 years, Dency Nelson has been the last person Hollywood royalty see before strutting on stage at the Academy Awards and this year, after over two decades of ushering stars to the stage, was his last.
“I said, drink it in — I’m not going to be here next year,” said Nelson, 61.
As a stage manager, the Hermosa Beach resident is the eyes, ears and voice of the show’s director. Earlier in the year, Nelson received the Directors Guild of America Franklin J. Schaffner Award for service. He’s worked in the entertainment industry for over 40 years and has met just about everybody there is to meet, except John Wayne.
“I’ve met world leaders, I’ve met every president since Jimmy Carter, it goes on and on and on and it’s been very gratifying,” Nelson said. “This year [at the Oscars] so many came to me – Michael Douglass and Meryl Streep and Halle Berry and all those people I’ve been working with – came to me with a big smile and a hug and said, ‘Oh my God we’re going to miss you, you won’t be here next year.’ And I just said back to them, ‘You are who I’m going to miss.’”
Nelson started working as a mail clerk for the American Film Institute after graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in theatre and in 1976 became Merv Griffin’s cue card guy. He eventually moved to New York to pursue acting but continued holding cue cards for the original “Saturday Night Live” and the “Morning David Letterman Show.”
He also appeared as an extra in various movies from 1978 to ’81.
“Most notably I am crossing Park Avenue in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan,” carrying an attaché case,” Nelson said. “It’s some of my finest work. You can actually spot me about halfway through the film. Mike Murphy’s on a pay phone and there I am, the 25-year-old version of me, crossing the street.”
He decided to give up acting and follow a different path with Letterman.
“It was really, truly some of the most fun I’ve had in my entire life,” said Nelson. “Doing the cue cards and being part of the Dave Show… I even got fan mail, mostly from prisoners, but it was with Dave that I decided that even though we knew the morning show wasn’t going to last we knew that Dave was something special and he was going to come back and I was determined to be his stage manager.”
In 1981, Nelson was part of the crew that launched Lance Armstrong onto TV announcing the hit new TV station, MTV.
“It gave me credibility for the job that I was pursuing when Dave came back, which we all knew he would.”
Since then, he’s been backstage for everything from the opening and closing ceremonies of both the Atlanta and Salt Lake City Olympics, numerous Democratic National Conventions and Christmas at the White House as well as most major award ceremonies.
“It was difficult enough doing the Grammy’s in the 1985 in the Shrine Auditorium, but now just about all of these shows are done in Staples, which is why we need all these stage managers,” said Nelson. “Quite frankly, we’re doing three shows at a time. We have a center stage where the awards are happening and a full working crew on stage right with production and all the production elements… We tell the performers what they’re doing and we tell the stage crew when to move things and where to move things and if they’re pyrotechnics and there’s scenery flying in-and-out. It’s like air traffic control.”
For each show Nelson has a book of run-downs, or what he calls a “flight check.”
“For the Grammy’s, which is a very complicated set, there’s levels and literally pits to fall into,” said Nelson. “I fell into one last year and I still I have a bruise. I have all kinds of scars from this job believe it or not; it’s a physically demanding job. Plus I’m responsible for the safety of these folks, and it’s not about me, it’s about them — and it’s time to quit.”
Nelson has had the longest run of anybody working the stage-right wing of the Oscars.
“That’s a great spot,” explained Nelson. “There are people who have and will do the Oscars longer than 25 years, but none will do that job longer than me.”
A day before the actual show, Nelson walks the presenters through their paces to practice for the big day.
“I’d say 90 percent of them don’t know my name, but they say, ‘Oh that guy, that guy who’s here every year. I’ve got nothing to worry about. He’s going to tell me exactly what to do and where to go and I’m in good hands.’ That’s very gratifying.”
Being involved in the entertainment industry for so long has allowed Nelson to observe the industry changes first-hand.
“I was privileged to do those shows and be around Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck,” Nelson said. “I’ll admit it, I love and I miss the elegance of folks like Gregory Peck. It was thrilling for me to be working for them… and there were times I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m standing here with these folks…’ But that’s why it’s time to move on; these shows just aren’t produced the way they used to be.”
“I’ve said so many times, why am I coming back and doing the Oscars this year? Last year was perfect,” said Nelson. “I had fun and anything can happen and if it happens this year it’s going to stay with me for the rest of my life — well, I did it, I got away with a clean getaway.” B
