Betty Thomas, Billy Crystal & The Curious Case Of The Emmy-Thieving Imposter — SkimNews
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- Barry Bremen, a 38-year-old Detroit marketing executive, crashed the 37th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 22, 1985, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium — gaining entry by calling ABC, claiming to be a journalist, and paying $300 for a third-row ticket.
- When presenter Peter Graves announced Betty Thomas as winner of Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Hill Street Blues, Bremen stood up and accepted the statuette, telling Graves, 'No, I'll take it,' before walking off with it.
- Bremen nearly got caught when Billy Crystal recognized him in the audience, but the recent Saturday Night Live breakout chose not to report him to security.
- Bremen's Emmy caper was the culmination of a six-year career of impostor stunts, including posing as a player at NBA and MLB All-Star Games starting in 1979, umpiring Game Five of the 1980 World Series, working as a line judge at Super Bowl XV, and dancing alongside the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in a blonde wig.
- Bremen had previously tried and failed to crash the 1980 Oscars (chickening out when Melvyn Douglas won Best Supporting Actor) and attempted the Emmys twice before bailing — the 1985 ceremony was his third successful entry.
- His exploits made him a minor celebrity, landing him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, the Today Show, Larry King's radio show, a Michelob Light commercial, and Bowling for Dollars.
- Sportswriter Jeremy Schaap, whose father Dick Schaap was a longtime Bremen friend, wrote and narrated ESPN's 2022 E60 documentary 'The Great Imposter and Me' chronicling Bremen's career.
Why it matters: Bremen exploited pre-9/11 lax security to repeatedly infiltrate major sporting events and ultimately walk onstage at a televised Emmys, stealing Betty Thomas's award via a $300 fake-press-credential scam. His brazen exploits later inspired ESPN's 2022 documentary and revealed how porous celebrity-event protocols let a charismatic outsider hijack one of television's biggest nights.
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