Emcee David Niven's voice seems slightly slurred. Although he excuses it with a joke to the audience at the beginning, he doesn't offer an explanation, describing it as "parrot-like." Niven was secretly suffering from ASL, a debilitating disease which would take his life two years later.
Robert Wagner and then wife Natalie Wood were both in attendance, as honoree Fred Astaire had played Wagner's father in the series It Takes a Thief (1968) and both actors were also in the all-star cast of The Towering Inferno (1974) for which Astaire received his only Oscar nomination. The evening was also a reunion for Wagner with James Cagney, his co-star from three decades earlier in the film What Price Glory (1952), although Wagner had not been present for Cagney's own AFI career tribute special--AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to James Cagney (1974)--although Wagner, Wood and Cagney were all present for one Oscar telecast of the past--The 31st Annual Academy Awards (1959)--which was introduced by another "Towering Inferno" actor, William Holden. Wagner and Wood were in their second marriage to each other at the point of this Astaire tribute, after an interim marriage to somebody else for each, and would remain husband and wife until Natalie's shocking drowning death later that year.