Oscar Presenter Opened Envelope — said Al Pacino's name, then PAUSED and changed it to someone else

He was a veteran. Hosted the Oscars four times. Never hesitated. Never froze. Until 1976.
Best Actor category. The envelope opened. The presenter started reading. "Al Paci—" and stopped. Mid-syllable. His smile changed. His eyes dropped. He kept reading something else. Something written below the winner's name.
Eleven seconds passed. Eleven seconds where the most experienced Oscar host in history couldn't speak. Where his lips moved but no words came out. Where 3,000 people in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion watched him struggle with something nobody understood.
Then he looked up. Smiled differently. And said "Jack Nicholson."
But if you watch the broadcast—the one that aired that night, the one that's been replayed for 50 years—those 11 seconds are gone. Replaced with audience reaction shots. Edited out. ABC called it technical difficulties. The Academy said the raw footage was lost in a vault fire.
The presenter never hosted the Oscars again. Never explained what he saw. Took it to his grave in 1994. But before he died, he said five words to a journalist: "I read what they wrote."
What was written on that card besides Jack Nicholson's name? Why did the presenter freeze when he started to say Pacino? Why has ABC never released the unedited footage? And why did Al Pacino wait 17 years before attending the Oscars again?
This is the story of the 11 seconds nobody saw. The footage that was erased. And the secret a veteran presenter carried to his grave.
🎬 TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - "Al Paci—" Then Silence
2:30 - March 29, 1976: The Biggest Night
5:45 - The Veteran Who Never Made Mistakes
8:20 - Fourth Row: Pacino Heard It
12:10 - The 11 Seconds ABC Cut Forever
15:40 - The Presenter Who Never Hosted Again
19:15 - "I Read What They Wrote"
22:30 - 1993: Pacino's Return and What He Asked For
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