Hecht's Best Picture Oscar statue was presented to him by Audrey Hepburn. His acceptance speech is among the most memorable and most quoted; "It's very fortunate to live in a country where any man, no matter how humble his origins, can become a president, and to be part of an industry where any picture, no matter how low its budget, can win an Oscar. All of us who worked on "Marty" are especially fortunate for this great honor, for to us, from the very beginning, it was a labor of love. Thank you". In November 1959 "Marty" was the first American film to be screened in the USSR following World War II. It was personally selected by Russian politicians as part of a Soviet-American cultural exchange program, and Hecht was asked by President Eisenhower to travel to Russia for the screening of the film. In 1994 "Marty" was selected by the National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. "Marty" was also one of the many films considered by Hecht-Lancaster Productions to be made into a television show. An original pilot was made with Shecky Greene in the late 1950s and later (unrelated to Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions) with Tom Bosley. Neither were sold to the networks.