On this day in 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences hands out its first awards, at a dinner party for around 250
people held in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood,
California.The brainchild of Louis B. Mayer, head of the powerful MGM film studio, the Academy was organized in May 1927 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and improvement of the film industry. Its first president and the host of the May 1929 ceremony was the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Unlike today, the winners of the first Oscars--as the coveted gold-plated statuettes later became known--were announced before the awards ceremony itself.
At the time of the first Oscar ceremony, sound had just been introduced into film. The Warner Bros. movie The Jazz Singer--one
of the first "talkies"--was not allowed to compete for Best Picture
because the Academy decided it was unfair to let movies with sound
compete with silent films. The first official Best Picture winner (and
the only silent film to win Best Picture) was Wings, directed by
William Wellman. The most expensive movie of its time, with a budget of
$2 million, the movie told the story of two World War I pilots who fall
for the same woman. Another film, F.W. Murnau's epic Sunrise, was
considered a dual winner for the best film of the year. German actor
Emil Jannings won the Best Actor honor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh,
while 22-year-old Janet Gaynor was the only female winner. After
receiving three out of the five Best Actress nods, she won for all three
roles, in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise.
A special honorary award was presented to Charlie Chaplin. Originally
a nominee for Best Actor, Best Writer and Best Comedy Director for The Circus,
Chaplin was removed from these categories so he could receive the
special award, a change that some attributed to his unpopularity in
Hollywood. It was the last Oscar the Hollywood maverick would receive
until another honorary award in 1971.The Academy officially began using the nickname Oscar for its awards in 1939; a popular but unconfirmed story about the source of the name holds that Academy executive director Margaret Herrick remarked that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar. Since 1942, the results of the secret ballot voting have been announced during the live-broadcast Academy Awards ceremony using the sealed-envelope system. The suspense--not to mention the red-carpet arrival of nominees and other stars wearing their most beautiful or outrageous evening wear--continues to draw international attention to the film industry's biggest night of the year.
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history [16.05.12]
If you have been to the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Blvd, you can feel this emotional monument to American communications and the First Amendment to our Constitution. The Roosevelt is a living legend.
ReplyDeleteIn the center of the dance floor of the main ballroom at the Roosevelt where the first Academy Awards were held, there is supposed to be a "mysterious cold spot" no one can explain.
If you love American history, you must take some time and sit in the 1920s lobby of this historic hotel. You can feel the presence of this icon of the American communications industry. Some of the greatest films America ever produced began in the cocktail lounge, the Cinegrill.
Thank you Berk T. Its one of my biggest dreams to visit America and see some of the historical sites I have been reading about. I love American history because of the way America went about recording their history over all the years. Here in South Africa we have a rich history as well, but some of the history is very vague because of the lack of documenting it over the years.
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