Reflections on First Oscars

The first Academy Awards:
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
Source: en.wikipedia.org

With today being the eve of Oscar Night weekend, let's step back in time to a few firsts in Oscar, aka Academy Award, history. It is not only interesting, but fascinating, to see the changes that have taken place throughout many decades of movieland.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1927 and 1928. It took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Tickets cost five dollars, 270 people attended the event and the presentation ceremony lasted fifteen minutes. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not to be broadcast either on radio or television.

Wings (1927 Silent Film): 

Best Picture

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927 Silent Film): 

Unique and Artistic Production

First Televised Oscars Opening (1953)

Bob Hope's Oscars opening monologue at the first televised Academy Awards® on March 19, 1953. Introduced by Charles Brackett.


First Oscar Awards Ceremony in Color (1966)

Bob Hope's opening monologue at the first Academy Awards® televised in color, on April 18, 1966.

 

• Youngest winner of an Oscar
  • Shirley Temple, age 6, who was awarded the inaugural (now retired) non-competitive Academy Juvenile Award in 1934.
  
  
  
  

• First X-rated film to win Best Picture
  • Midnight Cowboy (1969). It was also the first X-rated film to be nominated for Best Picture & the only one to date to have won it.
  
  
  
  

• Shortest performance to win an acting Oscar
  • Beatrice Straight in Network (1976) - 5 minutes and 2 seconds.

 Do you ever wonder "What does it REALLY take to win an Oscar?"

COMPARISON of 1929 to 2013

1st Academy Awards Ceremony: $5 per ticket
# people attending: 270
15 min presentation

85th Academy Awards Ceremony (2013): 
Scalped tickets sold for as much as $30,000 - $40,000
Estimated 77.92 million total viewers
Scheduled for 3 hours

If you missed the link at the beginning of the post, 

click Oscar Night 2014...