Do we watch to see who wins or do we secretly watch to see who is wearing what?

I'm glad to see there has been a return to glamor.
For as long as I can remember it was one of my favorite nights of the year. I especially am fond of those years when Johnny Carson hosted the show. I am always very sad when they show the tributes to people in show business that have passed away during the year.
I am certain there will be mention of two stars that we lost this past week, Don Knotts and Dennis Weaver. There have been surprises along the way too, remember when Elizabeth Taylor had a streaker run across the stage?


Soon after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in 1927, a committee of seven members was given the task of creating an Academy Awards presentation. Though the idea was shelved for nearly a year due to other pressing Academy issues, the plans for an awards ceremony presented by the Awards committee were accepted in May 1928.

It was decided that all films released from August 1, 1927, through July 31, 1928, would be eligible for the first Academy Awards.



The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929. It was a quiet affair compared to the glamor and glitz that accompany the ceremonies of today.
Two hundred and fifty people attended the black-tie banquet that evening in the Blossom Room of Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Though this was the first time these awards were to be given, the attendees were not anxious. Unlike the secrecy that surrounds the winners of today's ceremonies, the winners of the first Academy Award ceremony were announced three months early.



After everyone had eaten dinner, Douglas Fairbanks, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, stood up and gave a speech. Then, with the help of William C. deMille, he called the winners up to the head table and handed them their awards.

The statuettes that were presented to the first Academy Awards winners were nearly identical to those handed out today.

The very first person to receive an Academy Award didn't attend the first Academy Awards ceremony. Emil Jannings, the winner for best actor, had decided to go back to his home in Germany before the ceremony. Before he left for his trip, Jannings was handed the very first Academy Award.



The Academy Award (Oscar) is the main national film award in the USA. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization composed of over 6,000 motion picture craftsmen and women. (as of 1999) The Oscar statuette has been designed by Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley. Each statuette is made from the alloy britannium and is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24-karat gold and is manufactured by R.S. Owens and Company in Chicago.
It stands 13-1/2 inches tall and weighs 8-1/2 pounds. The Oscar depicts a knight, holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy (actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers.)

How Oscar received his nickname is not exactly clear. The most popular story is that Margaret Herrick, an Academy employee and eventual executive director, remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the Academy staff began to refer to it by that name. Whatever the actual origin of the nickname, it was well enough known by 1934 that Walt Disney supposedly used it during an acceptance speech that year.

Although journalists used the nickname with increasing frequency during the late 1930s, the Academy did not officially use the name Oscar until 1939.

Some winners for best picture that you may remember:

Mutiny on the Bounty 1935
Gone With The Wind 1939
On the Waterfront 1954
My Fair Lady 1964
The Godfather 1972
Driving Miss Daisy 1989
Forrest Gump 1994
Titanic 1997

By the time you all are reading this the winner of best picture for this year will have been announced. It might just be a tale of Gay Cowboys, but I'm kind of rooting for George Clooney... so like the title of the movie says...

"Goodnight and Good luck"




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