With the 82nd Academy Awards on tomorrow night, I thought it only appropriate to do a post on the biggest night in movies.
-The first Academy Awards were on May 16th, 1929 at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. It was a private brunch with about 270 people in attendance.
-Since the first year it has been publicly broadcast on the radio, until 1953 when it started to be broadcasted on T.V.
-During the first decade of the awards, newspapers were given the results at 11 pm on the night of the awards. It was used until the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began. Because of this the Academy starting using a sealed envelope in 1941.
-Although their are 7 types of awards the most well known is the Oscar. The art director of MGM, Cedric Gibbons supervised the design of the statue, he needed a model for the statue and was introduced to Mexican film director Emilio Fernandez who agreed to pose nude for the statute.
-The original Oscar was a combination of copper and tin, and was gold-plated. During WWII the statutes were made of plaster to support the war effort and were traded for gold after the war.
-Since 1950 it has been required that the owner of the statute may not try to sell it, without first trying to sell it back to the Academy for 1.00.
