The first Oscars lasted 15 minutes – plus other surprises in 95 years of awards

You read that right – only 15 minutes. The first Oscar ceremony took place in May 1929 in the Blooming Hall of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. At the end of a private black tie banquet, leading actor Douglas Fairbanks announced the first ever winners of the golden statuettes.

All recipients that year were silent films except for one: jazz singer, starring Al Jolson. The main prize of 1929 went to Wingsan airplane movie that looks like one of this year’s best picture nominees, Top Shooter: Maverick.

The following year, the Academy Award for Outstanding Production went to a war film. All Quiet on the Western Front (a remake of this film is also in contention this year). In a 1930 newsreel footage, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer solemnly congratulates film producer Carl Laemmle, saying, “Sorry, I didn’t win, Mr. Laemmle. I don’t know anyone I would rather defeat. than you.”

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As the silent film era came to an end and talkies began, Mayer came up with the idea of ​​the Academy for Hollywood as it was originally known.

“He was afraid of the union movement that was spreading across the country, and he didn’t want the film industry to be unionized,” says Bruce Davis, former CEO of the Academy for 30 years.. “So he thought, ‘Somehow we’re going to have this organization and we’ll all just come to meetings and talk about our sorrows and problems.'”

Davis, author Academy and award, says that in the late 1920s, writers, directors, actors, and other members of the new Academy did not trust Mayer’s anti-unionist group. They soon formed their own guilds, and Davies says the Academy almost closed in 1933.

“In the end, the Academy had to agree to completely abandon the labor business,” says Davis.

Instead, the organization focused on handing out the Oscars, as the statuettes were later nicknamed. Radio stations and newsreels began to cover the ceremonies for cinephiles enamored with Hollywood glitz and glamour.

In 1939, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actress to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in gone With the Wind. McDaniel rose from her seat at a separate table to accept the award for Best Supporting Actress.

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“I sincerely hope that I will always do honor to my race and the film industry,” she said, wiping away her tears.

Over the years, the Oscars have been marked by scandals and feuds… like the famous rivalry between sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland, who despised each other and vied for the Best Actress Oscar in 1942. Hitchcock film Suspicion.)

The ceremonies continued into the infamous McCarthy era, when many Hollywood writers were blacklisted as suspected communists. It all turned upside down in 1957 when the winner for Best Picture was announced: Robert Rich, screenwriter Bravea story about a mexican boy and his pet bull.

Someone else accepted the award on his behalf. “Then no one could find this guy. And that’s because it didn’t exist,” says Michael Shulman, staff writer for the magazine. New Yorker and author of a new book The Oscar Wars: A Hollywood Story in Gold, Sweat and Tears.

Robert Rich was the pseudonym of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was imprisoned for disobeying the House Un-American Activities Committee.

“He realized that there was a contradiction, that all these people – suspected communists – were blacklisted, and yet they all worked,” Shulman says. “They were writing films under fake names and now they were getting awards.”

Shulman says it was one of the many Hollywood scandals Oscar exposed.

In 1953, the Oscars began to be televised with host Bob Hope, who joked, “Isn’t it great to know that there will be a lot of these glamorous stars in your homes tonight? TV where movies die. .”

The ceremonies are notorious for their length. But in 1959, the show ended 20 minutes short. So host Jerry Lewis had to improvise with chips and pieces to fill the airtime.

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“Now we’d like to do 300 ‘There’s no business like show business’ choruses,” he said before taking over the baton to lead the band at the Pantages Theatre.

“Lewis again invited all the winners and participants of the show to the stage, and they felt like idiots. So they started dancing with each other,” Davis laughs. “And it still won’t work. Then people will start sneaking off the stage.”

In the remaining minutes, NBC played a sports replay.

Davis says one of the most poignant moments in Oscar history was when
Charlie Chaplin, who started out in silent films, received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972.

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“He almost got kicked out of the country because his politics seemed too far away for the American public,” says Davis. “So having him come back to receive an honorary award and be accepted by the entire industry was clearly very touching.”

The audience gave Chaplin a 12-minute standing ovation.

The following year, the crowd booed when Marlon Brando sent Sachin Littlefeather on stage to waive the Best Actor award because of the “treatment of American Indians” by the film industry.

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Years later, Littlefeather recalled security guards escorting him backstage at the Oscars. She said that for years, Hollywood boycotted her, calling it a “red list.” Finally, almost 50 years later, the Academy formally apologized to Littlefeather for the abuse she was subsequently subjected to because of her appearance at the Oscars.

In 1974, the Oscars audience squealed as gay activist Robert Opel raced naked across the stage. Stricker prompted presenter David Niven to joke, “Probably the only laugh a man will ever get in his life is to get naked and show his flaws.”

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In 1985, Best Actress winner Sally Field delivered one of the most memorable speeches at the Oscars. “I can’t deny the fact that you like me,” she said. “Right now you like me!”

Shulman says there were other nasty moments, such as the opening number in 1989 when actor Rob Lowe sings a duet with the live-action movie Snow White.

Schulman says the 11-minute over-the-top opening was a flop for flamboyant producer Allan Carr, who previously produced musicals. Lubricant And La Cage aux Folles.

“When things went badly, there was a scapegoat effect,” Shulman says. “He was effectively ostracized for days. And he never recovered. It ruined his career. It ruined his life.”

In the past decade, the Oscars have had a racial reckoning after being criticized for not giving awards to actors and directors of color. The #OscarsSoWhite movement led to this confusion in 2017:

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“There was a rookie from Pricewaterhouse that year who was too caught up in being backstage with the all-stars and was clearly distracted from his job,” Davis explains. “He gave the host the wrong envelope.”

On stage, host Warren Beatty looked at the envelope in puzzlement. Faye Dunaway then announced the final winner of the evening: La La Land.

Producer Jordan Horowitz first accepted the award surrounded by actors. Then, after much confusion on stage, he returned to the microphone.

“Soorry, no. Here is an error: Moonlight. You guys won the best shot,” Horowitz said before showing the cameras the card with the correct winner. “I’m not kidding. Moonlight won the best picture.

Last year’s winners were eclipsed by a showdown with Best Actor nominee Will Smith, who took the stage and slapped host Chris Rock after he joked about Smith’s wife’s hair.

Editor’s note: This video contains language that may be offensive.

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After delivering a slap that was seen and heard around the world, Smith sat down in his seat and shouted obscenities at The Rock. Smith won the Best Actor award for his lead role in King Richardbut the Academy punished him by banning him from their events for 10 years.

Shulman says that anything can happen during a live performance: “Whether it’s a slap in the face or just something really touching, someone is living their dream.” He says that so many Oscars are “wrapped in this kind of celebrity, like the absurdity of ‘you like me’ and then boom! Something is going on that will shock your system a little.”

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