To commemorate the most pretentious night in entertainment, I have poured through many documents and historical accounts to come up with a mostly accurate history of the Academy Awards. Enjoy.
In 1926/27 Louis Mayer and some of his friends formed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It appears as though the “Arts and Sciences” were thrown into the title as a way to make everything sound really legit. Kind of like how garbagemen started calling themselves “sanitation engineers.” Originally it was a way to keep the actors, writers, and directors from unionizing. As an anti-union tool, the Academy was an absolute failure, because in the early 1930’s the unions and guilds formed anyway.
The very first Academy Awards were given out in 1929. The very first best actor winner was actually Rin Tin Tin. Yes. The dog. Before the awards were handed out, the Academy decided that it would be weird to give the first statue to a dog. So, they held another vote, this time excluding animal actors no matter how great their emotional range. A guy named Emil Jannings ended up winning best actor. He then promptly went back to Germany to help make propaganda films for that exciting political movement known as the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. Yeah, the Nazis. These two events gave rise the two most popular hashtags of the year. #Oscarsohuman and #Oscarsofascist.
The original Oscar statues were bronze coated with gold. In the 30’s the Academy realized it would be much more cost effective to coat a tin alloy with gold, so that is what they did. Credit for the design of the statue goes to Cedric Gibbons, who was famous for his art-deco set designs. It was not designed after any particular person. The name Oscar seems to have come from Margaret Herrick, who worked at the Academy. Legend has it that she saw the statue and said, “Hey that looks like my uncle Oscar.” Oscar Mayer, of hot dog and Wienermobile fame, appears to have no ties to the statue.
Over the years, almost three thousand Academy Awards have been handed out, and personally, I’m still unclear what the definition of a “supporting actor” is. As far as I can tell, it is an award for the man or woman who should have been the main star of the film. They started televising the awards in 1953. The actors and actresses loved this because their favorite thing in the world was to be on screen anyways. Now they could be on screen getting awards for being on screen.
Famous Hollywood people who have never won an Oscar include-
- Leonardo DiCaprio (Although that will probably change this year.)
- Glenn Close
- Edward Norton
- Viola Davis
- Tom Cruise
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Robert Altman
- Stanley Kubrick
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Orson Welles
- Deborah Kerr
- Albert Finney
- Tom Green
- Me
- Rin Tin Tin (Who was robbed on a technicality, as we’ve already discussed.)
As you can see, it’s a pretty exclusive club.
This year’s ceremony is at the Dolby Theatre. (Doesn’t it bother you just a little bit that they spell it with an RE?) The “red carpet” will be close to 500 feet long and 33 feet wide. That seems really big, but in reality Quentin Tarantino and his ego take up most of that space.
Hopefully this has prepared you for small talk at any Oscar get togethers you are going to tonight. All that is left is to sit back and enjoy the show. Or, to sit back and wish that Seth McFarlane was hosting again. It was such a gloriously uncomfortable affair that year.
And The Oscar Goes To……………..
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