WHAT WAS IT LIKE AT THE FIRST ACADEMY AWARDS
The First Academy Awards Ceremony
Much shorter. That’s for sure.
The First Academy Awards took place on May 16, 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. It wasn’t televised or broadcast on the radio and the ceremony only lasted 15 minutes.
HOW THE ACADEMY AWARDS CAME TO BE
Louise B. Mayer, one of the co-founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, knew one thing for certain, the only thing that people in Hollywood loved more than their liberal values was their egos. Mayer created the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an attempt to “bring together” the five branches of the industry: actors, directors, writers, technicians and producers. In reality, it was an attempt at mediating labor disputes without the use of unions. An effort that ultimately failed with the creation of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933.
The Academy Awards were an extension of Mayer’s grasp at control. According to Scott Eyeman’s biography, The Lion of Hollywood, Mayer was quoted as saying:
“I found the best way to handle them was to hang medals all over them. If I got cups and awards they’d kill themselves to produce what I wanted. That’s why the Academy Award was created.”
- Louis B. Mayer
THE FIRST CEREMONY
270 people attended that first ceremony and it only cost them $5 a head to get in! Douglas Fairbanks, one of the biggest stars of the time and president of the AMPAS, handed out the 12 awards that night. All the winners knew they had won in advance because they were alerted by telegram three months before the event.
There were many more differences between that night and what we see today. You didn’t need to be nominated for a single film, in fact, Best Actress winner Janet Gaynor was nominated for three films! 7th Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise. Since this took place before the proliferation of talking pictures there was an award given for Best Writing (Title Writing) as well as TWO awards for Best Directing, one for Comedy Picture and one for Dramatic Picture.
But my favorite difference is that this is the only Academy Awards that gave out two awards for Best Picture!
TWO BEST PICTURES?
That’s not exactly true. William Wellman’s Wings was awarded Outstanding Picture while F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise was awarded Best Unique and Artistic Picture; however they were both considered top honors for the night.
The first ceremony is the only ceremony that these two awards were given and by 1930 there was only one category: Outstanding Production, which became Outstanding Motion Picture in 1941, then Best Motion Picture in 1944, then Best Picture in 1962 and it was decided retroactively that Wings, was the first motion picture to win Best Picture.
Oh really?
Sunrise is largely considered one of the greatest films ever made, ranking 5th on the Sight and Sound top 100 greatest films of all time list; whereas, Wings is probably most well-known…for being the first film to win Best Picture.
So what was it? Was it just semantics? The Best Unique and Artistic Picture is the best of “that kind of picture” if you know what I mean…but this other picture is just Outstanding! Or is just another example of the Academy handing out awards for their own interests (in this case to bolster the idea of Hollywood as a wholesome and patriotic institution) instead of recognizing true artistic achievement.
I wanted to find out why and as we all know I’m someone who…hm…does their own research but…I didn’t really have to do much. It seems like, at the time Wings was a much more popular movie, the second highest grossing film of 1928 where Sunrise was a bit of box office bomb compared to its budget. Sunrise also had some mixed reviews.
I’ve also watched both films and is Wings better than Sunrise? No. Wings is a big, epic spectacle with innovative camera-work and a compelling story, but it can’t beat the craftsmanship and emotion of Sunrise, which is well-deserving of its place as one of the best early films ever made.
If you want to check out my full breakdown of these two films you can check that out here!
