Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Academy Awards Ò
members fund the operating revenue for Academy activities,
in addition to income from other sources such as
theater rentals and publication of the Players Directory.But
financial health comes primarily from selling the rights to
telecast the annual Award ceremonies. Known colloquially
as ‘‘Oscar Ò,’’ the Academy Award Ò statuette is recognized
internationally as the most prestigious American award of
the film industry; it is conferred annually for superior
achievement in up to twenty-five technical and creative
categories. Explicitly not involved in ‘‘economic, labor or
political matters,’’ ÓA.M.P.A.S. Ò’s origins tell a dramatically
different story, with the monumental importance of
the Academy Awards Ò an unexpected outgrowth of the
founders’ intentions.
EARLY HISTORY
A decade of industry-wide labor struggles and bargaining
debates culminated in nine Hollywood studios and five
labor unions (carpenters, electricians, musicians, painters,
and stagehands) signing the Studio Basic Agreement on
29 November 1926. Slightly over a month later, in
January 1927, Louis B. Mayer (1882–1957), head of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, spearheaded
an effort to avert further unionization of motion picture
workers, especially the major artistic groups not yet
organized: writers, directors, and actors. Mayer pressed
for a representative umbrella organization when he and
three others—Fred Beetson, head of the Association of
Motion Picture Producers; Conrad Nagel (1897–1970),
Mayer contract actor; and Fred Niblo (1874–1948),
MGM director—met on 1 January 1927 to discuss business
issues and the possibility of a ‘‘mutually beneficial’’
industry organization (Holden, p. 86). Sound films
waited in the wings, conservative groups had strong
community support and threatened increasing censorship
pressure, and the economics of the business always merited
attention and concern.
A second meeting on 11 January led to the initiation
of articles of nonprofit incorporation, and on 4 May
1927 California legally established the Academy charter.
In its mission statement, published 20 June 1927, the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences formed
‘‘to improve the artistic quality of the film medium,
provide a common forum for the various branches and
crafts of the industry, foster cooperation in technical
research and cultural progress, and pursue a variety of
other stated objectives.’’ On the labor front, the Academy
founders’ preemptive action achieved only temporary
success. The Screen Writers Guild organized on 6 April
1933; the Screen Actors Guild followed suit, with
twenty-one actors filing articles of incorporation on 30
June with membership ‘‘open to all’’ as opposed to ‘‘by
invitation only’’ (www.sag.org); and the Directors Guild
of America encouraged an Awards boycott by all the
guilds in January 1936, all after continuing labor
disputes.
The conferring of ‘‘awards of merit for distinctive
achievements’’ appears in the last half of goal five of the
Academy’s seven original goals. In fact, with the transition
to sound under way at full throttle, the Academy did
play a significant role in technical innovation and training.
But almost as quickly, the Academy AwardsÒ emerged as public relations jewels for studios and individuals.
In July 1928 the Academy first solicited Award
nominations in twelve categories for the period from
1 August 1927 through 31 July 1928. The top ten nominees
went to judges representing the five Academy
branches. Each branch in turn forwarded three names
to a centralized board, which then chose and announced
the fifteen winners, who received their Awards at an
anniversary dinner in the Blossom Room of the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on 16 May 1929. At a cost
of $10 each, 250 guests attended the Awards dinner,
where Wings took Best Picture; Janet Gaynor (1906–
1984) was named Best Actress for three roles: Seventh
Heaven, Street Angel, andSunrise; and Emil Jannings
(1884–1950) was awarded Best Actor for The Last
Command and The Way of All Flesh. For the first fifteen
years, winners received their OscarsÒ at private dinners.
By the second Awards ceremonies, on 30 April 1930
(with seven awards bestowed), media coverage began
with a live, hour-long, local radio broadcast; the entire
ceremony was broadcast the following year, on 3 April
1931 (Levy, All About OscarÒ, p. 29). Interest continued
to escalate thereafter. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
spoke via radio to the Academy in 1941, President
Harry Truman sent greetings in 1949, and President
Ronald Reagan (former Screen Actors Guild president)
provided a prerecorded video greeting in 1981.
National coverage began in 1945; the first televised
presentation of the Awards ceremonies took place on
19 March 1953.
On three occasions the Academy has postponed, but
never canceled, the Awards show. In 1938 floods caused a
one-week postponement; in 1968 the Academy postponed
the ceremonies for two days after the assassination
of Martin Luther King Jr.; and in 1981 the Academy
delayed the ceremony for one day because of the
attempted assassination of President Reagan. During
the ‘‘blacklisting’’ period of the 1950s, political events
altered policy: the Academy ruled in February 1957 that
any past or present member of the Communist Party
and anyone who refused a Congressional subpoena was
ineligible for any Academy AwardÒ. Just under two
years later, in January 1959, the Academy repealed that
policy.
2 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM