On this night in 1953, for the first time, audiences are able to sit in their living rooms and watch as the movie world’s most prestigious honors, the Academy Awards, are given out at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California (history.com).
Fascinating Tidbits:
- The very first person to receive an Academy Award didn't attend the first Academy Awards ceremony. Emil Jannings, the winner for Best Actor in the 1927-28 Academy Awards, had decided to go back to his home in Germany before the ceremony. Before he left for his trip, Jannings was handed the very first Academy Award.
- Midnight Cowboy (1969), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, is the only X-rated movie to win an Oscar.
- Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first movie filmed in color to win the Best Picture award.
- At the 61st Academy Awards, held in 1989, the Academy decided to replace the trademark phrase "And the winner is..." with the phrase "And the Oscar goes to..." Did you notice?
by Robert Osborne
Abbeville Press, 2008
439 pages
5 comments:
Some of those I knew, but some were a surprise. That book sounds like fun!
oh wow... I did not know so many things about the Oscars!
I would love to get that book for sure!
Oh, Gone with the Wind. My favorite :-)
I wonder what Midnight Cowboy would be rated if it came out today.
So funny--the comment I was all ready to leave is exactly the same comment that Kathy left! I've never seen Midnight Cowboy. Maybe I should rent it and see if it still would earn an X-rating. Given what you can do/show in an R-rated movie, I can't imagine that it would be.
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