Introduction: The Night Hollywood Invented Its Own Myth
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| The First Oscar Nominations |
On the evening of May
16, 1929, the ballroom of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was filled with the
scent of roasted chicken and the smoke of expensive cigars. It was a private
dinner party for 270 people. There were no red carpets, no flashing paparazzi
bulbs, and no television cameras. In fact, there was no suspense at all—the
winners had been announced in the newspapers three months earlier.
To the modern
observer, the 1st Academy Awards would be unrecognizable. The trophy had
no name. The "Best Picture" category was split in two. And the most
famous man in the room, Charlie Chaplin, had been quietly removed from
the competitive list because the judges deemed him "too big" to
compete.
At First Everything,
we explore the origins of systems that run our world. The Academy Awards were
not born as a celebration of art; they were born as a masterstroke of labor
management and public relations. This archive peels back the velvet curtain to
reveal the "Day One" of the Oscar: a story of secret ballots,
union-busting strategies, and the desperate attempt to legitimize a
"low-brow" industry.
The Architect: Louis B. Mayer and the "Iron Velvet"
To understand the
first nominations, one must understand the man who designed them. Louis B.
Mayer, the "M" in MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), was the most
powerful man in Hollywood. In 1927, he faced a problem: Unions.
The film industry was
industrializing. Actors, writers, and directors were beginning to talk about
forming labor unions to demand better pay and creative rights. Mayer wanted to
crush this before it started. His solution was brilliant in its psychological
manipulation: instead of fighting the talent, he would give them a club.
The Biltmore Dinner (January 11, 1927)
Mayer invited 36 of
the most influential people in Hollywood to a dinner at the Biltmore Hotel. He
proposed a new organization: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(AMPAS). * The Pitch: It would be an elite society to
"mediate" labor disputes (meaning, solve them without unions).
- The Hook: To make it appealing, Mayer proposed
"Awards of Merit." He famously said, "I found that the
best way to handle [filmmakers] was to hang medals all over them ... If I
got them cups and awards, they’d kill themselves to produce what I
wanted."
The "First Oscar
Nomination" was, therefore, not just an artistic recognition; it was a Management
Tool. It was designed to make employees feel like partners rather than
workers.
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| The Baltimore Dinner - The First Oscar Nomination event |
The Mechanics of 1928: The "Central Board" System
Today, an Oscar
nomination is the result of a complex preferential ballot cast by nearly 10,000
members. In 1928, the system was far more autocratic and confusing. This era is
known in our archive as the "Central Board Era."
The Eligibility Window
The first awards
covered a massive span of time: August 1, 1927, to July 31, 1928. This
meant that films released nearly two years prior were competing against fresh
releases.
The Three-Tier Voting Process
The nomination process
for the 1st Academy Awards was a tiered funnel, designed to keep control in the
hands of the studio bosses:
- The General Nomination: A list of all eligible films was sent to
Academy members. They were asked to write in their top choices.
- The Sectional Shortcut: The votes were tallied by
"branches" (Actors voted for Actors, Directors for Directors).
The top ten in each category were sent to a panel of five judges from that
specific branch.
- The Central Board of Judges: This was the "kill switch." A
final panel of five "Supreme Judges"—representing the five
branches—took the shortlists and decided the final winners.
Unlike today, where
the winner is a secret until the envelope is opened, the Central Board decided
the winners in February 1929. They printed the results in the Academy's
newsletter. By the time the ceremony happened in May, the "First
Oscars" were already old news.
The "Two Best Pictures": Wings vs. Sunrise
One of the most unique
features of the "First Everything" archive for the Academy Awards is
the Schism of 1929. The Academy could not decide what a "Best
Picture" actually was. Was it the movie that made the most money and had
the best effects? Or was it the movie that was the most "artistic"?
To solve this, they
created two separate top prizes, establishing a dichotomy that haunts the
Oscars to this day (think Marvel vs. Cinema).
Winner 1: "Outstanding Picture" — Wings
- The Film: A World War I aviation epic directed by
William Wellman.
- The "First" Tech: Wings is famous in our Tech
Origins category for inventing "aerial cinematography."
Wellman strapped cameras to the wings of actual biplanes and had actors
fly them. There was no CGI; when you see a plane crash in Wings, a
real plane was crashed.
- The Legacy: This award evolved into the modern
"Best Picture." It rewarded scope, production value, and
popularity.
Winner 2: "Unique and Artistic Picture" — Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
- The Film: A moody, expressionist silent film by
German director F.W. Murnau.
- The "First" Tech: Sunrise utilized the "Fox
Movietone" sound-on-film system for its musical score (though it had
no dialogue). It was a masterpiece of lighting and forced perspective.
- The Legacy: This award was abolished the very next
year. The Academy realized that telling the public there was a
"Best" picture and an "Artistic" picture implied the
"Best" one wasn't artistic. Sunrise remains the only film
in history to win this specific "First" award.
The Charlie Chaplin Anomaly: The First Snub
The most controversial
entry in the 1929 archive concerns Charlie Chaplin. In the preliminary
voting, Chaplin was a juggernaut. For his film The Circus, he was
nominated for:
- Best Actor
- Best Writer
- Best Director (Comedy)
- Outstanding Picture (Producer)
The "Un-Nomination"
The Central Board of
Judges panicked. They felt that if one man swept all the awards in the very
first year, it would make the Academy look like a joke or a one-man show.
In a move that would
be impossible today, they wrote a letter to Chaplin informing him that he had
been removed from the competitive categories. As a
"consolation," they created a Special Award (the first
Honorary Oscar) dedicated to his "versatility and genius in acting,
writing, directing and producing The Circus."
Archival Verdict: This was the first instance of "Academy
Politics." Chaplin was punished for being too good. He famously skipped
the ceremony, preferring to stay home. It would take 44 years before he
returned to receive his second honorary Oscar in 1972.
The First Acting Nominees: A Different World
The criteria for
acting nominations in 1928 were fundamentally different from today. Actors were
nominated for their entire body of work during the year, not just a
single performance.
Best Actor: Emil Jannings
- The Win: Jannings won for The Way of All Flesh AND The Last
Command.
- The "First" Exit: Jannings is the subject of the first
"Oscar Legend." He told the Academy he was returning to Germany
before the ceremony. The committee agreed to hand him the statue early,
making him the first person to ever physically hold an Academy Award.
- The Dark Turn: The archive must note that Jannings later
became a star of Nazi propaganda films in Germany under Joseph Goebbels.
His legacy is permanently stained, and his "First" status is
often discussed with an asterisk.
Best Actress: Janet Gaynor
- The Win: Gaynor won for playing three radically different characters in 7th
Heaven (a street waif), Street Angel (a desperate artist), and Sunrise
(a victimized wife).
- The Record: She was 22 years old. She held the record for the youngest Best Actress winner for 57 years, until Marlee Matlin won in 1986.
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| Douglas Fairbanks (L) and Janet Gaynor (R) (Credits: New York Times) |
The Legend of Rin Tin Tin
A persistent rumor in
Hollywood history—supported by writer Susan Orlean in her biography of the
dog—is that the first actual winner of the Best Actor vote was Rin
Tin Tin, the German Shepherd.
- The Theory: Rin Tin Tin was the biggest box office
star of 1928. The legend goes that the Central Board saw the vote tally,
realized giving the first "Best Actor" award to a dog would
destroy the Academy's credibility, and ordered a revote in favor of Emil
Jannings.
- Archival Status: While unconfirmed by official minutes
(which are sealed or lost), this story highlights the Academy's early
anxiety about "legitimacy."
The "Talkie" Crisis: The Jazz Singer
The 1927/1928 season
saw the most disruptive technology in film history: Sound. The Jazz
Singer, released in October 1927, was the first feature-length
"talkie." It was a massive sensation.
However, the Academy banned
it from competition.
- The Reasoning: The Central Board declared it was
"unfair" to let a talking picture compete against silent films.
They viewed sound as a gimmick.
- The Consolation: Like Chaplin, Warner Bros. was given a Special
Award for "producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding
talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry."
This decision proves
that the "First Oscars" were backward-looking. They were celebrating
the perfection of the Silent Era (Wings/Sunrise) at the exact moment the Silent
Era was dying.
The Ceremony: May 16, 1929
The physical event of
the "First Academy Awards" was modest.
- Venue: The Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
- Host: Douglas Fairbanks, the swashbuckling star and President of
the Academy.
- The Broadcast: None. Radio didn't cover it until the
second ceremony.
- The Duration: The actual handing out of awards took 15
minutes.
- The Speech: There were no acceptance speeches.
Winners simply shook Fairbanks' hand and sat back down.
The First Statuette
The trophy was
designed by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons. It depicted a knight
holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. The reel had five
spokes, representing the five original branches of the Academy: Actors,
Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
- The Material: In 1929, it was gold-plated solid bronze.
(During WWII, they would switch to plaster).
- The Name: It was officially the "Academy Award of Merit." The nickname "Oscar" would not be officially adopted until 1939, though origins vary (see Introduction)
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| The First Oscar Nomination Statuette |
Milestone Firsts: Breaking the Ceiling
The First Everything archive tracks how the "Standard" of the Academy evolved from its 1929 roots:
First International Film (1938): Grand Illusion (French) became the first non-English language film nominated for Best Picture.
First African American Win (1940): Hattie McDaniel was nominated and won Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind. Despite her win, she had to sit at a segregated table in the back of the room.
First Female Best Director Win (2010): While women were nominated in technical categories from Day One (like Art Direction and Acting), it took 82 years for Kathryn Bigelow to become the first woman to win Best Director.
Cultural Impact: The "Oscar" Name Origin
In 1929, nobody called it an "Oscar." It was the "Statue of Merit." The archive notes three popular theories for the "First" use of the name:
The Librarian: Academy Librarian Margaret Herrick remarked the statue looked like her "Uncle Oscar."
Bette Davis: Claimed she named it after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson.
The Columnist: Sidney Skolsky claimed he used the name in a 1934 column to humanize the "stuffy" ceremony. The Academy didn't officially adopt the name until 1939.
Timeline of the First Academy Awards
- January 11, 1927: Louis B. Mayer holds the first
organizational dinner at the Biltmore Hotel.
- May 11, 1927: The Academy (AMPAS) is officially
incorporated. Douglas Fairbanks is elected the first president.
- July 1928: The eligibility period for the first
awards ends.
- October 1928: Nominations are finalized by the branch
judges.
- February 18, 1929: The Central Board of Judges selects the
winners and publishes them in the Academy Bulletin. The public knows the
results.
- May 16, 1929 (The Event): Day One. The banquet is held at
the Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets cost $5.
- 1930 (Nov): The Academy realizes announcing winners
early kills the drama; they switch to releasing names to the press at
11:00 PM on the night of the ceremony;
- 1935: The "Write-in" vote is abolished after Bette Davis fails to get a nomination, creating the strict "Nominees Only" system we have today.
- 1940: Hattie McDaniel becomes the first Black nominee and winner.
- 1940: The LA Times breaks the embargo and publishes winners before the
ceremony starts. The Academy switches to the Sealed Envelope system
the following year.
- 1953: The first televised Academy Awards ceremony airs, reaching millions.
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| The first time The Academy Awards (Oscars) was televised |
Conclusion: The Legacy of 1929
The first Oscar
nominations were a flawed, political, and confused experiment. They honored a
dog (allegedly), banned the most popular technology (Sound), and un-nominated
the biggest star (Chaplin).
Yet, this chaotic
"Day One" established the currency of Hollywood. Louis B. Mayer’s
plan worked. By creating a "First" award, he created a hierarchy of
value. Suddenly, a film wasn't just a commercial product; it was a contender.
The First Everything archive shows that while the rules have
changed—categories added, categories removed, envelopes sealed—the core desire
remains the same as it was in the Blossom Room in 1929: The desire for the
industry to look in the mirror and applaud itself.
Archival References
- Osborne, R. (2013). 85 Years of the Oscar: The Official
History of the Academy Awards. Abbeville Press.
- Eyman, S. (2005). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend
of Louis B. Mayer. Simon & Schuster.
- Orlean, S. (2011). Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.
Simon & Schuster. (Source of the Best Actor vote theory).
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS). The
1st Academy Awards | 1929 Official Archive. Oscars.org.
- Wiley, M., & Bona, D. (1996). Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History
of the Academy Awards. Ballantine Books.
- Levy, E. (2003). All About Oscar: The History and
Politics of the Academy Awards. Continuum.
- Chaplin, C. (1964). My Autobiography. Simon &
Schuster. (Details his reaction to the first Academy snub).
- Piazza, J., & Kinn, G. (2002). The Academy Awards: The Complete
Unofficial History. Black Dog & Leventhal.
Archivist's Note
If you visit the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel today, you can still walk into the Blossom Room. It
is much smaller than it looks in photos. It serves as a humble reminder that
the global phenomenon of the Oscars began as a simple dinner between coworkers
trying to avoid a strike.