Academy Awards (Oscars) 1954

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, at a private brunch at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood with an audience of about 270 people to honor outstanding film achievements of the 1927/1928 film season.

The post Academy Awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other personalities of the filmmaking industry.

The root of the name Oscar is contested. Bette Davis claims that she named the Award after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson; one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that the Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette's reminding her of her "Uncle Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce).

Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'". The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Another legend reports that the Norwegian-American Eleanor Lilleberg, executive secretary to Louis B. Mayer, saw the first statuette and exclaimed, "It looks like King Oscar II!". At the end of the day she asked, "What should we do with Oscar, put him in the vault?" and the name stuck.

Outside the 26th Annual Academy Awards at RKO Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., 1954. Publication: Los Angeles Daily News, a morning newspaper based in Downtown Los Angeles which ceased publication on December 18, 1954. Publication date: 1954. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, and its copyright was not renewed.

Note about non-renewal of copyright: according to the U.S. Copyright Office no issue of the Los Angeles Daily News had it's copyright renewed.

TEXT RESOURCE: Academy Award From Wikipedia