The First Academy Award Ceremony
Motion pictures – tainted by scandals, demands for censorship, union unrest, and in the midst of a transition to “talkies” – faced a turning point in 1927. It was during that year that producer Louis B. Mayer, director Fred Niblo, and actor Conrad Nagel suggested that an organization be formed to oversee the film industry. Responding to their idea, a group of thirty-two industry elites, including Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Mary Pickford, Harold Lloyd, Jack L. Warner, Beth Meredyth, and Cecil B. DeMille, met and formed The International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (International soon being dropped from the title).
Academy Award and Oscar History Begins
As part of their mission, the newly formed Academy, with Fairbanks as its head, sought to publicize and reward the mo...