Academy+Awards

=__History of the Academy Awards__=

===The very first awards were given out at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1926 during a private brunch. This brunch had a crowd consisting of about 270 people. The post award ceremony was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of each ticket was only $5. And that night only 15 statuettes were given out. For this award ceremony, the recipients found out that they won three months in advance. The next year they decided that it would be better not to do this but just write the names in the newspaper that would be published at 11pm the night of Academy Awards. They continued this until 1940 when the //Los Angeles Times// decided to break the ban and give a pamphlet that had the winner's names and guests could see it that night. Finally, they came to a decision to have a sealed envelope of the winner's names that they would announce when the time came.===



=__The Oscars__=

===The Oscar is given out to recognize the highest level of achievement in movie making. Beginning at the banquet in 1929 2,809 Oscar awards have been given out. This statue weighs about 8 and a half pounds and is about 13 and a half inches tall. The statues true name is the Academy Award of Merit, though, better known as the Oscar. When the Academy librarian saw the trophy for the first time, she said it resembled her Uncle Oscar. The Academy didn't finally start using that name until 1939, though it became widely known by 1934. The first ceremonies that the Oscars were presented at they were gold-plated solid bronze. A few years later a pewter-like alloy was placed in copper, nickel silver, and 24-karat gold, and they used this until World War 2. During World War 2 there was a metal shortage and they then had to use painted plate. This went on for three years. After the war was over the Academy said the recipients could come back and exchange their old awards for the new gold-plated ones.===