HISTORY's Moment in Media: The First Televised Academy Awards

So the Academy came up with an idea for another firstamp160 Why not take advantage of a new technology and televise Hollywood39s biggest nightamp160 It sold the rights to the Radio Corporation of America RCA then the owner of NBC for six figuresamp160 Now the quality of television at the time was still very immatureamp160 Bob Hopeamp160who hosted the event in California see video above had to wear a blue shirt under his formal dinner jacket because white would have been too brightamp160 And only 64 stations got the broadcastamp160 Still the show39s broadcast premiere on March 19 1953 reached 34 million people if you count radio listeners tooAlthough nearly 2800 people in formal dress attended the proceedings in New York the biggest stars of the evening like Jimmy Stewart Olivia de Havilland Greer Garson Gary Cooper and director John Ford were in Hollywood at the Pantages Theateramp160 Those in New York watched the California presentation of the awards on small television screens scattered around the NBC International Theater at Columbus CircleAs it turned out some of the lesserknown names in the Hollywood crowd that night would have the biggest roles in historyamp160 California Governor Earl Warren who was there that night would be nominated to head up the Supreme Court just a few months lateramp160 Meanwhile the announcer for the evening in California was a minor Hollywood player one Ronald ReaganLike many an Academy Awards before and since there was a big upset for Best Pictureamp160 In this case a Cecil B DeMille film The Greatest Show on Earth beat out the heavily favored High Noonamp160 Ironically High Noon would eventually show up ranked 33rd on the American Film Institute39s list of the greatest American films of the 20th centuryamp160 Meanwhile The Greatest Show appears on multiple lists of the worst Oscar winners of all timeThe one award everyone was expecting was for Shirley Booth to win Best Actress for her role in Come Back Little Sheba a dark drama about a loveless marriageamp160 In many ways Booth was an unlikely favoriteamp160 Although she was a wellknown stage and television actress Sheba was her bigscreen debutamp160amp160When Booth was announced the audience in New York burst into sustained applauseamp160 She was only the second winner from the East Coast all evening and the first for actingamp160 Booth was so excited that she tripped slightly on the way up to accept the statuetteThe rest of the evening went smoothly enough though and the show was enough of a hit right off the bat that it would go on to become an American institutionamp160 In 1966 the Oscars would be broadcast in color for the first timeamp160 Three years later they would go international and be aired in more than 200 countries around the globeBy the late 1980s the Academy would claim that the show had a billion viewersamp160though the origin of that stat seems to be an AP story that didn39t attribute the number to any sourceamp160 The audience is now once again substantially smaller but still it is hard to imagine a time when the Oscars ceremony wasn39t beaming glamour into living rooms everywhereClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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HISTORY's Moment in Media: The First Televised Academy Awards

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HISTORY's Moment in Media: The First Televised Academy Awards

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