LIVING BY THE SWORD NOT MUCH ABOUT OSCAR HAS CHANGED IN 75 YEARS - CUTTHROAT COMPETITION AND DULL DINNERS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided back in 1927 that it ought to bestow annual merit awards, it was another step to polish the tarnished image of the film industry and the people who worked in it.

It is difficult to imagine that just 75 years ago the movie business - which now accounts for $9.5 billion a year in ticket sales and has both specialty and mainstream media feeding an insatiable appetite for all things Hollywood - had a public relations problem.

What a difference a 13 1/2-inch golden man with a sword made.

The first year it seemed even academy members didn't know what to make of the Academy Awards; none of the three best actor nominees - Charlie Chaplin, Richard Barthelmess, winner Emil Jannings - attended the dinner on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

But the absolute frenzy the industry goes into each spring and the popularity of the little statue, this icon that millions of people around the globe know on a first-name basis, is a tradition almost as old as Oscar himself.

The type of emotional, off-the-cuff acceptance speech made memorable last year by Halle Berry dates back to April 30, 1930, the second Academy Awards presentation, and the first in which results were kept secret until the big night. Mary Pickford, best actress winner for ``Coquette,'' became the first to shed tears over the honor and the first to be flustered enough by it to forget her acceptance speech.

The practice of campaigning for an award - now a multimillion-dollar barrage of trade ads, promotional tapes and DVDs, and even television commercials - began that same year, also with Pickford. She so wanted to win that she invited all five members of the academy's Central Board of Judges to tea at her Pickfair estate. Soon thereafter, the academy decided that winners should be chosen by a ballot of the entire academy membership rather than a panel of judges.

That rule change led to the presumption that a ``for your consideration'' ad in the entertainment trade publications would be far more effective than a tea party. The first such ads ran in 1935 to promote MGM's ``Ah, Wilderness,'' but unlike recent Miramax blitzes, there was no return on the investment. The film did not receive any nominations.

Into the wee hours

Everybody knows the ceremony itself is the hottest ticket in Hollywood. It has been for quite some time, apparently. The first reports of Academy Awards ticket scalping came with the Nov. 18, 1932, ceremony.

The first Academy Award evenings were quite different from what contemporary viewers expect. They were first and foremost parties. The awards came long after dinner, some time after academy founder Louis B. Mayer tired of dancing, and as a reward for sitting through the business portion of the evening with the election of officers and the reading of the treasurer's report. Movie fans in the Eastern time zone should stop griping about the lateness of recent Oscars; at the Nov. 10, 1931, ceremony, the first of the awards was not presented until after midnight.

Adding insult to injury for the also-rans, the academy finished the evening in those early years by disclosing how many votes each nominee received.

As newspapers, radio and newsreels showed a growing interest in the awards, winners sought more attention with their speeches, which ballooned in length and hyperbole. At the March 4, 1937, ceremony, toastmaster George Jessel encouraged them to keep it short and sweet.

``Two or three minutes is enough for anything. Remember, a fellow gave up the British Empire in two minutes,'' he said, referring to the recent abdication of King Edward VIII.

The winners' remarks were nothing, however, compared to the rambling orations of academy officials and other invited speakers such as Will Hays, who in 1930 expounded on the importance of morality in American movies.

Independent accountants became part of the festivities at the March 10, 1938, program, following rumors that MGM's frequent wins stemmed from some impropriety in procedures. Reporters still were given the results at 8 p.m., three hours before the nominees learned the outcome, so newspapers could meet printing deadlines.

That changed after the Feb. 29, 1940, show, when the Los Angeles Times defied the embargo and leaked the winners in its 8:45 p.m. early edition. Once again the rules changed, and the secret sealed envelope became the standard.

The following year, host Bob Hope commented on the extraordinary efforts by some Hollywood writers to learn the winners' identities before their deadlines: ``When the last envelope was sealed, Price, Waterhouse had to open it again to let Sidney Skolsky out.''

Being the best

Gilbert Cates, taking a break recently from viewing clips of past ceremonies to use in this year's awards (``they're really a hoot,'' he said), said he has seen the show evolve even in the 11 times over 14 years he has produced it. But the mission has not.

``Essentially the goal of the academy is the same as it was 75 years ago, which is to reward excellence,'' Cates said. ``I think the growth of the show has been driven by the folks who want to watch it more than the industry itself. Whatever the self-aggrandizement is, that hasn't changed. People want to see what's going on (with movie stars).''

Bruce Davis, a former college professor and administrator who has been on staff at AMPAS since 1981 and its executive director since 1989, remembers the first time he attended the ceremonies as an off-duty guest.

``As sophisticated as we all like to seem, nothing will make you feel more like a farm boy than when you step on that red carpet on Oscars night,'' he said. ``It was a 'gee whiz' moment. It still is. When you get there and the flashbulbs are flashing and the crowd is hollering, it still is an amazing few minutes.

``Even more amazing is the process of being in the middle of a meeting of, say, the producers' branch,'' Davis said. ``There are 16 people whose names are damn near legendary and they're sitting there and they're willing to talk to you. When you see these groups gathered together for smaller, less spectacular occasions than the Academy Awards, that's when you find yourself quietly shaking your head and saying, 'What am I doing here?' ''

The Oscar itself has maintained the size and shape of the original model designed by Frederic Hope and sculpted by George Stanley, although the base has grown and the materials have changed over the years - bronze, painted plaster during the World War II years, and now gold plating over the alloy britannium.

But its composition has proved immaterial since the first decade of presentations. After the March 5, 1936, ceremony, director and academy president Frank Capra called the statuette ``the most valuable, but least expensive, item of worldwide public relations ever invented by any industry.''

Sources: ``Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards,'' by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona; www.oscars.org.

The Oscars will be broadcast at 5:30 p.m. March 23 on ABC 

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) OSCAR'S DIAMOND JUBILEE

Oscar celebrates 75 years of thrills

(2) The first Academy Awards banquet, May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

(3) Mary Pickford