UCLA Library Special Collections Blog

The annual Academy Awards ceremony – now universally known as The Oscars – is first among equals in entertainment awards prestige. Now a late winter affair, the first statuettes were awarded in the spring of 1929 – May 16, to be precise. Held in a banquet room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles there were only three nominees for Best Picture that year; nine films are in competition in 2013.

Contrary to the glamour and pomp associated with the Oscars, the Collection of Awards Ephemera (Collection 209) tells a different tale about the event.  Within it are mementos from ceremonies dating from  1939 to 2000 revealing that attendance could be real work. There are copies of the voting rules and eligibility criteria; a calendar guide to local theaters’ screening times of nominated pictures; innumerable press releases, as well as direct appeals to Academy voters. And although formal attire was always a requirement, ticket stubs in the collection show that seats were initially inexpensive; for example, in 1953 a seat in the 27^th row set you back just $12.00.

The glossy programs were work product for journalists who covered the event. Marginalia captures the routine listing of who-wore-what, a running score-card of the winners, as well as more critical observations.  In 1953, the journalist who used this program noted that William Holden not only didn’t make a speech after his Best Actor win but failed to even thank the Academy for his honor.

Close up of marginalia.

This collection combines keepsakes from several sources into one collection. Working or not, these items were important mementos to their former owners. These tokens speak to the extraordinary power of Oscar in our collective imagination.

By Lauren Buisson, Technical Services