On this day...

16th of May 1929 The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1927 and 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles,California. 

AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show. Tickets cost five dollars, 270 people attended the event and the presentation ceremony lasted fifteen minutes. Awards were created by Louis B. Mayer, founder of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation (at present merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not to be broadcast either on radio or television.

The first ever winner of the first Oscar was Emmil Jannings, for the two films in fact, The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Over time, the most consistent actors over the Oscars have been the following, winning the Award on more than one occasion (Daniel Day Lewis is the only one to have won it 3 times in the same category of a Leading Role). 

    

Daniel Day Lewis

 

Marlon Brando

  

Gary Cooper

   

Tom Hanks

 

Dustin Hoffman

  

Fredric March

   

Jack Nicholson

  

Sean Penn

 

Spencer Tracy