On May 16th, 1929, the first ever Academy Awards show was held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It was so long ago that Oscar wasn’t even born yet. The event was held at a smoke-filled Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in LA. Maybe it wasn’t smoke-filled, but it’s a very 1930s noir image and smoking was a pretty cool thing to do back then. Lung cancer be damned! The Oscars are a spectacle today, but they weren’t back then.
Let’s look at The Oscars, then and now!
1. ATTENDANCE
Then: It cost $5 for a ticket (roughly $69 today) and was open to anyone. 275 people attended the ceremony which spread across 36 tables.
Now: The average price of a ticket is $500 and is practically unavailable since studios buy a majority of them. Ticket sales are also not open to the public. So, the event today is basically by invite only as Chappelle talks about in his Netflix special.
