Five dollars and 15 minutes
There were big names and lots of glamour at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, but absolutely no suspense - winners had been announced three months before the event. The awards were first held as a private dinner, with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. making the official awards presentation of 12 awards (with 20 certificates of honorable mention to runners-up - see a list of all the winners here). Tickets cost $5, the awards presentation only lasted 15 minutes and a mere 270 people attended. Compare that to today’s Oscars, which are attended by more than 3,000 (by invitation only - no tickets), seen globally by several hundred million and last more than three hours. In this small room at the Roosevelt Hotel in May 1929, you can see the likes of actors Douglas Fairbanks Sr., actress Mary Pickford, studio executive Louis B. Mayer, actor Al Jolson, and actresses Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford, who is sitting with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., (whom she wed one month later).

A third Academy Awards, in its second year
In a strange twist-never to be repeated--two Oscar ceremonies occurred in 1930. The second awards were held in April at the same Los Angeles venue shown here--The Ambassador Hotel, to honor films released between August 1, 1928, and July 31, 1929. The Academy opted to have a second ceremony in 1930 to move the banquet closer to the actual eligibility window. In this year, live radio broadcasts of the Awards began, the winners were not announced in advance, and nominations and winners were made by the entire Academy membership (not a board of judges). Faces in this crowd include producer Cecil B. DeMille and wife Constance, director Frank Lloyd and actor Warner Baxter, film mogul Darryl Zanuck, and actress Marie Dressler. In this image you also might notice a familiar face, though not necessarily a familiar name. Neil Hamilton began his career in silent movies in 1918, but is best known as Commissioner Gordon from television's "Batman."

A mixed message on segregation
She barely made it into this image of the 1940s Academy Awards banquet, but actress Hattie McDaniel made it into the history books this year, becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award. McDaniel won for Best Supporting Actress in "Gone With the Wind," which netted seven other Oscars. McDaniel's victory was groundbreaking, but the Academy's choice to seat her at the back of the room, away from her fellow stars in the film, remained firmly mired in prejudice. Bob Hope (visible in this image) served as master of ceremonies for the first time and became one of the Oscars' most frequent, and beloved, hosts. Besides McDaniel, luminaries seated at this banquet include actors Jimmy Stewart, actress Heddy Lamarr, director Alfred Hitchcock and actors Spencer Tracy and George Raft.

Toning it down during wartime
The tuxes and fancy gowns were shelved this year in favor of more somber business attire to reflect the mood of a nation at war. To save precious metal, Oscar statuettes were made of plaster from this year through 1945. This was also the last year the awards were held as a banquet, again, because of the Second World War. The Academy thought it was a better idea move the event to a theater in 1944, and give free tickets to men and women in uniform, and so the age of the Academy Awards as a major public event - rather than a private gathering - began. In this portrait of the Academy's last smaller-scale supper, you can see director Frank Capra, gossip maven Hedda Hopper, actor Van Johnson, costume designer Edith Head, actor-comedian Phil Silvers and actress Brenda Marshall. "Mrs. Miniver" swept away six Oscars this year, including Best Picture.

The Oscars of the new Millennium
An insider's-eye view of the celebrity-filled front rows at the 2003 Oscars shows just how enormous (and telegenic) the ceremonies have become. This year, Meryl Streep (shown at the podium) became the most-nominated performer in Oscar history with 13 nods, beating Katherine Hepburn's 12. And actor Jack Nicholson (also seen here) tied Hepburn's 12 nominations this year. Held at the Kodak Theater, this ceremony was almost the Oscars that wasn't - as the Academy mulled canceling the show when the U.S. declared war on Iraq five days prior. The show went on, but with a much more subdued red-carpet event. Others seen in this 3,000-plus audience are actresses Renee Zellweger and Kathy Bates (both wearing red), actors Richard Gere, Nicholas Cage, Harrison Ford and Matthew McConaughey, and director Martin Scorsese.