Academy Award History and Trivia
Past Oscar Winners, Motion Picture History, and Trivia
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will shortly name the 2007 nominees for the Oscars. Now's time to test your knowledge of winners from the 1920s & 1930s.
Here are ten questions for movie buffs. The answers are below, but peeking is frowned upon. For those with a score of nine or ten, there is no reward other than praise for a job well done.
1. Which musical was the first to win an Academy Award as best picture?
- a) The Hollywood Revue of 1929
- b) 42nd Street (1933)
- c) The Jazz Singer (1927)
- d) The Broadway Melody (1929)
2. Which was the first Walt Disney cartoon to win an Academy Award?
- a) Flowers and Trees (1931/32)
- b) Mickey’s Orphans (1931/32)
- c) Steamboat Willie (1928)
- d) The Three Little Pigs (1933)
3) Janet Gaynor won the first best actress award in 1927/28 for which movie?
- a) 7th Heaven
- b) Sunrise
- c) Street Angel
- d) All the above
4) The first movie to win best picture was which of the following?
- a) Sunrise
- b) Wings
- c) Gone with the Wind
- d) Alibi
5) The award for best song was first given in 1934. What song was the winner that year?
- a) "The Continental"
- b) "Lullaby of Broadway"
- c) "The Way You Look Tonight"
- d) "Over the Rainbow"
6) Lewis Milestone won as best director in 1929/30 for what movie?
- a) The Front Page
- b) Little Caesar
- c) All Quiet on the Western Front
- d) My Man Godfrey
7) What person won back-to-back awards as best actress in 1936 and 1937?
- a) Katherine Hepburn
- b) Luise Rainier
- c) Bette Davis
- d) Myrna Loy
8) What person won back-to-back awards as best actor in 1937 and 1938?
- a) Clark Gable
- b) Paul Muni
- c) Humphrey Bogart
- d) Spencer Tracy
9) What actress was presented in 1939 was presented a special Oscar for outstanding performance as a juvenile?
- a) Deanna Durbin
- b) Bonita Granville
- c) Judy Garland
- d) Shirley Temple
10) In the 1932/33 ceremony, Katherine Hepburn won the first of her four best actress awards for her performance in what movie?
- a) Lady for a Day
- b) Morning Glory
- c) Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- d) Stella Dallas
Bonus Question: Who first gave the name “Oscar” to the gold plated statuette that is awarded?
- a) Irene Dunn
- b) Will Rogers
- b) Margaret Herrick
- d) Samuel B. Goldwyn
Answers:
1-d It was remade in 1940 as Two Girls on Broadway.
2-a It was the first of eight consecutive wins for Disney in the Best Short Animation category.
3-d The acting awards in the first year were given for “total body of work."
4-b The picture beat out 7th Heaven and The Racket.
5-a The other three also won in 1935, 1936 and 1939 respectively.
6-c It is still considered by many to be one of the finest anti-war films of all time.
7-b For The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth. Rainier retired soon after her second award.
8-d For Captains Courageous and Boys Town.
9-c For her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
10-b It was Ms Hepburn’s 3rd movie following a short early career on Broadway.
Bonus question:
According to the IMDB, it was Margaret Herrick, an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences employee, who first used the name in 1934, having remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. The name was used unofficially by the media until the Academy officially recognized it in 1939. (Some sources cite Bette Davis as the one who coined the name.)
For more on the early days of the Oscars see: Osborne, Robert, 75 Years of the Oscar. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003, The Official Academy Awards Database.
