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The first awards ceremony, on May 16, 1929--presided over by academy president Douglas Fairbanks Sr.--was a small, informal banquet where a handful of members voted several merit awards for 1927-28, including a best picture award to the aviation epic Wings. Voting was soon extended to the entire membership. In 1941 the policy of using sealed envelopes was begun. Four years later national radio covered the event; and in 1953 network television broadcast it nationwide.

Today the nominations are made from each of 13 art and craft branches--actors selecting actors, editors selecting editors, etc.--and the entire membership, which has held steady at 4,000, then votes by secret ballot on the final winners in all categories. Legend holds that the "Oscar" nickname comes from Bette Davis, who declared the figurine resembled her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr. Each statuette--the original design is by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons--is valued at $100, but the box-office benefits to a film can be enormous. For example, when Platoon (1986) won several Oscars (including best picture), its box-office income exceeded $138 million in a matter of weeks. All-time winners in the Oscar sweepstakes include Ben Hur (1959) with 11 Oscars, John Ford with four best director Oscars and Katharine Hepburn with three best actress Oscars. Some celebrities have refused their awards (George C. Scott in 1970 for Patton and Marlon Brando in 1972 for The Godfather) and others have never won at all (Garbo, Hitchcock, Monroe, Barrymore and Cary Grant, to name but a few).

Although the academy insists that its awards honor the work and not the particular person, many critics and artists insist that it is a popularity contest. In 1998 James Cameron's Titanic (1997) tied the record set by Ben Hur.

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