[originaltext] When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929

When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, movies had just begun to talk. That first Awards ceremony took place during a party held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The attendance was 250 and tickets cost $10.
    At first the winners were known prior to the Awards partys. Results were given in advance to the newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the Awards. But in 1940, guests arriving for the affair could buy the 8: 45 p.m. edition of the Los Angeles Times, which announced the winning achievements.(17)As a result, the sealed-envelope system was adopted the next year and remains in use today.
    Since the earliest years, interest in the Academy Awards has been high. The first presentation was the only one which escaped media audience, but by the second year enthusiasm for the Awards was so high that a Los Angeles radio station actually did a live, one-hour broadcast. The Awards have had broadcast since. For 15 years the Academy Awards Presentations were party affairs held, after the first in the Blossom Room, then at the Ambassador and Biltmore hotels. The custom of presenting the prizes at a banquet didn’t continue after 1942.(18)Increased attendance and the war had made party not practical, and the presentation ceremonies have since been held in theaters.