690 illustrations, 60 in full color 384 pages • 9 x 12" • Hardcover ISBN 0-7892-0484-3 • $65.00

In 1928, no one knew better than Mary Pickford how much the motion picture industry needed one all-encompassing organization as a focal point for unbiased judgments, coordination and cool thinking in the often-scrambled movie community known as Hollywood. Miss Pickford had been a part of the movie business almost from its beginning, watching the nickelodeon novelty grow with lightning speed into what had become, by the end of the 1920’s, the fourth largest industry in America. The movies—silent but golden—had captured the imaginations and the pocketbooks of the world, but until the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was formed, no one had organized the moviemakers themselves into a single, cohesive force. And the time had come.

The 1920s had been, in fact, a time of great changes everywhere, a dynamic period of transition. After World War I ended in 1918, the United States had been undergoing an invigorating decade of technological and cultural breakthroughs, one after the other, stockpiling inventions and creations faster that at any other period in the country’s history. Growth was particularly swift in the area of mass communications and, by the end of the 1920s, all the current major communications media had attained some degrees of maturity, except of course for television.

Statistics on the motion picture industry were itself staggering. By 1928, the American film colony alone was producing over five hundred feature-length films (and hundreds of short subjects) each year for a weekly audience of one hundred million ticket-buyers in twenty-three thousand theaters across the nation. Hollywood, California—that little suburb that had mushroomed just outside of Los Angeles—had firmly established itself, without any premeditation, as the film capitol of the world. That’s when problems began, problems that brought about an organization encompassing all filmmakers.

Film leadership in any field had distinct disadvantages, and Hollywood was getting all the slaps synonymous with success. The attacks came form everywhere. Church groups charged that the medium foisted harmful influences on unsuspecting patrons, and Parent-Teacher Associations criticized Hollywood’s preoccupation with adult themes. Everyone had something to say about the personal conduct of the town’s citizenry, often blown out of proportion for publicity purposes, then eagerly reported by the world’s press, egged on by aggressive studio publicity departments. The government, too, often cast a critical eye on Hollywood, eager to show the moviemakers how to use, or how not to use, their undeniable influence over the masses.

The handwriting was on the wall: outside censorship of the film industry was inevitable unless the industry took hasty steps to police itself. In order to head off the possibility of outside control, a group of film producers gathered together in 1922 and hired Will H. Hays, a former Postmaster General under President Warren Harding, to head up a new self-policing body for the industry. Hays was to set guidelines for films, censor the offenders of good taste and give a stamp of approval to acceptable products, all of which the film community was to accept en masse. Everyone hoped the distinguished Hays name would help alleviate those outside criticisms, with the knowledge that the moviemakers themselves were doing something constructive to police the screen. Hays’ leadership was the stimulus for the first movie production code, but it still didn’t prevent all attempts at outside interference with films and filmmakers. Despite the good intentions and tough policies of Mr. Hays, a few states and several cities still decided to establish their own local censorship boards to pass on motion picture content, and these boards often rejected films previously cleared by Hays and his Hollywood code office.

There was another source of confusion in the industry: a new trend toward unionism. Los Angeles had long been known as a haven for non-union employment, and union workers felt that the motion picture industry could be used as a tool to bring unions into the unorganized labor town. It started slowly at first. In November of 1926, a Studio Basic Agreement was signed between nine film studios and unions representing carpenters, painters, electricians, stagehands, and musicians. At the same time, an attempt to form a screenwriter’s guild was defeated, and a major effort to organize talent groups by the Actor’s Equity Association, the stage union covering performers, had failed, Still, more change was inevitable, one way or the other.

Public interest in silent films was also on the wane and, the motion picture industry was in a serious state of mechanical overhaul. Technological advances were being made by various studios, but each was keeping its knowledge a heavily guarded secret, leading to chaos in the manufacture and distribution of prints, even the silent ones, to theaters. There were as many standards as there were studios, and in face of a falling market, producers needed all the cooperation they could muster, particularly with the impending changeover to sound-on-film. They needed, first and foremost, a central clearinghouse and exchange for ideas, a common ground where the development of new equipment could be discussed, and procedures could be shared that would benefit the entire industry.

In January of 1927, just five weeks after the Studio Basic Agreement was a fact of Hollywood life, the first seed-idea for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was planted. It happened during a Sunday dinner at the Santa Monica beach home of M-G-M’s powerful studio chef Louis B. Mayer, during a conversation between Mayer and three of his guests, actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson. The men agreed there should be one organized group that could benefit the entire industry, help solve technological problems, aid in arbitrating labor disputes, and assist Will Hays in policing screen content. Stimulated by the idea, the four men planned a dinner the following week, which would be attended by representatives from all the creative branches of the motion picture industry who, it was hoped, would be equally willing to support such an organization.

The men meant business. On January 11, 1927, thirty-six people gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, listened to the proposal, and applauded the whole idea. These film industry leaders became the official founders of the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the "International" was later dropped during incorporation proceedings). The thirty-six, besides Mayer, Nagel, Niblo, and Beetson, were J.A. Ball, Richard Barthelmess, Charles H. Christie, George Cohen, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Joseph W. Farnham, Cedric Gibbons, Benjamin Glazer, Sid Grauman, Milton Hoffman. Jack Holt, Henry King, Jesse Lasky, M.C. Levee, Frank Lloyd, Harold Lloyd, Edwin Loeb, Jeanie MacPherson, Bess Meredyth, Mary Pickford, Roy Pomeroy, Harry Raph, Joseph Schenck, Milton Sills, John Stahl. Irving Thalberg, Raoul Walsh, Harry Warner, Jack L. Warner, Carey Wilson and Frank Woods.

After that, things moved swiftly. Articles of incorporation were presented by mid-March, and the first officers were elected: Douglas Fairbanks (president), Fred Niblo (vice president), M.C. Levee (treasurer) and Frank Woods (secretary). On May 4, 1927, the state of California granted the Academy a charter as a non-profit corporation, and a week later, on May 11, 1927, a festive and official organization banquet took place in Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles with three hundred guests in attendance. That night, two hundred and thirty of them joined the new Academy as pioneer members, by signing a check for one hundred dollars. "Our purpose is positive, not negative," Fairbanks told them. "We are formed to do, not un-do."

On June 20, 1927, the Academy founders further committed the goals of the new organization in a statement, which declared:

The academy will take aggressive action in meeting outside attacks that are unjust.

It will promote harmony and solidarity among the membership and among the different branches.

It will reconcile internal differences that may exist or arise.

It will adopt such ways and means as are proper to further the welfare and protect the honor and good repute of the profession.

It will encourage the improvement and advancement of the Arts and Science of the profession by the interchange of constructive ideas and by awards of merit for distinct achievements.

It will take steps to develop the greater power and influence of the screen.

In a word, the Academy proposes to do for the motion picture profession in all its branches what other great national and international bodies have done for other arts and sciences and industries.

The organization of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences consisted of different groups, each with equal representation on the Board of Directors (later changed to the Board of Governors), and each group with a semi-autonomous branch organization of its own. Initially, there were five main branches—Producers, Actors, Directors, Writers, and Technicians—but the number of branches has gradually been increased over the years to reflect the greater diversity of activity and specialization in the production of motion pictures. More of that later.

The Academy was intended as an exclusive, invitational organization, and its opinions and actions were to be those of the organization, not necessarily of the entire industry. Still, in 1927, the Academy was (and still is some sixty years later) used to solve industry-wide problems. From the beginning, no attempt at "membership drives" has ever been made. Membership in the Academy is still by invitation only. Qualification for membership is based on distinctive achievements in one of the branches of motion picture production covered by the Academy.

In May, 1927, the Academy rented a suite of offices at 6912 Hollywood Boulevard to serve as temporary headquarters for the organization. A new history had begun.