Kevin Winter/Getty
Hollywood’s glitziest and most glamorous evening wasn’t always the fish-bowl spectacle we know today.
The banquet was held in the hotel’s Blossom Ballroom and was open only to Academy members.
Douglas Fairbanks was the host, and the ceremony was held three months after the winners had been announced!
Host Jimmy Kimmel (center), joined by film crew members, speaks on stage during the 96th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on March 10, 2024.Credit:Kevin Winter/Getty
From 1930 to 1943, six Oscar banquets were held at the Ambassador, alternating with the Biltmore Hotel.
The hotel, still famed for its Art Deco architecture, has multiple ballrooms with ties to Oscar history.
The Crystal Ballroom was the site of a 1927 luncheon where the Academy was founded.
An outdoor photo of the the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929.The Denver Post via Getty Images
But it also played home to the Oscars from 1944 to 1946.
Beloved classicCasablancawon Best Picture that same year.
It also marked the last time there were 10 Best Picture nominees until 2009.
A postcard of the Ambassador Hotel.Nextrecord Archives/Getty Images
The 21st Academy Awards were held there on March 24, 1949.
The theater, which was owned byNBC, was torn down not long after this.
It was here that two of the biggest actresses of the 1950s accepted their Academy Awards.
Walt Disney speaking at the 14th annual Academy Awards at the Biltmore Hotel on Feb. 26, 1942.CBS via Getty Images
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, Calif.
The Academy Awards reached their furthest west destination beginning in 1961 when they moved to Santa Monica.
In 1966, the ceremony was broadcast in color for the first time from sunny Santa Monica.
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in L.A. on March 2, 1944.Bettmann/Getty Images
The 1968 awards were postponed from April 8 to April 10 due to the assassination ofDr.
Martin Luther King Jr. M.L.L.
The 41st Academy Awards in 1961 were the first to be broadcast internationally.
Loretta Young (right) accepts her Best Actress Oscar at the 20th annual Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. on March 20, 1948.AP/Shutterstock
Due toTitanic’simmense box office popularity, that ceremony became the highest-rated broadcast in Oscar history.
Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles
Richard Harbaugh Handout/A.M.P.A.S.
Presenters on stage during the 21st Academy Awards at the Maquis Theatre in L.A. on March 24, 1949.Anonymous/AP/Shutterstock
A presenter on stage during an Oscars ceremony at the Pantages Theatre.Ed Clark/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
Shirley Booth and Fredric March present on stage at the 25th annual Academy Awards at the NBC International Theatre in New York City on March 19, 1953.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Audrey Hepburn accepts her Best Actress Oscar during the 26th annual Academy Awards at the NBC Century Theatre on March 25, 1954.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
A view of the stage during an Oscars ceremony at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, Calif., circa 1960s.Porges/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Presenters and performers on stage during an Oscars ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in L.A.Getty Images/Getty Images
An overhead shot of the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. for the 72nd annual Academy Awards on March 26, 2000.HO/AMPAS
Renée Zellweger accepts the Best Actress Oscar on stage during the 92nd annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in L.A. on Feb. 9, 2020.Richard Harbaugh – Handout/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images
A view of the red carpet at Union Station in L.A. on April 25, 2021.Chris Pizzello/Penske Media via Getty
