Daniel
Brizuela 1/19/12
Dead Oscar categories.
Throughout
the eighty three year history of the Academy Awards, there have been numerous
award categories that have been introduced throughout the years. Some of these
categories however were retired after some years of use or only used one year
and never awarded to films again.
One of these
retired award categories includes one which only lasted the first Academy
Awards and to the first film that was Awarded Best Picture, Wings. The award was for Best
Engineering Effects, which was one of only two awards that Wings won that year including its Best Picture win.
Another
award category now retired is for Best Assistant Director which was first
introduced in 1933 and ended in 1937. The first time the category was first
awarded it went to specific film but instead went to various different film
assistant directors who each worked for a different film studio like Paramount
and Warner Bros. The last time the award was handed out was when Robert Webb
won for the 1937 drama In Old Chicago,
directed by Henry King.
The Academy
Award for Best Dance Direction is another Oscar category now retired, which
only lasted from 1935 to 1937. This award of course would go to a mostly
musical film that had large musical numbers with a lot of people dancing. The
three films that won it in the three years it was used were the two MGM
musicals 1935s Broadway Melody of 1936
and 1936s The Great Ziegfeld and RKOs
1937 English themed musical comedy A
Damsel in Distress.
One of the
longest lasting Academy Award Oscar categories was the Award for Best Original
Story which lasted from the first Oscars in 1927 to 1956 where it was replaced
with the award for Best Original Screenplay. The first winner was the silent
crime 1927 film Underworld and the
last film to earn it was the 1956 drama The
Brave One. In between, films that have won it include the Best Picture
winning 1952s The Greatest Show on Earth,
1947s Miracle on 34th Street,
and the 1939 classic drama Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington.
In all there
have been eleven Academy Award Oscar categories which are now retired either a
long time ago or recently. The other retired awards are Best Original Musical
or Comedy Score from ’95-’99, Best Adapted or Treated Score from 1962 to 1969
and again in 1973, Best Color Short Film in 1936 and ’37, Best Live Action 2
Reeled Short Film 1936 to 1956, Best Novelty Short Film from ’32-’35, and for
only the first Oscars Best Title Writing and Best Unique and Artistic Quality
of Production.
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