2nd Academy Awards

The 2nd Academy Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on April 3, 1930, at an awards banquet in the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, honored the best films released between August 1, 1928, and July 31, 1929. This was the first Academy Awards ceremony broadcast on radio, by local station KNX, Los Angeles.^[1][2]

2nd Academy Awards
Date	April 3, 1930
Site	Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California
Hosted by	William C. DeMille
Highlights
Best Picture	The Broadway Melody
Most awards	Seven films each received one award.^[A]
Most nominations	In Old Arizona and The Patriot (5)
← 1st Academy Awards 3rd →

The second ceremony included a number of changes from the first: most importantly, it was the first presentation for which the winners were not announced in advance, and the number of award categories was reduced from twelve to seven. It is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees; subsequent research by AMPAS resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges. Chester Morris was the first nominee for Best Actor born in the 20th century.

Mary Pickford, a founding member of AMPAS and married to its first president,^[2] lobbied to be considered for the Best Actress award, inviting the judges over for tea at her home,^[3] while other actresses being considered for the same award were not made aware of their status.^[4]

Jeanne Eagels became the first and, to date, only actress to be posthumously nominated for Best Actress, for The Letter. The Divine Lady became the last film to win Best Director without receiving a Best Picture nomination.

This is the only year in which no film won more than one Oscar. The Broadway Melody became the second of seven films to win Best Picture without a writing nomination (preceded by Wings, and followed by Grand Hotel, Cavalcade, Hamlet, The Sound of Music, and Titanic), and the first of three to win Best Picture and nothing else (followed by Grand Hotel and Mutiny on the Bounty).

Winners and nominees

 

Irving Thalberg, Outstanding Picture co-winner

 

Frank Lloyd, Best Director winner

 

Warner Baxter, Best Actor winner

 

Mary Pickford, Best Actress winner

 

Cedric Gibbons, Best Art Direction winner

 

Clyde De Vinna, Best Cinematography winner

Nominees were announced on October 31, 1929. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double-dagger (‡).

Outstanding Picture The Broadway Melody – Irving Thalberg and Lawrence Weingarten for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer‡ Alibi – Roland West for United Artists The Hollywood Revue of 1929 – Irving Thalberg and Harry Rapf for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In Old Arizona – Winfield Sheehan for Fox Film Corporation The Patriot – Ernst Lubitsch for Paramount Pictures	Best Director Frank Lloyd – The Divine Lady‡ Harry Beaumont – The Broadway Melody Frank Lloyd – Drag Irving Cummings – In Old Arizona Lionel Barrymore – Madame X Ernst Lubitsch – The Patriot Frank Lloyd – Weary River
Best Actor Warner Baxter – In Old Arizona as The Cisco Kid‡ George Bancroft – Thunderbolt as Thunderbolt Jim Lang Chester Morris – Alibi as Chick Williams Paul Muni – The Valiant as James Dyke Lewis Stone – The Patriot as Count Pahlen	Best Actress Mary Pickford – Coquette as Norma Besant‡ Ruth Chatterton – Madame X as Jacqueline Floriot Betty Compson – The Barker as Carrie Jeanne Eagels (posthumous nomination) – The Letter as Leslie Crosbie Corinne Griffith – The Divine Lady as Emma Hart Bessie Love – The Broadway Melody as Harriet "Hank" Mahoney
Best Writing The Patriot – Hanns Kräly, based on Ashley Dukes' translation of the play Der Patriot by Alfred Neumann, and the story "Paul I" by Dmitry Merezhkovsky‡ The Cop – Elliot Clawson In Old Arizona – Tom Barry, based on the story "The Caballero's Way" by O. Henry The Last of Mrs. Cheyney – Hanns Kräly, based on the play by Frederick Lonsdale The Leatherneck – Elliot Clawson Our Dancing Daughters – Josephine Lovett Sal of Singapore – Elliot Clawson, based on the story "The Sentimentalists" by Dale Collins Skyscraper – Elliot Clawson, based on a story by Dudley Murphy The Valiant – Tom Barry, based on the play by Halworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass A Woman of Affairs – Bess Meredyth, based on the novel The Green Hat by Michael Arlen Wonder of Women – Bess Meredyth, based on the novel Die Frau des Steffen Thromholt by Hermann Sudermann	Best Art Direction The Bridge of San Luis Rey – Cedric Gibbons‡ Alibi – William Cameron Menzies The Awakening – William Cameron Menzies Dynamite – Mitchell Leisen The Patriot – Hans Dreier Street Angel – Harry Oliver
Best Cinematography White Shadows in the South Seas – Clyde De Vinna‡ Four Devils – Ernest Palmer The Divine Lady – John F. Seitz In Old Arizona – Arthur Edeson Our Dancing Daughters – George Barnes Street Angel – Ernest Palmer

Honorary awards

No Honorary Academy Awards – then called Special Awards – were conferred at the 2nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Multiple nominations and awards

The following 9 films received multiple nominations:

Films with multiple nominations

Nominations	Film
5	The Patriot
	In Old Arizona
3	The Broadway Melody
	Alibi
	The Divine Lady
2	Madame X
	The Valiant
	Our Dancing Daughters
	Street Angel

Changes to Academy Awards

Beginning with the 2nd Academy Awards (1928–1929), the following changes were made by AMPAS.

• Award categories were reduced from twelve to seven:
  • The awards for Best Director (Comedy Picture) and Best Director (Dramatic Picture) were merged into a single Best Director award.
  • The awards for Best Writing (Adaptation) and Best Writing (Original Story) were merged into a single Best Writing award (these would be split again for the 4th Awards.
  • The awards for Best Engineering Effects, Best Unique and Artistic Production, and Best Writing (Title Writing) were discontinued.

Notable awards and nominations

In Old Arizona and The Patriot – with five nominations each – tied the record for the film receiving the most Academy Award nominations. This record was set by 7th Heaven at the 1st Academy Awards (1927–1928). One year later, at the 3rd Academy Awards (1929–1930), the record was broken by The Love Parade, which garnered six nominations. The current record for the film receiving the most Academy Award nominations – with fourteen nominations apiece – is held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). This record has stood for 74 years.

See also

• 1928 in film
• 1929 in film

References

Notes

1. At the 2nd Academy Awards (1928–1929), no film received more than one award. Seven films each received one Academy Award of Merit. To date, this result has never been repeated in subsequent Academy Awards ceremonies.

Citations

1. Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
2. Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 831. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.
3. Whitfield, Eileen (1997). Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-8131-2045-4. OCLC 37465308.
4. White, Michael (April 28, 1972). "The Actress and the Four-Letter Cliche". The Guardian. London. p. 13. As the elder sister in Broadway Melody she got an Oscar nomination, which in all honesty she doesn't recall at all. 'So many people have said it that it must be true.'

External links

• The Official Academy Awards Database
• FilmSite.org writeup of 1928/29 Academy Awards