25th Annual Academy Awards Coverage (1953)

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©A.M.P.A.S.®
  • Date of Ceremony: Thursday, March 19, 1953
  • For films released in: 1952
  • Location: RKO Pantages Theatre, Los Angeles, California and NBC International Theatre, New York New York
  • Host(s): Bob Hope (video) and Conrad Nagel
Other years:

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The Academy Awards were now 25 years old. Televisions had been in North American homes for about five years, but the Academy had resisted overtures to broadcast the ceremony mainly because the movie industry viewed TV as the competition that was starting to lessen the numbers heading to the cinemas.

So, no TV broadcast was planned for the March 19th, 1953 event. However, four of the eight studios that normally paid for the ceremony suddenly pulled out their cash and the Academy was left scrambling to keep the event alive. Suddenly the $100,000 being offered by NBC-RCA for TV and radio rights looked very tempting indeed. The deal was made and the 25th Academy Awards ceremony would be the first to be televised.

Heading into the ceremony, the following film(s) had five or more nominations:

  • Moulin Rouge: 7
  • High Noon: 7
  • The Quiet Man: 7
  • The Bad and the Beautiful: 6
  • Hans Christian Andersen: 6
  • The Greatest Show on Earth: 5
  • Viva Zapata!: 5
  • With a Song in My Heart: 5
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