The Oscar and The Grammy

Good Morning To All,

Well, the season of Oscars is coming in March and everyone is bustling with excitement as to who will win. What is interesting to note is the first awards were held on May 16th 1929 at a private dinner function with only 270 attendants at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The ticket cost at that time was only $5.00 which in 2025 would be $94.00. Please note that only a total of 15 Oscars were given out. Plus the whole affair was only 15 minutes – quite a change in todays’ events. It was until 1941 that the process was used in a sealed envelope to reveal those winners. Before then the announcement of winners was published in newspapers at 11:00pm. So very different today with our lavish ceremony.

Here in Connecticut we have so noted personality of costume design “Adrian”. Adrian Adolph Greenburg born March 3rd 1903 (Naugatuck) and died September 13th 1959 who never won the coveted award. Yet his designs were both couture and ready-to-wear fashions. In 1945, he did win a Coty Award and a Tony Award for Best Costume Desing in a Musical in 1960. His work made him valuable to Irving Berlin, Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. Demille, MGM from 1928 to 1941. In those days, he created such fabulous gowns for Great Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Katherine Hepburn, and Norma Shearer (By the way, was the first Jew to win the Oscar). But what he was so noted for was his enduring gingham dress for Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and the signature red-sequined ruby slippers. He married Janet Gaynor and remained married until his death in 1959. So we honor one of our own who should have won an Oscar for his elegant designs.

As for the Grammy, we can thank Emile Berliner for his invention of the Gramophone which was a label for the RCA Victor Company with the dog (Skipper) Listening to his Master’s Voice. Berliner hales from Hanover Germany born May 20th 1851 and passed August 3 1929. He invented the later-cut flat disc record known as a gramophone record to be used with the gramophone. He was the founder of the United States Gramophone Company in 1894. Because there was a new audio technology on the rise concerning the telephone as well as the phonograph, he was able to improve the transmission of the telephones with a new type of a microphone. His inventions were in conflict with Thomas Edison and his work. However, all in all, he continued his interest in the work with the transmitting technology with his invention of five-cylinder rotary engines for use in helicopters and inline engines – plus more. But the Grammy Awards use his model of a gramophone as their symbol of listening to the many wonderful sounds of music for our pleasure. He is well honored by this symbol.

Thank you ….. more to come.