SNAPSHOT: THE FIRST ACADEMY AWARDS TELECAST, as spotted by Terry Teachout, who writes on “The opening of the twenty-fifth Academy Awards ceremony, the first to be televised. The ceremony, which took place on March 19, 1953, was introduced by Charles Brackett, co-author of the screenplays for The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard, and began with a monologue by Bob Hope, the master of ceremonies. Ronald Reagan was the off-camera narrator.”

Click over for a seven minute time capsule of a Hollywood that the boomers completely bulldozed into the ground by the end of the following decade. Some of Hope’s comments about the product aired on television are rather timeless though, alas.