The 6th Annual Academy Awards ceremony for the 1932-33 season, held at the Fiesta Room of the Ambassador Hotel on March 16, 1934, was distinguished from previous award ceremonies by its host and presenter, Will Rogers.
Arguably the most popular entertainer in show business at this point in this career, the humorist/Broadway star/film actor brought a cheerful, unpretentious approach to the annual proceedings and a bit of suspense with his dramatic way of tearing open the envelopes and announcing the winners. Even though Rogers was never nominated for an Academy Award himself, he was the top billed star of State Fair (1933), which was in the running for two awards that year: Best Picture and Best Writing (it didn’t win in either category).
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Nonetheless, it was a big box office hit for the Fox Film Corporation and Rogers, who would die tragically in an airplane crash in 1935, was the highest paid star in Hollywood at the time of his death. Rogers would also be forever associated with a famous incident at that awards ceremony when he announced the Oscar for Best Director.
After he ripped open the envelope, he stated, “Well, well, well, what do you know. I’ve watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Come up and get it, Frank!” At which point, Frank Capra, who was nominated for Lady for a Day, jumped up and started toward the stage, waving his arms and shouting “Over here!” The spotlight landed instead on Frank Lloyd, who was the winning director for Cavalcade and Capra was humiliated by his mistake.
Equally disappointed that year was Paul Muni, who was nominated for Best Actor in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Muni did not want to attend the ceremony, saying “Americans don’t like American actors,” an opinion that was probably based on past Best Actor winners -- German actor Emil Jannings for The Way of All Flesh (1927) and English actor George Arliss for Disraeli (1929). Indeed, Muni’s competition that year were both actors from England, Charles Laughton for The Private Life of Henry VIII and Leslie Howard for Berkeley Square.
Although his prediction proved true with Laughton winning the statuette, Muni was hardly a loser. He had previously been nominated for Best Actor for The Valiant in 1929 and after starring in the box office hit Scarface (1932), he signed with Warner Bros. where he became one of their most prestigious stars beginning with I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. He would go on to garner three more Best Actor nominations while under contract at Warner Bros., winning the statuette for The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936).
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