92nd Annual Academy Awards

The Academy Awards are given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honor the artistic and technical merit in the film industry.  The awards are presented for 24 categories at a live televised ceremony that is usually held in February or March following the relevant calendar year and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees.  Attracting billions of viewers in the United States and throughout the world, it is the world’s longest running televised awards show.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a professional honorary organization, had a voting membership of over 7,000 in 2018.  Since the awards were first presented in 1929, a total of 3,096 awards have been presented with the culmination of the 91^st ceremony.  

The Academy Awards presentation is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit".  The statuette or trophy depicts a knight rendered in the Art Deco style holding a crusader’s sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes.  The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.  The Academy officially adopted the name "Oscar" for the trophies in 1939.

This year’s 92^nd Academy Awards presentation will be held on February 9, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. CST.  Nominations were announced on January 13, 2020.  For more information about the history of the Academy Awards (Oscars) or this year’s nominees, please go to https://www.oscars.org/oscars.

Come to the Al Harris Library and see our display of past Oscar winning videos!  You can check them out!  

Elvis Presley (1935-1977)

Elvis Presley, usually referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", is considered to be one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century and the best selling solo music artist of all time.  He won three Grammys, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.  In 2018, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Elvis acted in several movies during the 1960s, but he is best known for his unique style of rock and roll music which reflected the influences of the African American music that he had heard during his youth, as well as the music of the Assembly of God Church that his family attended.  Although he became a leading figure of a new sound of rock and roll music referred to as rockabilly, he was commercially successful in many music genres, including pop, country, blues, and gospel. 

 

Born to a poor family in Mississippi, the family moved to Memphis when Elvis was 13, and his music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience.  Although Elvis made several TV appearances on the Milton Berle show and the Steve Allen show in the 1950s, it was his performance of Love Me Tender on the Ed Sullivan show that made him a national celebrity.  With his rise to fame, Elvis brought rock and roll into the mainstream of popular culture.

Although Elvis was loved by many, he was also criticized for his indecent and suggestive body movements while on stage and was sometimes referred to as “Elvis the Pelvis”. It was a new kind of music and performance, and it was “shocking” to some people during the 1950s.   However, his unique style of singing and charisma won over crowds at his concerts. 

Come to the Al Harris Library and see the display of several books on Elvis and rock and roll music.  Check out a book and learn about this famous cultural icon and best-selling music artist!