Bruce Davis joined the Academy staff in 1981 after serving as Theater Department chair at Juniata College. He was the organization's Executive Director for twenty years, overseeing the establishment of one of the world's great film archives and finding handsome new quarters for the Academy's Herrick Library. Davis has described his tenure as "thirty years among the masters of an art form." He lives in Los Angeles.

"A fond look at the genesis and growing pains of the world’s foremost film organization."

• Introduction1. The Beginning: Unions, Censors and Scandals2. Academies. And Awards? 3. A Little Figure for Cedric Gibbons4. A System Evolves5. The Hays Incursion6. . . . And Sciences7. Academy Washed Up8. Better than Precious Ointment9. Frank Capra’s New Deal10. Honorary Awards11. Bette Davis and the War12. Post-War and Cold War13. Straining at the Leash14. Into the Modern Era15. Oscar Full-BlownEpilogueAcknowledgements

Bruce Davis joined the Academy staff in 1981 after serving as Theater Department chair at Juniata College. He was the organization's Executive Director for twenty years, overseeing the establishment of one of the world's great film archives and finding handsome new quarters for the Academy's Herrick Library. Davis has described his tenure as "thirty years among the masters of an art form." He lives in Los Angeles.

"A fond look at the genesis and growing pains of the world’s foremost film organization."

• Introduction1. The Beginning: Unions, Censors and Scandals2. Academies. And Awards? 3. A Little Figure for Cedric Gibbons4. A System Evolves5. The Hays Incursion6. . . . And Sciences7. Academy Washed Up8. Better than Precious Ointment9. Frank Capra’s New Deal10. Honorary Awards11. Bette Davis and the War12. Post-War and Cold War13. Straining at the Leash14. Into the Modern Era15. Oscar Full-BlownEpilogueAcknowledgements

Bruce Davis joined the Academy staff in 1981 after serving as Theater Department chair at Juniata College. He was the organization's Executive Director for twenty years, overseeing the establishment of one of the world's great film archives and finding handsome new quarters for the Academy's Herrick Library. Davis has described his tenure as "thirty years among the masters of an art form." He lives in Los Angeles.

"A fond look at the genesis and growing pains of the world’s foremost film organization."

• Introduction1. The Beginning: Unions, Censors and Scandals2. Academies. And Awards? 3. A Little Figure for Cedric Gibbons4. A System Evolves5. The Hays Incursion6. . . . And Sciences7. Academy Washed Up8. Better than Precious Ointment9. Frank Capra’s New Deal10. Honorary Awards11. Bette Davis and the War12. Post-War and Cold War13. Straining at the Leash14. Into the Modern Era15. Oscar Full-BlownEpilogueAcknowledgements