Countdown to the Oscars: The Story of the First Ever Best Picture Winner
Wings (1927) was the first ever film to receive the coveted Academy Award for Best Picture. Since then, it has become one of the most acclaimed and influential war dramas, noted for its technical realism and spectacular air-combat sequences. This is the fascinating story of how it came to be made. Theatrical release posters for Wings , the first ever film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Part I: A man and his story The concept for Wings originated from a struggling writer trying to sell one of his stories. In September 1924, Byron Morgan approached Jesse L. Lasky, the founder and vice-president of Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, the predecessor of Paramount Pictures, and proposed that the studio make an aviation film. Morgan suggested an «incident and plot» story focused on the failure of the American aerial effort during World War I, and the effect that the country's «aviation unpreparedness» would have in upcoming conflicts. Lasky liked Morgan's idea, and so...