
{Image Credit: Getty Images / Archive Photos}
The 90th annual Academy Awards are just days away and we couldn’t be more excited for the starry evening! But before we get swept into the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown and its finest, it’s a must that we get a dazzling look at the roots of Hollywood’s biggest night.
From an unbelievably graceful Audrey Hepburn posing in couture, to a war hero taking the podium in full uniform, we look back at some of the most stunning images from Oscars past from the ’30s through the ’60s.
Shirley Temple and Claudette Colbert, 1935
In 1935, Shirley Temple presented the Best Actress Oscar to French-born actor Claudette Colbert for her role in director Frank Capra’s film, It Happened One Night, during the Oscars’ eighth awards ceremony. But that wasn’t the first time tiny tot Temple held an Oscar. During the 1934 Oscars, Temple was awarded the Academy’s first Juvenile Award that honored “her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment.”

{Image Credit: Keystone-France / Getty Images}
Hattie McDaniel, 1940
Gone with the Wind star Hattie McDaniel made Academy Award history by becoming the first-ever African American Oscar winner just a year after WWII. The daughter of two former slaves, McDaniel accepted her Oscar with adequate time for a speech but despite the win, was not allowed to sit with her co-stars. After receiving the honor, she was escorted to the very back of the room of the Coconut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.

{Image Credit: Twitter / @tachristensen}
Jimmy Stewart, 1942
Actor James Stewart took to the podium during the 1942 Academy Awards ceremony in his U.S. Air Force uniform. It was a moment that welcomed a standing ovation and an image that reminds audiences that actors have given more for this nation than what we see on-screen. The year before, Stewart won the Academy Award for Best Actor in The Philadelphia Story, while his best friend, Ginger Rogers won for Best Actress in Kitty Foyle.

{Image Credit: Getty Images / Peter Stackpole}
Audrey Hepburn, 1954
The beloved Belgian-born actress, Audrey Hepburn is surrounded by reporters as she holds the Academy Award for Best Actress that she won for her role in director William Wyler’s, Roman Holiday. Throughout her career, Hepburn was five-times nominated and in 1993, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, posthumously, for her humanitarian work.

{Image Credit: Getty Images / Hulton Archive}
Marlon Brando and Grace Kelly, 1954
Actress Grace Kelly holds her Oscar after she was honored as the Best Actress for her role in The Country Girl at the 27th Annual Academy Awards. Kelly gets a kiss by fellow Oscar winner Marlon Brando, after he picked up his honor for Best Actor in On The Waterfront. It was a big moment for Kelly, who was nominated the year before in the same category for Mogambo.

{Image Credit: Twitter / @solognote41}
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, 1958
Everyone knows the Governor’s Ball is one of the biggest Oscar parties, and in 1958, actors and loving couple, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward had the chance to attend the very first Ball. Held at the Bali Room of the Beverly Hilton Hotel following the Academy Awards, it was the same night Woodward also won the Oscar for Best Actress in Three Faces of Eve.

{Image Credit: J. R. Eyerman / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty}
Elizabeth Taylor, 1961
Always stylish and oh-so-glamorous, Elizabeth Taylor sits alone with her Oscar at a table at the 33rd Annual Academy Awards. The British-born American actress and beloved fashionista, won for ‘Best Actress’ in her role for Butterfield 8.

{Image Credit: Archive Photos/Getty Images}
Sidney Poitier, 1964
Thanks to an immaculate performance in Lilies of the Field, Sidney Poitier became the first black male to ever win an Oscar, and in the Best Actor category at that. The Oscars have had obvious race issues for years, first stemming from the ’20s, but things came to a halt with the #OscarsSoWhite discussion that broke onto the scene a few years ago, addressing the overwhelming lack of diversity in nominees. This year though, history is being made with diversity represented in a number nominations thanks to films like Get Out, Mudbound, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird and The Big Sick.

{Image Credit: Archive Photos / Getty Images}
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The 91st Annual Academy Awards air March 4 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Check your local listings. And stay tuned to The Hudsucker for more Oscar coverage this month!
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