The Academy Awards ceremony we know today -- with red carpets, designer gowns, and a worldwide television audience -- bears almost no resemblance to the first ceremony held on May 16, 1929. That event took place in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Only 270 guests attended, all of them film industry insiders. The ceremony lasted just fifteen minutes. There was no suspense: the winners had been announced three months earlier. The idea for the Academy came from Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM Studios. Mayer wanted to create an organization that would bring together actors, directors, writers, and producers. The awards were partly designed to give the Academy prestige. The first Best Picture winner was Wings, a silent film about World War I fighter pilots. It was also the only silent film ever to win the top prize, because talking pictures -- called "talkies" -- were about to take over Hollywood. The golden statuette, later nicknamed Oscar, was designed by Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by George Stanley. It depicts a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a sword. The statue is made of gold-plated bronze and stands 13.5 inches tall. Each one weighs about 8.5 pounds. Over the decades, the ceremony grew into one of the most-watched broadcasts in the world, with an audience that sometimes exceeds one billion viewers.