DGA Monthly

2 8 I D G A M O N T H L Y Tweaks, adjustments, and changes would continue for years. In 1953, Cecil B. DeMille was the first recipient of the Guild's lifetime achievement award. Awards for television were introduced the following year, along with the practice of recognizing the entire directorial team. Subsequently, categories for commercials, documentaries, news, and sports were added, as well as several service awards and special citations. The quarterly awards format was eliminated in favor of a large slate of nominees and then a roster of finalists, though it wouldn't be until 1970 that the practice of naming five nominees and then choosing a winner would stick. By 2011, the awards had morphed into something very different from the low-key dinner and business meeting that had kicked everything off 62 years earlier. And yet, the awards were handed out over dinner, many of the top prizes were given out by fellow Directors, all of the nominees got their moments onstage and in the spotlight, and the winners held the honor in particularly high regard because it came from their peers. And maybe the other trappings that weren't around for the SDG Awards in 1949 — the stars, the red carpet, the paparazzi — are less important than the core of what was started all those years ago: Directors honoring Directors. All of them, one way or another, would owe a debt to the Directors who came before them, to the first ones to stand on a stage with the Directors' medallion. They could well echo a line delivered by Zinnemann when he won the annual prize for From Here to Eternity in 1954: "You gentlemen have established a tradition, and I am only trying to follow along." for the Assistant Directors to go along with the ones for Directors. Mankiewicz became the first two-time winner in 1951, when he picked up the third annual award for All About Eve. "If ever there was a time to quit, this is it," the Director said in his acceptance speech. "This award will be comforting in the years and stinkers that lie ahead." (His competition: John Huston for The Asphalt Jungle, Billy Wilder for Sunset Boulevard, and Vincente Minnelli for Father's Little Dividend.) The ceremony was still part of the Guild's annual business meeting, but changes were afoot: The show, which was emceed by Paramount production chief Don Hartman, was broadcast for the second time on NBC, and included appearances by Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ava Gardner, among others. Hartman, according to L.A. Daily News columnist Ezra Goodman, "revealed himself as quite a podium wit in his capacity as toastmaster," saying that the Directors were "more than anyone else responsible for the making of good motion pictures," and then quipped, "If the Screen Writers Guild insists on my being toastmaster at their function, I'll say the same about the writers." By 1952, the awards were presented at a fancier dinner dance at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Jane Powell sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," the David Rose Orchestra performed, and a local news report said the 800 guests included "toppers in the executive, producer, and directing fields, plus numerous stars and civic officials." Stevens won for A Place in the Sun over Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train and Minnelli for An American in Paris. (There were only three quarterly winners in order to move the show to a calendar-year format.) By the time Ford won for The Quiet Man in 1953, the awards landscape was shifting to the point where the Los Angeles Times described the SDG ceremony as "the first of a series of major motion-picture awards events." It was "quite a festive affair," added the Hollywood Citizen-News. HONOREES L-R: Al Werker (right) receives a Quarterly Award from Albert Rogell and Joan Fontaine in 1950. George Sidney presents the first two Lifetime Achievement Awards to Cecil B. DeMille (middle) and John Ford (left). (Credits: Los Angeles Public Library). As the DGA continues to celebrate our 90th year, see more articles regarding our history in future issues of DGA Monthly. CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY DGA History: First Awards — continued from page 26.

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