The "L.A. Times" spoiled the winners of the 12th Academy Awards.

Arts & Culture

T he internet may have made spoilers more common, but it certainly didn't invent them. Back in 1940, for instance, the Los Angeles Times accidentally revealed the winners of the 12th Academy Awards by publishing them before the end of the event on February 29, 1940. At the time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave certain newspapers the list of winners prior to the event on the condition that they not publish them until after the ceremony concluded. As the 8:45 p.m. edition of the L.A. Times came out before that happened, the news spread that Gone With the Wind had won Best Picture before it was officially announced.

The film won seven other Oscars that night, including Best Director for Victor Fleming, Best Actress for Vivien Leigh, and Best Supporting Actress for Hattie McDaniel, making her the first Black person to win an Academy Award. Other big winners that night included Robert Donat, who was named Best Actor for his performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and Thomas Mitchell, whose turn in Stagecoach earned him the Best Supporting Actor statuette. The Wizard of Oz, also directed by Fleming in one of the most notable years a director has ever had, won two Oscars: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow." Following the early reveal, the academy stopped giving out the winners early and started the sealed-envelope tradition that continues to this day.

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By the Numbers

Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Hattie McDaniel

Movies that have been nominated for Best Picture

611

Did you know?

Adjusted for inflation, "Gone With the Wind" is still the highest-grossing film of all time.

As of now, the highest-grossing film of all time is James Cameron's Avatar, which retook the box-office crown from Avengers: Endgame after its most recent rerelease and has made a total of $2.9 billion. (No. 3 and No. 4 on the list are Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic, also directed by Cameron.) But that's only when you don't account for inflation. When you do, Gone With the Wind clears the competition with around $4.6 billion — nearly 10 times its unadjusted gross of around $400 million. It's benefited from a number of theatrical rereleases over the decades, but that doesn't change the fact that just under 60 million people — nearly half the U.S. population at the time — purchased a ticket to Gone With the Wind within four years of its release.