Retropod is sponsored by Tiro Price. Are you looking to learn a thing or two about getting your finances

in order, saving and investing? Check out the Confident Wallet, a personal finance podcast series by

Tero Price and the Washington Post Brand Studio. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Oscars Night is probably the one moment around the world when people become really interested in Envelopes.

You probably don't know the extraordinary history of the envelope at the Oscars.

That's why we're here. It all began with a Hollywood scandal 78 years ago.

That was February 29th,

1940, as Bob Hope was getting ready to host his first of many Oscar award banquets

at one of the hottest spots in Hollywood, the Coconut Grove.

Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm very happy to be here tonight.

Anyway.

The grove was B-platinum place to be during Hollywood's

golden age.

A cavernish club of moorish arches and high ceilings

lit with stars.

It was filled with a gigantic paper-miche palm trees straight from

Rudolph Valentino's set of the shriek. A real waterfall flowed down the back wall and mechanical

monkeys with glowing eyes swung from Valentino's trees. But it wasn't just a venue that

electrified the guest that night. It was the first time the event would be filmed.

...