The bad, the good and the none _ a look at Oscar hosts

NEW YORK » The very first Oscars were held on May 16, 1929. They were only 15 minutes long, watched by only 270 people at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Guest tickets cost $5 and statuettes were handed out by Academy President Douglas Fairbanks, the first host. Here’s a look at memorable shows and Oscar hosts through the years: HISTORY-MAKING HOST

Whoopi Goldberg made history as the first African-American to host the Academy Awards show in 1994, in addition to being the first woman to host the show solo. Goldberg kept the show moving at a brisk pace, poking fun at everyone from alleged Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss to Lorena Bobbitt. “Lorena Bobbitt, please meet Bob Dole,” Goldberg said of the Republican senator. She returned to host again in 1996, 1999 and, memorably, in 2002, just five months after 9/11. THAT FAMOUS SELFIE

Ellen DeGeneres, who hosted in 2007, returned seven years later a little more relaxed and with a few new tricks up her sleeve. She not only successfully pulled off a tasteful joke about “12 Years a Slave” — if it didn’t win best picture “you’re all racists” — but also made history by taking the most retweeted picture of all time (at the time) when she posed with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey and several others. NO HOST AT ALL

In 1989, the Academy tried to shake things up by having no official host for the ceremony. It didn’t go well. There was an infamous opening number in which Merv Griffin sang “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts!” and then the stage was turned over to Rob Lowe, who was trying to live down a real-life sex-tape scandal by dancing with Snow White to the tune of “Proud Mary.” The show was so bad that it prompted more than a