The 1954 awards were held jointly by the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association (HFCA) and the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood (FPAH), the two organizations that in 1955 would merge to form the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). The invitation came from the International Press of Hollywood, presenting the Golden Globe and World Film Favorites Awards for 1953, and took place on Friday, January 22, 1954, at Club Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica.

In the drama category, Spencer Tracy won a Golden Globe as Best Actor for The Actress, and Audrey Hepburn won a Golden Globe as Best Actress for Roman Holiday. In the Comedy or Musical category, David Niven won Best Actor for The Moon is Blue, while Ethel Merman won Best Actress for Call Me Madam. Grace Kelly was feted as Best Supporting Actress for Mogambo, while Frank Sinatra was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for From Here to Eternity.

The Cecil B. deMille recipient in 1954 was producer Darryl Zanuck. Walt Disney, the previous year’s winner, handed him the special trophy, a globe surmounted by a male figure holding a laurel wreath in one outstretched hand.
In the photo seen here, on the table are more trophies for special awards, a globe surmounted by a female figure holding up a wreath with both hands. In fact, special awards with different names and designations were common in the early years of the Golden Globes. In 1957, for example, Ronald Reagan received the Hollywood Citizenship Award, for “most exemplary conduct and contributions to better citizenship.”
We also discovered a short black-and-white video clip of the 1954 ceremony, where Rock Hudson accepts an award from Jean Simmons, on behalf of Best Documentary winner A Queen is Crowned.

Founded in 1943, the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association (HFCA) established the Golden Globe Awards, held for the first time on February 11, 1944, as an informal luncheon at 20th Century Fox Studios. That year the winners received a scroll, as they did in 1945 at a ceremony held at the Beverly Hills Hotel on April 16. In 1946, a shiny globe on a cylindrical pedestal, to represent the world, was first awarded on March 30, at the Hollywood Knickerbockers Club.
In the summer of 1950 a group of “working newspapermen and women” withdrew from the HFCA, as their 1953 membership directory states, because they felt that a majority of the membership consisted of non-professional journalists. They formed the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood (FPAH), and held weekend galas called the World Film Favorite Festival in 1951, 1952, and 1953, handing out Henrietta Awards.
As a prelude to their reunification, the two organizations agreed to sponsor the above-mentioned joint awards banquet. They repeated the joint event in 1955, on Monday, February 14, at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel, and on October 19, 1955, the HFCA and FPAH officially merged under the current name of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.