In March 1944 , Wallis won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 16th Academy Awards . During the ceremony , when the award was announced for Casablanca , Wallis got up to accept , but studio head Jack L. Warner rushed up to the stage " with a broad , flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction , " Wallis later recalled . " I could n't believe it was happening . '' Casablanca '' had been my creation ; Jack had absolutely nothing to do with it . As the audience gasped , I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle , but the entire Warner family sat blocking me . I had no alternative but to sit down again , humiliated and furious ... Almost forty years later , I still have n't recovered from the shock . " This incident would lead Wallis to leave Warner Bros. the next month
16th Academy Awards
16th Academy Awards
Hal B. Wallis