Based on Noel Coward’s London stage success, Cavalcade follows an affluent English household over more than 30 years. The stage play was an enormous production that was too expensive to mount at another theater, so it never traveled or played on Broadway; this made the film the only way most people could experience the story. Establishing the template that would later be used by Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey, Cavalcade features the lives of both the Marryot family and their loyal servants from New Year’s Eve 1899 to 1933. The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director Frank Lloyd, and Best Art Direction for William S. Darling, as well as a Best Actress nomination for 27 year old English theater actress Diana Wynyard.