Data: There was one event, an Academy tradition, the
Sadie Hawkins Dance?
Sadie Hawkins was a character in the exceptionally popular 30s and 40s comic strip
L'il Abner. In the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day was November 13th (the first strip about it was Nov. 13, 1937), and, on that day, all the unmarried women of Dogpatch (where the strip took place, and of which group Sadie Hawkins was one of) were allowed to chase after any unmarried man and got to marry any man they caught (the plot conflict was that the title character, L'il Abner, "wasn't the marryin' kind", despite being one of the area's most eligible bachelors, and so would go to great lengths to not get caught).
Sadie Hawkins dances became popular in the late 30s and early 40s (the first known such event took place on Nov. 9, 1938), and are unique in that they reversed the then-strongly typical tradition of the females waiting for the males to ask them to dance. At a Sadie Hawkins Dance, the women ask the males to dance, and the males are expected to wait for an invitation. With Women's Liberation, the overall tradition softened substantially, but the dances are still popular in some regions.
The social impact of L'il Abner through the 30s and 40s should not be underestimated. Many cultural memes and jokes were derived from it, some of which survive even today, though few know their origination. A Sadie Hawkins is one of the more lasting of these memes.