A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OSCAR
Shortly after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was
organized in 1927, a dinner was held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore
Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to discuss methods of honoring outstanding
achievements, thus encouraging higher levels of quality in all facets of
motion picture production.
A major item of the business discussed was the creation of a trophy to
symbolize the recognition of film achievement. MGM art director Cedric
Gibbons designed the statuette and Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley was
selected to bring to three-dimensional form the figure of a knight standing on
a reel of film, hands gripping a sword. The Academy's world-renowned
statuette was born.
Since the initial awards banquet on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel's Blossom Room, 2,530 statuettes have been presented. Each
January, additional new golden statuettes are cast, molded, polished and
buffed by R. S. Owens and Company, the Chicago awards specialty company
retained by the Academy since 1982 to make the award. Since 2000, when
the shipment of Oscars on its way from the Owens plant in Chicago was
stolen from the shipper's dock in Bell, California, the Academy always keeps
a show's-worth of statuettes on hand.
Initially Oscar was gold-plated bronze, for a while plaster, and today
gold-plated britannium, a pewter-like alloy. He stands 131/2 inches tall and
weighs a robust 81/2 pounds. He hasn't been altered since his molten birth,
except when the pedestal was made higher in 1945.
Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better known
by a nickname, Oscar, the origins of which aren't clear.
A popular story has
been that an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, Margaret
Herrick, thought it resembled her Uncle Oscar and said so; and that the
Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar. In any case, by the sixth
Awards Presentation in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the
name in his column in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress
win. The Academy itself didn't use the nickname officially until 1939.
Achievement in up to 25 regular categories will be honored on
February 27, 2005, at the 77th Academy Awards Presentation at the Kodak
Theatre at Hollywood & Highland®. However, the Academy won't know how
many statuettes it will actually hand out until the envelopes are opened on
Oscar Night. Although the number of categories and special awards is
known prior to the ceremony, the possibility of ties and of multiple recipients
sharing the prize in some categories makes the exact number of Oscar
statuettes to be awarded unpredictable. As in previous years, any surplus
awards will be housed in the Academy's vault until next year's event.
"Each Oscar statuette is individually hand-crafted," says Scott Seigel,
president of R. S. Owens.
"This statuette is only a tiny portion of our overall
business, but it makes us known all around the world. No other award is as
universally recognized as the Oscar and we treat it with the extra special
tender loving care that it deserves. We are extremely proud that the
Academy has entrusted its manufacture to us."
The 15 statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated
solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of the
brittanium, which made it easier to give the statuettes their smooth finish.
Due to the metals shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of
painted
plaster for three years. Following the war, all of the awarded plaster figures
were redeemed for gold-plated metal ones.
Except in years when the Academy created a publicity event out of the
delivery of the Oscars from Chicago to Los Angeles, they had been normally
sent overland by common carrier. However, in 2000, only a few weeks before
the presentation date, that year's shipment of Oscars was stolen from the
overland carrier's loading dock. They were recovered a week later, but not
before some nerve-wracking days had passed. Since then, the Academy has
had the statuettes delivered by United Air Lines' air cargo service.
The Oscar statuette is arguably the most recognized award in the
world. Its success as a symbol of achievement in filmmaking would doubtless
amaze those who attended that dinner 77 years ago, as well as its designer,
Cedric Gibbons.
It stands today, as it has since 1929, without peer, on the mantels of
the greatest filmmakers in history.
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