History of the Oscar Statuette

The Oscar Statuette. It's the symbol of the mass celebrity gathering that is the Academy Awards. Over the years, the terms "Oscars" and "Academy Awards" have been thrown around interchangeably. On February 22^nd, the 81^st Academy Awards will be broadcast on ABC and that's reason enough to take a look back at the history of the Academy's golden mascot.

According to the Academy Awards Official website, the Oscar was originally known only as the Academy Award of Merit, quite the mouthful when you're the presenter. Born in 1928, the Award depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film. The reel has five spokes, signifying the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers and Technicians.

The Award was bronze plated with 24-karat gold, weighed 8.5 pounds and stood at 13.5 inches tall on its Belgian black marble base. Within a few years, designers ceased using the bronze in favor of an alloy called Britannia, which allowed for a smoother finish. In WWII years, the awards were made of plaster due to metal shortages, but as soon as the war ended, these Oscars were traded in for gold-plated ones. Currently, 50 Oscars are made every year in Chicago by the manufacturer, R.S. Owens.

So where did Oscar get his name? According to the Academy, the most popular (but unconfirmed) story is that the name caught on after Academy librarian and soon-to-be executive director Margaret Herrick commented that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. It was first called an Oscar by Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress win. The Academy didn't officially start using the nickname until 1939.

Here are some random facts from the Academy:

Number of Oscars presented to date: 2,658

How many people it takes to make a statuette: 12

How long it takes to make a statuette: 20 hrs

Number of Oscars manufactured each year: 50-60

How many Oscars have been refused: 3 (George C. Scott, Marlon Brando and a writer named Dudley Nichols)

Number of decorative prop Oscar statues: 65

The Oscar Statuette History, Oscars.com