The Oscar Statuette Facts and Trivia

How did the Oscar come to be? What does it look like? Who designed it? What is it made of? How did it get its name? Read here and get all your answers, then you will be the whiz at your Oscar watching party on Oscar trivia!

The Oscar statuette began its life in 1928 as the Academy Award of Merit. It was designed by MGM's chief art director Cedric Gibbons. The design is of a knight, holding a crusader's sword and standing on a film reel with five spokes. The spokes represent the five branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers and Technicians.

Mexican Actor, Emilio "El Indio" Fenandez posed naked after much prodding for the original sculpture done by George Stanley in clay. Sachin Smith then cast the statuette in 92.5% tin and 7.5% copper and then gold plated it. During he 1940's, the base was streamlined and made taller. In 1945 the base was changed from black marble to metal and in 1949 the statuettes began being numbered starting with 501.

There is no solid evidence of how the statuette came to be called Oscar. A biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the statuette Oscar for her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. The prevailing theory though contributes the naming to an Academy librarian, Margaret Herrick, (who later became the Academy's Executive Director) who said the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar. The Academy began officially calling the statuette Oscar in 1939.

The Oscar statuette is 13.5" tall and weighs 8.5 pounds. Today it is made of gold plated britannium with a black metal base. Britannium is a pewter type alloy, made of 93% tin, 5% antimony and 2% copper. The gold plating is 24K gold. R.S. Owens is the current manufacturer of the statuettes in Chicago, Illinois. Each statuette is hand crafted and takes 12 people 20 hours to complete. If an Oscar statuette doesn't meet strict quality guidelines, they are immediately cut in half and melted down.

During WWII, for three years, the Oscar statuette was made of plaster. After the end of the war, recipients were allowed to trade in the plaster statuette for a gold one. Other variations of the Oscar include three known exceptions. In the 1930's juvenile actors were given miniature replicas. Ventriloquist Edgar Bergan received a wooden Oscar with a moveable mouth. And Walt Disney was awarded one full size Oscar and seven miniatures for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

As of 2008, 2,701 Oscars have been awarded and 3 refused.

Sources: www.oscar.com, www.oscars.org and wikipedia