Although it measures just 13½ inches high, the Oscar statuette stands tall as the motion picture industry’s greatest honor. Officially named the Academy Award® of Merit, the Oscar is given in

The Oscar Statuette

Although it measures just 13½ inches high, the Oscar statuette stands tall as the motion picture industry’s greatest honor. Officially named the Academy Award® of Merit, the Oscar is given in recognition of the highest level of achievement in moviemaking.

The most recognized trophy in the world, the Oscar statuette has stood on the mantels of the greatest filmmakers in history since 1929.

Shortly after the formation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, the fledgling organization held a dinner in the Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to set out its goals. Among the topics discussed that night was how best to honor outstanding moviemaking achievements and thereby encourage excellence in all facets of motion picture production.

Agreeing to institute an annual award, the group turned its attention to creating a suitably majestic trophy. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons designed a statuette of a knight standing on a reel of film gripping a crusader’s sword. The Academy tapped Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley to realize the design in three dimensions – and the world-renowned statuette was born.

A Knight Called Oscar

Since the initial awards banquet on May 16, 1929, in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room, 2,809 statuettes have been presented. Each January, additional new golden statuettes are cast, molded, polished and buffed by R.S. Owens & Company, the Chicago-based awards manufacturer retained by the Academy since 1982.

Oscar stands 13½ inches tall and weighs in at a robust 8½ pounds. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. Although the statuette remains true to its original design, the size of the base varied until 1945, when the current standard was adopted.

Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better known by its nickname, Oscar. While the origins of the moniker aren’t clear, a popular story has it that upon seeing the trophy for the first time, Academy librarian (and eventual executive director) Margaret Herrick remarked that it resembled her Uncle Oscar. The Academy didn’t adopt the nickname officially until 1939, but it was widely known enough by 1934 that Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used it in a piece referring to Katharine Hepburn’s first Best Actress win.

The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of

The statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy which is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars® were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones.

Achievements in up to 25 regular categories will be honored on February 26, 2012, at the 84th Academy Awards presentation at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®. However, the Academy won’t know how many statuettes it will hand out until the envelopes are opened on Oscar Night®. Although the number of categories are known in advance, the possibility of ties and of multiple recipients sharing the prize in some categories makes it impossible to predict the exact number of statuettes to be awarded. As in previous years, any surplus awards will be housed in the Academy’s vault until next year’s event.

More than 80 years after that auspicious gathering in Hollywood, Oscar’s success as a symbol of filmmaking achievement would probably amaze those who attended the dinner, as it would its designer, Cedric Gibbons.

Far from the eagerly anticipated and globally televised event it is today, the first Academy Awards ceremony took place out of the public eye during an Academy banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Two hundred seventy people attended the May 16, 1929 dinner in the hotel’s Blossom Room; guest tickets cost $5. It was a long affair filled with speeches, but Academy President Douglas Fairbanks made quick work of handing out the statuettes.

No Surprises

There was little suspense when the awards were presented that night: the recipients had already been announced three months earlier. That all changed the following year, however, when the Academy decided to keep the results secret until the ceremony but gave a list in advance to newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the Awards. This policy continued until 1940 when, much to the Academy’s consternation, the Los Angeles Times broke the embargo and published the names of the winners in its evening edition – which was readily available to guests arriving for the ceremony. That prompted the Academy in 1941 to adopt the sealed-envelope system still in use today.

Fifteen statuettes were awarded at the first ceremony for cinematic achievements in 1927 and 1928. The first Best Actor winner was acclaimed German tragedian Emil Jannings, who had to return to Europe before the ceremony. The Academy granted his request to receive the trophy early, making his statuette the very first Academy Award ever presented.

Public Interest Grows Quickly

The first presentation was the only one to escape a media audience; by the second year, enthusiasm for the Awards was such that a Los Angeles radio station produced a live one-hour broadcast of the event. The ceremony has been broadcast ever since.

The Academy continued to hand out the awards at banquets – held at the Ambassador and Biltmore hotels – until 1942, when increased attendance made these dinner ceremonies impractical. Starting with the 16th Oscar ceremony, which was held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the event has always been held at a theater.

In 1953, the first televised Oscar ceremony enabled millions throughout the United States and Canada to watch the proceedings. Broadcasting in color began in 1966, affording home viewers a chance to fully experience the dazzling allure of the event. Since 1969, the Oscar show has been broadcast internationally, now reaching movie fans in over 200 countries.

More Academy Awards Milestones

1st Awards – Recognizing the need to honor achievements that didn’t fit into fixed categories, the Academy presented two special awards at the very first ceremony in 1929: one to Warner Bros. for producing the pioneering talking picture “The Jazz Singer,” and one to Charles Chaplin for producing, directing, writing and starring in “The Circus.”

2nd Awards – The number of categories was reduced from 12 to seven: two for acting and one each for Outstanding Picture, Directing, Writing, Cinematography and Art Direction. Since then, the number of awards has slowly increased.

7th Awards – Film Editing, Music Scoring, and Song were added to the categories honoring films released in 1934. The year also brought the first write-in campaign, seeking to nominate Bette Davis for her performance in “Of Human Bondage.” (Academy rules now prohibit write-ins on the final ballot.) Also that year, the Academy retained the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse to tabulate the ballots and ensure the secrecy of the results. The firm, now called PricewaterhouseCoopers, continues to tabulate the voting to this day.

9th Awards – The first Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress Academy Awards are presented, for performances in films of 1936. The honors went to Walter Brennan for “Come and Get it” and Gale Sondergaard for “Anthony Adverse.”

10th Awards – The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award was presented for the first time at the ceremony held in 1938. The honor went to Darryl F. Zanuck.

12th Awards – Fred Sersen and E. H. Hansen of 20th Century Fox were the first winners of the Academy Award for Special Effects. They were honored for their work in the 1939 film “The Rains Came.”

14th Awards – In 1941, a documentary category appeared on the ballot for the first time.

20th Awards – The first special award to honor a foreign language motion picture was given in 1947 to the Italian film “Shoe-Shine.” Seven more special awards were presented before Foreign Language Film became an annual category in 1956.

21st Awards – Costume Design was added to the ballots for 1948.

25th Awards – For the first time, the Oscar presentation was televised. The NBC-TV and radio network carried the ceremony, honoring the films of 1952, live from Hollywood with Bob Hope as master of ceremonies, and from the NBC International Theatre in New York with Conrad Nagel as host.

29th Awards – The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established and Y. Frank Freeman was its first recipient.

36th Awards – The Special Effects Award was divided into Sound Effects and Special Visual Effects beginning with the honors for films released in 1963.

38th Awards – The Oscar ceremony in 1966 was the first to be televised in color.

41st Awards – The April 14, 1969, Oscar ceremony was the first major event held at the new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles County Music Center.

54th Awards – Makeup became an annual category, with Rick Baker winning for his work on the 1981 movie “An American Werewolf in London.” The Gordon E. Sawyer Award, recognizing technological contributions to the industry, was established.

74th Awards – The Animated Feature Film Award is added, with “Shrek” winning for 2001.

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