The Oscar Statuette Awards
The Oscar Statuette is a highly coveted trophy that is awarded to the film industry. This award was developed shortly after the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1927, the organization responsible for the creation of the award held a meeting in Los Angeles where it was set up its future goals. Among the agenda of items under discussion was the question on how to best award moviemakers that had attained outstanding achievements in life. Honoring outstanding performers were aimed at improving performance within the budding movie industry.
The organization agreed to set up a yearly award program. The preparation of such a program also entailed the development of a trophy that was majestically suitable. One of MGM’s Art Directors developed a design of a knight statuette that depicted a knight that holds a sword and stands on a reel of a film. This first design by director Cedric Gibbons made the first prototype to the present Oscar Statuettes. The design Gibbons was later transformed into an actual sculpture by George Stanley-a Los Angeles-based sculptor. With the first three-dimensional prototype the majestic and world-famous statuette was born, but the name Oscar would later be coined from an unknown source.
The initial awards of the Oscars were issued on May 16th, 1929. Since the initial issuance, which took place in the Blossom Room of Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 2,947 Oscar Statuettes have been presented to various popular people in the moviemaking industry. On every January, new statuettes are molded and given fine finishes by R.S. Owens and Company. The company has held manufacturing rights of the Oscar Statuettes since 1982.
The statuettes have a height of 12″ inches and weigh approximately 8 pounds. The reel on which the sword-holding knight stands has five spokes that stand for the five initial branches within the original academy. The five branches included writers, technicians, producers, directors, and actors. The statuette still retains most of its original features of the design, but the size of the statuette’s base had been changing till 1945 when the present standardized size was adopted.
Though officially known as the Academy Award of Merit, this piece of award is now popularly known by its nickname- ‘The Oscar.’ Whoever originally coined the nickname is unknown, but there are at least three people cited as the possible coiners of the name. The first one was Sidney Skolsky, a Hollywood columnist that had gotten tired of writing the lengthy name of the award and decided to nickname it as ‘The Oscar.’ The next person that has been credited is Margaret Herrick. Herrick was a former librarian of the Academy, who supposedly nicknamed the statuette after her uncle. Bette Davis is the third person that supposedly named the statuette Oscar’ because of its rear end that reminded her of her husband when he left the shower each morning. However, the term ‘The Oscar’ was not adopted in its present official sense till the late 1930s.
The Oscar is considered the top award in the film and movies industry because it is among the first awards of its kind to be developed in the world and it covered moviemakers in one of the largest moviemaking industry in the globe-Holly Wood. There are approximately 25 categories of awards. However, no one knows how many statuettes will be given out till the envelopes are unsealed. The nominees are usually picked by the academy and voted on by the populace, and there are possibilities of multiple recipients and ties occurring in the award of the Oscar Statuettes.