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Yes, it's the Oscar trivia page, but every movie has to have its
trivia, so the biggest movie award ceremony in the world needs one too.
We'll be adding to this over the years as further trivia is unearthed,
so this page will come back to add to your OSCAR entertainment, as the
latest Academy Awards Ceremony comes around....
RECOGNITION
The Oscar is arguably the most widely recognized trophy in the world.
Each statue is thirteen inches tall (not including the base) and weighs
eight and a half pounds.
WHAT'S IT MADE FROM?
Before 1966 many people believed the Oscars to be silver, rather than
gold. The advent of colour TV cleared that up! For the past 24 years
they have been made in Chicago - over a thousand miles from the Awards
ceremony in Los Angeles - by R.S. Owens, who also make the BAFTA, Emmy
and MTV awards. http://www.rsowens.com
HOW MANY?
50 to 60 are made each year from a pewter alloy called britannia and
electroplated in copper, nickel, and silver, then hand-dipped in
24-carat gold. The actual cost – rumoured to be less than six man
hours, plus materials - has been estimated at around $400 (£225). To
date, around 2,500 Oscar statuettes have been won. In the last twenty
years, more than 160 statuettes have needed to be sent back to be
repaired. The winners name is etched on after the ceremony (obviously).
R.S. Owens engraves the nameplates, which are sent to the Academy to be
fixed onto the statuette.
STOP THIEF!
During the 1972 ceremony, an Oscar statuette was stolen. Two winners
were called to the poduim, but only one was in attendance. One winner
came up and claimed her award and the other statuette was left on the
podium as they broke for a commercial. It disappeared.
More than 50 Oscars were stolen in 2000, on their journey from Chicago
to Los Angeles, Most were recovered nine days later next to a rubbish
bin in Los Angeles. The salvage man who discovered them - Willie
Fulgear – claimed a $50,000 reward and attended the awards that year as
a special guest. Two delivery men were arrested. R.S. Owens
replaced the statuettes in a week, by manning the machines around the
clock. The company now works a year ahead of schedule – just to be
safe. So this years Oscars are already a year old.
DISPOSAL
Oscar winners are required to sign an agreement stating that they will
not sell their statuettes without first offering to sell them back to
the Academy for one dollar. But it is reckoned that around 150 HAVE
been sold over the years. In 1999, Sotheby's sold the 1939 Best Picture
Oscar for Gone with the Wind to pop star Michael Jackson for a record
price of $1.5 million. Steven Spielberg purchased Clarke Gable’s 1934
Oscar for $600,000, and magician David Copperfield bought the 1943 Best
Director Oscar for Casablanca for $232,000.
WHY OSCAR?
For many years, the actress Bette Davis claimed to have named it, but
the most popular explanation is that an Academy librarian said that the
statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. The Oscar statuette was designed
by MGM's chief art director (Cedric Gibbons) in the late 1920’s.
ARE THEY HALLMARKED?
In 1949 the statuettes began to be numbered, behind the heels, starting
with No. 501. For two years, due to the metals shortage during the
World War II, they were made of plaster, and later exchanged for gold
plated ones.
FREEBEES
Every year a contest is held at R.S. Owens and one employee of the
company receives a pair of tickets to the Oscars ceremony, along with
enough spending money to celebrate the experience in style.
DISPLAY
Earlier this year the statuettes went on display for the first time, in Times Square, New York.
MULTIPLE OSCARS
Shirley Temple presented Walt Disney with one full-size and seven miniature statuettes for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
TUX & WHITE GLOVES
The 2006 official Oscars posters featureD a pair of hands clutching the
award. They look headless, but “Black Tuxedo” is actually Cary Grant
clenching his 1969 honorary Oscar; “White Gloves” is Julie Andrews with
her 1964 Mary Poppins best-actress statuette.
POSTPONEMENTS
The awards have been postponed only three times: Because of a flood in
1938, the funeral of Martin Luther King in 1968, and the attempted
murder of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
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