OSCARS INSIDER - The Essential Knowledge
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.