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Oscars 2019: 10 things you may not know about the most coveted Oscar statue
Academy Awards 2019: From how much it costs to what really takes to create it, here are 10 interesting facts to know about the golden beauty that has changed the fate for many.
We are a day away from the 91st Academy Awards and the performances and the nominations for cinematic achievements has made the wait absolutely worth it. Popularly known as the Oscars, they a set of prestigious awards for artistic and technical excellence presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As we are very close to the final day when some names will create history and some will recreate it, it’s time to perfect our Academy Awards trivia score.
Each year, you watch artists taking that crafted golden statuette home but do you know these interesting facts about the coveted Oscars statuette? From how much it costs to what really takes to create it, here are 10 interesting facts to know about the golden beauty that has changed the fate for many:
- The Oscar statuette’s official name is the Academy Award of Merit. The statuette is of a knight holding a crusader’s sword and standing on top of a reel of film, weighing 8.5 pounds and it is 13.5 inches tall. The origins of its nickname have many floating theories but one version says that Margaret Herrick, the Academy librarian and eventual executive director, said the statuette resembled her uncle Oscar.
- Audrey Hepburn popularised the “Kissing Your Oscar” photo. One of the most classic photographs of Oscar winners, it was made famous by Audrey Hepburn where she is sharing a kiss with the award. It became a famous celebrity pose over the years. She won it in 1954 for her role in Roman Holiday.
-The Oscar was presented for the first time to Emil Jannings at the initial awards banquet on May 16, 1929, under the best actor for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh.
-The original design for the statuette features a knight above a reel of film, representing a ‘crusader’ of the industry.
- It was designed by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons and the design has been simplified over the years and the power of the sword remains.
- It takes 10 days to make one Oscar statuette and overall three months to make all 50 of them. Now they’re made not far away from New York, at Polich Tallix, a fine art foundry but from 1982 until 2016, a Chicago-based factory, R.S. Owens & Company, made the statuettes.
- A 2015 court ruling mandated that any resale of a statuette first be offered to the Academy for $1, an Oscar is technically worth only $1. As for the production cost is concerned, the statuettes are made for around $400 a piece.
-The statuettes awarded at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze pieces. Over the years, a pewter-like alloy which is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24-carat gold replaced the bronze.
- Interestingly, during the Second World War, the statuettes were made of plaster. Apparently, due to a metal shortage during the war, the Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. The Academy invited the awardees to exchange the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones.
- So far, 2,947 statuettes have been presented at the Academy Awards.
