Papilio: Some Random Oscar Facts…

· On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Blossom Room). Approximately 250 people were there, dressed in formal attire. The odd thing about this event is that people already knew who the winners were! (It was announced 3 months earlier) The Academy Awards began as a simple dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and just a few years ago, ended up in it's own theatre, called the Kodak Theatre.

· Cedric Gibbons, was MGM's Art Director in 1928. He is the one who designed the statue that's given out. He had sketched a knight standing on a reel of film holding a two-edged sword. The award was first printed on a scroll, then later it was made into a statue and gold-plated. George Stanley is the sculpture who created the mold for it. The statue remains the same today as it was back then and no changes have been made to it, except for a pedestal adjustment made in the 1940's. The five holes in the base represent the original five branches: Actors, Directors, Producers, Technicians and Writers. The statue is 13 1/2 inches tall, weighs 8 1/2 pounds and is made of britannium. The outside is gold-plated. In the beginning the statues were not numbered. They started numbering them in 1949, starting with 501. The Oscar design was officially copyrighted on September 2, 1941.

· In the beginning the awards would be given for pictures released between August 1, 1927 to July 31, 1928. The release time remained the same until 1933 when they changed the date from January 1 to December 31 as the eligibility dates.

· The first two Awards Shows were private. But, the third Academy Awards show was broadcast on radio station KNX on April 3, 1931. It wasn't the entire show. It wasn't broadcast in its entirety until March 15, 1945, over the Armed Forces Radio Service and also on ABC. The Oscars were broadcast both on radio and television up until 1969.

· On March 19, 1953, the Academy Awards first appeared on television via NBC from the Pantages Theatre. It was the Academy's 25th anniversary. The first time the Academy Awards were shown in color on television was on ABC on April 18, 1966.

· The first ceremony had only 12 categories for awards.

· The origin of the nickname of the statue, Oscar is debatable. Some credit it to Margaret Herrick, the first librarian of the Academy who is said to have named it after her Uncle Oscar Pierce. Others say it was Betty Davis who nicknamed it after her husband (at that time) Harmon Oscar Nelson. Rumor has it that Oscar's butt reminded her of him. ;) And yet others claim it was Sidney Skoksky, a columnist who named it Oscar because he got tired of writing, the award or the statue and/or trying to come up with some clever acronym for it. But, calling it "Oscar" was sort of an inside thing until 1933 when Walt Disney won for his "Three Little Pigs" under Best Short. In his thank-you speech, Walt called it "Oscar" which was the very first time the award had been called that publicly.

· As in the beginning, even today to become a member of the Academy you must be invited. They do not hold membership drives. In order to get invited, you must have achieved some distinction in one of the branches such as, Producers, Actors, Directors, Writers, Technicians, etc. Once you are a member, you are a member for life!

· The very first actor, which was the very first award presented that night, went to Emil Jannings, for Best Actor in "The Last Command" and "The Way of All Flesh." Ironically, he wasn't there to accept it because after he was told he won, he had his photo taken with the picture (before the ceremony) and then moved to Germany, never to return to the US. And, he is also the first winner at a ceremony to not show up!

· The first female to win an Oscar for Best Actress went to Janet Gaynor in "Seventh Heaven." The only thank-you speech at this ceremony was by Darryl F. Zanuck (The Jazz Singer) given for the first talkie. No one else said anything.

· The first Academy Awards were held on May 16, 1929 at Hollywood's Roosevelt hotel and tickets for the event were $5. That year, Charlie Chaplin was awarded the Oscars statuette for 'versatility and genius' in acting, writing, directing and producing for 'The Circus.'

· In 1998 the Oscar Awards show officially got a theme song written by Jerry Goldsmith called "Fanfare for Oscar."

· The red carpet as we know it today is made in Dalton, Georgia and is nylon. The color, technically, is more burgundy (died per the Academy's specifications), but looks red on television. The carpet weighs about 5 tons, and comes in 300-pound rolls. The sections are cut and glued into place very skillfully so that no one trips when they walk. This takes a crew about 2 days. It's also given a protectorant so that the dye doesn't come off on all those expensive shoes the celebs wear. Does the Academy buy a new carpet every year? No. Every other year they do. One year they have it cleaned and the next year they get a new one.

· For child winners, Shirley Temple and Margaret O'Brien, smaller miniature statutes of Oscar were given to them. Years later, they were given full-size statutes.

· A few shows stand out due to their length. In 1958 the show surprisingly ended 20 minutes early. Jerry Lewis (the host) ended up grabbing an orchestra baton and clowning around to kill time. In 2001, the 74th Oscar show lasted 4 hours, 28 minutes, which is the longest show (so far!).

· The longest thank-you speech distinction belongs to Greer Garson (Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver) who talked for over 6 minutes in her 1942 acceptance speech.

· In 1936 Oscars were first given for Supporting Actor/Actress. They didn't get a statute, however. They were given plaques. They wouldn't get a full statute until 1943.

· Up until 1941, the winners were informed prior to the ceremony. But, as of show held on February 27, 1941, the winners were now kept secret until that night.

· As of 1941, an Oscar winner was NOT allowed to sell or get rid of his statute without first offering to sell it back to the Academy for $10.

· Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first movie filmed in color to win the Best Picture award.

· The first foreign film honored was at the 19th Academy Awards show (1947). It was an Italian movie called "Shoe-Shine." But, an official Foreign Film category wasn't set up until 1956.

· On February 6, 1957 the Academy stated that anyone who is a member of the Communist party could not win an Oscar. This caused a big stir and was later revoked on January 12, 1959.

· Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only two actors to win Oscars (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor) for playing the same character in different films: Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” (1972) and “The Godfather, Part II” (1974), respectively.

· Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gone With the Wind, making her the first African American to win an Oscar. She was also the first African American ever to be nominated and the first black person (who wasn't a servant) even to be admitted to the ceremony.

· In 1948 the Academy began to honor costume designers for both black and white film and color film.

· In 1967 Black & White movies were becoming rare. So the Academy dropped it's awards in that area and went with color only for Cinematography, Costume Design and Art Direction.

· In 2001 they added a new category called "Full Length Animated Picture." The first winner was "Shrek."

· During the war years, Oscar was made out of plaster.

· 45th Academy Awards Marlon Brando won Best Actor for "The Godfather" but refused it based on his objections to how he felt the American Indians were being treated in film and television. He sent Sacheen Little Feather to read his rejection.

· The 60th Awards Show had a nominee wanted by the police! Gustav Hasford (Screenplay nominee) was wanted in connection with grand theft charges of a large collection of library books. He didn't attend. He didn't win.

· In 1990, after the Gulf War began, the only Academy attendee who didn't have to walk through a metal detector was Bob Hope.

· In 1997 Clark Gable's Oscar ("It Happened One Night) was sold in his estate by his son. It was purchased by an anonymous buyer for $607,500 and donated to the Academy. Steven Spielberg was the anonymous bidder!

· The first posthumous winner was Sidney Howard (Gone with the Wind) for Screenwriting. Before the ceremony he died in a tractor accident. But, the first actor to be nominated posthumously (twice actually) was James Dean.

· Three actors have won Academy Awards for playing characters that utter not a single word throughout the entire film. Jane Wyman won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of Belinda, a deaf mute, in Johnny Belinda (1948). Sir John Mills played the mute village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970), for which he won the Best Supporting Actor award. Most recently, Holly Hunter won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of the mute Ada McGrath in The Piano (1993).

· The shows have had several M.C.'s through the years. But, Bob Hope is the person who hosted the Academy Awards the most. He did it 18 times.

· At the 61st Academy Awards, held in 1989, the Academy decided to replace the trademark phrase "And the winner is..." with the phrase "And the Oscar goes to..." Have you noticed?

· In a strange turn of events, Charlie Chaplin's movie Limelight, which was produced in 1952, won an Academy Award in 1972 -- twenty years after its first release. According to the Academy's rules at the time, a movie could not be considered for an Academy Award until it had played in Los Angeles. When Limelight finally played at a theater in Los Angeles in 1972, it became eligible for an award.

· The biggest loser in Oscar history is Kevin O’Connell, a sound re-recording engineer. Despite 20 nominations since his work on 1983′s Terms of Endearment, O’Connell has yet to win a single statue. O’Connell’s last nomination came in 2007 for his work on Transformers.