Oscar Statuette and best moments videos.

To start off the month long Oscar celebration, I thought, I would write about how Oscar came to be, then finish off with a Video:  Oscar's favorite moments. It is going to be a fun month..

The Oscar is made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in tall, weighs 8.5 lb, is a Art Deco style knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.

Cedric Gibbons and Dolores del Rio

In 1928, MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife Dolores del Río to Mexican film director and actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Fernandez, was convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the "Oscar".

Muse Fountain

Then, sculptor George Stanley (who also designed the Muse Fountain at the Hollywood Bowl, that was built in 1940. Standing 200-foot long, 22-foot high over the bowl's Highland Avenue entryway, depicts the muses of music, dance and drama).

George Stanley, sculpted Gibbons's design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it.

The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway and Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Awards statuettes.

Since 1983, approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company. In support of the American effort in World War II, the statuettes were made of plaster and were traded in for gold ones after the war had ended.

How the name Oscar came to be:

1. Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson; one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards.

2. Another claimed story is.. that the Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette's reminding her of her "Uncle Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce).

3. Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'". The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

4. Another legend reports that the Norwegian-American Eleanor Lilleberg, executive secretary to Louis B. Mayer, saw the first statuette and exclaimed, "It looks like King Oscar II!".

Video: making an Oscar statuette:

Video: First of Oscars best moments. A collection of memorable moments of Academy Award winning legendary classic actors receiving their Oscars.. you can also hear a part of each actor's acceptance speech or a famous quote from one of his famous movies.. the music is from the movie (Conquest of Paradise) composed by Vangelis.

Featured actors are: 1. Gregory Peck (presented by Sophia Loren) 2. James Stewart (presented by Cary Grant) 3. Cary Grant (presented by Frank Sinatra) 4. John Wayne (presented by Barbara Streisand) 5. Henry Fonda (presented by Robert Redford).