Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars

Academy Award of Merit (Oscar
statuette)
Oscar statuette
…

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The best known award is the Academy
Award of Merit, more popularly known as
the Oscar statuette.
[8]
 Made of gold-
plated bronze on a black metal base, it is
13.5 in (34.3 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb
(3.856 kg), and depicts a knight rendered
in Art Deco style holding a crusader's
sword standing on a reel of film with five
spokes. The five spokes represent the
original branches of the Academy:
Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and
Technicians.
[16]
Sculptor George Stanley (who also did
the Muse Fountain at the Hollywood
Bowl) sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design.
The statuettes presented at the initial

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ceremonies were gold-plated solid
bronze. Within a few years, the bronze
was abandoned in favor of Britannia
metal, a pewter-like alloy which is then
plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally,
24-karat gold.
[8]
 Due to a metal shortage
during World War II, Oscars were made of
painted plaster for three years. Following
the war, the Academy invited recipients
to redeem the plaster figures for gold-
plated metal ones.
[17]
 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 & Sons Foundry in
Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to
casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi

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Trophy and Emmy Award's statuettes.
From 1983 to 2015,
[18]
 approximately 50
Oscars in a tin alloy with gold plating
were made each year in Chicago by
Illinois manufacturer R.S. Owens &
Company.
[19]
 It would take between three
and four weeks to manufacture 50
statuettes.
[20]
 In 2016, the Academy
returned to bronze as the core metal of
the statuettes, handing manufacturing
duties to Walden, New York-based Polich
Tallix Fine Art Foundry.
[21][22]
 While based
on a digital scan of an original 1929
Oscar, the statuettes retain their modern-
era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast
in liquid bronze from 3D-printed ceramic
molds and polished, they are then

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electroplated in 24-karat gold by
Brooklyn, New York–based Epner
Technology. The time required to produce
50 such statuettes is roughly three
months.
[23]
 R.S. Owens is expected to
continue producing other awards for the
Academy and service existing Oscars
that need replating.
[24]
Naming
The Academy officially adopted the
name "Oscar" for the trophies in 1939.
However, the origin of the nickname is
disputed.
[25]
…

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One biography of Bette Davis, who was a
president of the Academy in 1941, claims
she named the award after her first
husband, band leader Harmon Oscar
Nelson. A frequently mentioned
originator is Margaret Herrick, the
Academy executive secretary, who, when
she first saw the award in 1931, said the
statuette reminded her of "Uncle Oscar",
a nickname for her cousin Oscar
Pierce.
[26]
Columnist Sidney Skolsky, who was
present during Herrick's naming in 1931,
wrote that "Employees have
affectionately dubbed their famous
statuette 'Oscar.'"
[27]
 The Academy

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credits Skolsky with "the first confirmed
newspaper reference" to Oscar in his
column on March 16, 1934, which was
written about that year's 6th Academy
Awards.
[28]
 The 1934 awards appeared
again in another early media mention of
Oscar: a Time magazine story.
[29]
 In the
ceremonies that year, Walt Disney was
the first to thank the Academy for his
"Oscar" during his acceptance speech.
[30]