Every late February or early March, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences literally rolls out the red carpet to celebrate the best crop of producers, directors, performers and crew members the industry has to produce that particular year. From the most famous categories like Best Film and Best Actress to more technical awards including Best Lighting and Best Visual Effects, everyone is dressed to the nines and ready to toast to the best in their field. . And hopefully, by the end of the event and before heading off to the party of your choice, you will be holding one of those sacred little golden men of the statue we know as the Oscars. . But why did he get such a strange and unusual name? The figurine is made of 24 carat gold and is 1ft 8in tall, but it’s not certain that the Oscar will appear on the top 10 most popular names in the world. any given year. (No offense to all the readers who call “Oscar”, it’s just that the name is not so popular.) So why is it associated with the gem of the film industry? Well, there are several theories, but no one has been able to determine the actual history of the origin of the most sought-after award in Hollywood. So let’s delve into the mystery a little further.
The Most Common Oscar Theory
The most widely held theory about how Oscar was christened, which began to circulate in Tinseltown, originated in the 1930s and is attributed to the Academy’s very first librarian named Margaret Herrick. As the story goes, Herrick was looking at one of the first versions of the statue and accidentally proclaimed, “He reminds me of my Uncle Oscar.” The “uncle” that Herrick spoke of was actually her cousin, a Texas farmer whom Herrick affectionately referred to as “Uncle” and went by the name Oscar Pierce. Apparently, one of the employees overheard Herrick’s quirky remark and picked it up, so that this good-natured nickname stuck for almost a century. Interestingly, Herrick later became the executive director of the Academy in 1943, taking over from her husband. Donald Gledhill, who enlisted in the US Army and went on to fight in World War II. Ms. Herrick is considered one of the outstanding pioneers of the data collection and awards ceremony that we enjoy every spring.
Sidney Skolsky came up with the name “Oscar”?
When the Oscars really started to take off in the mid-30s, people started coming out of the tree and claiming they came up with the name. Among them was a famous Tinseltown columnist named Sydney Skolskat who willingly put his name in the hat as the man who came up with the name “Oscar”. Whether we believe him is another story. However, Skolsky claimed to have grown tired of writing about the “golden figurine”, saying that it was difficult to write one. Fine. Skolsky claimed that he borrowed the name from an old vaudeville line where a comedian asked an orchestra conductor, “Would you like a cigar, Oscar?” and went on drawing the cigar from the conductor’s outstretched hand. In his book Don’t get me wrong, I love Hollywood Skolsky wrote that he did not much care for the elitist attitude of the people who celebrated the awards in 1934: “I was annoyed by the snobbery of this particular Oscar. I wanted to make a golden figurine of a man. I would show them by acting so arrogant and powerful because of my prize. I would give him a name, a name that would erase their false dignity.” It is also widely accepted that Skolsky’s nickname “Oscar” was the first to appear in an official publication, and the Academy acknowledges this fact by issuing a statement that Skolsky’s claim was “the first confirmed newspaper mention of the Academy Award as an Oscar”. March 16, 1934.
The recent legend of Oscar and his name
Back in 2004, evidence was presented that Oscar got his name from yet another source. Bruce Davisformer executive director of the Academy, said that while working on his book Academy and awardhe stumbled upon credible evidence that the term originated from Eleonora Lilleberg. Like Margaret Herrick, Lilleberg was working as a secretary at the Academy at the time the award was presented. Lilleberg was the first to be asked to handle the actual statues before the ceremony. Davis discovered in Lilleberg’s autobiography that it was her brother who claimed that Lilleberg had named the award “Oscar” after a Norwegian army veteran whom she had met a few years earlier in Chicago. Although the man’s name is as mysterious as the legend of the statue, Lilleberg’s brother noted that this Norwegian soldier “stood straight and high.” Some believed that he was referring to King Oscar II of Norway, but Davies maintains that this is not the case. The figure of King Oscar II was well known because he was depicted on a can of sardines but did not look like an Oscar figurine. You really can’t make up these stories, and we couldn’t. However, Davis firmly supports Ms. Lilleberg as the person who named the award.
Another “failed” Oscar theory
The latest myth that has been going around in circles over the years is that the Oscars were actually named after a Mexican movie star and director named Emilio Fernandezwhich also bore the name “El Indio”. This legend says that Fernandez was captured during the Mexican Revolution and then released after coming to America sometime in the 1920s. This is where things get even weirder. Presumably, Fernandez found work as a Hollywood extra. It was during this stay on set that he met a fellow Mexican actress and Hollywood star. Dolores del Rio. Now let’s see if you can stay with us as this yarn gets even more fuzzy.
Del Rio was married to the chief art director of MGM. Cedric Gibbons who was allegedly looking for a model for the statue. Del Rio suggested that Fernandez portray a slender figure, and he himself portrayed a knight standing on a film with a crusader sword in his hands. Somehow suggest that the award was a symbol of strength and leadership. It’s safe to say that the mystery surrounding how the Oscar was named has become increasingly hazy over the years and increasingly difficult to verify, but stories abound and none have yet been fully accredited as a legitimate source. Let’s wait for the next theory with bated breath, and pass it on.
Source: Collider
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