MEET MR. OSCAR

Director of Special Projects for the Academy talks everything Oscar.

In 1927 when the Academy Awards was founded it was suggested that an award be created to honor achievements in the movies. Oscar was named in 1931 by an executive director of the Academy, Margaret Herrick, who thought it resembled her uncle Oscar.

Randy Haberkamp, director of special projects for the Academy Awards who knows everything Oscar talks about how the golden statue was created.

“They asked the art director for MGM Cedric Gibbons to come up with a design for the award. And so he sketched out something on a napkin, gave it to a sculpture George Stanley who then created the statue that we have come to know and love as Oscar. They’re made in Chicago by the R.S. Owens And Company. They’ve been brought out here for this exhibition in New York and they’ll go back to Los Angeles where we’ll award them in future ceremonies.”

The Oscars are numbered sequentially and given out as needed to the lucky winners. Oscar weighs in at 8 ½ pounds and stands 13 ½ inches tall. Randy talks about Oscars’ worth and where Academy Award winners keep their golden men.

“Some people keep them on their mantelpiece of course. Some people keep them on book cases. Some people give them to their parents. Jimmy Stewart gave his to his father for his father’s hardware store window. Shelly Winters gave hers for Anne Frank to the Anne Frank Museum. So there’ve been any number of places where they’ve gone. He costs about three hundred or four hundred dollars to make but of course once it’s awarded it becomes priceless because each one has an individual story of achievement attached to it.”

Watch the 79th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday at 8PM on ABC live from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood to find out who will take Oscar home.