A Brief History of the Oscar Trophy

When likely Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Brad Pitt holds up his Oscar on February 9, it will mark the end of a long journey—both in terms of the Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood star’s exhaustive awards-season circuit and the statuette. In January, this year’s Oscar trophies were hand-cast in bronze by Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry, a 105,000-square-foot factory in Rock Tavern, New York. The awards then received a 24-karat-gold finish by Epner Technology in Brooklyn and were shipped to Hollywood, where they were placed in a vault until the big night inside the Dolby Theater.

That’s just the journey of the latest batch—the origin of the Oscar itself dates all the way back to 1927. That’s when members of the newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held a dinner in the Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to devise a way to honor outstanding achievements in cinema. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons sketched the figure of a knight gripping a sword, standing in front of a reel of film. The five spokes of the reel stood for the original five branches of the Academy—actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers—while the sword symbolized protection for the welfare of the industry.

Then it was time to strike gold. In early 1928, Gibbons chose Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley to craft a three-dimensional design. No live models or sketches were ever used, per the Academy fact sheet. Stanley worked up several versions and Gibbons selected his favorite. In the final design, the figure of the knight was streamlined, and the film reel moved beneath its feet. On May 16, 1929, 15 statuettes, then made of gold-plated solid bronze, were handed out in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room. The ceremony lasted just 15 minutes. The silent movie Wings won Best Picture.

The Academy Award of Merit statuette is, of course, better known by its nickname. The story goes that Academy librarian and future executive director Margaret Herrick noted that the bald figure resembled her Uncle Oscar. By the sixth Awards presentation in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skosky used the name to reference Katharine Hepburn’s first Best Actress win, and five years later, the academy itself started using the moniker.

Oscar’s original design hasn’t changed much, except for the size of the base. It stands at 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds—so heavy that two-time winners such as Sean Penn, Hilary Swank, Sally Field, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, and Mahershala Ali could practically use them as dumbbells. Since that first Oscars ceremony 91 years ago, more than 3,000 golden men have been presented. The only actor who refused was Marlon Brando for The Godfather in 1973, in protest of Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans. The person with the most Oscars ever is Walt Disney, who took home 26 in his lifetime. Composer John Williams owns five. Hepburn has received the most for acting, with four. Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, and Daniel Day-Lewis have three.

Due to the possibilities of ties and multiple recipients, it’s unclear how many will be handed out among the 24 categories this year—but there’s no doubt that everyone who approaches the podium will agree that the thrill of winning one is priceless. After all, do you think Adrien Brody would have famously kissed Halle Berry on the lips if she had been presenting him with a Golden Globe? But in terms of actual worth…well, due to a 2015 court ruling that mandates any resale of a statuette first to be offered back to the Academy for $1, an Oscar is technically worth only that: $1.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest