"Cedric Gibbons, the art director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is credited with designing the iconic statue ahead of the first annual awards banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka "the Academy") in 1929. He dreamed up the knight (possibly modeled on a Mexican actor of the era) standing on a reel of film, holding a crusader's sword to defend the industry from outside criticism."
"Bruce Davis got that question all the time in letters and emails from the curious public during his two-decade tenure as the Academy's executive director, which ended in 2011. "And what astonished me was that when I would ask around the building, everybody would say, 'Well, we don't exactly know,'" he told NPR."
"Davis decided to use his newfound free time to compile a history of the institution, ultimately publishing The Academy and the Award in 2022. One of the questions it explores is the origin of the Oscar nickname. "As it turned out, that was not an easy thing to find out," Davis said."
The Academy Awards ceremony, commonly called the Oscars, features the iconic gold-plated statuettes awarded to winners. Cedric Gibbons, MGM's art director, designed the statue for the first Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards banquet in 1929, depicting a knight on a film reel holding a crusader's sword. Sculptor George Stanley created the 13.5-inch, 8.5-pound statuette, officially named the Academy Award of Merit. The Academy officially adopted the nickname Oscar in 1939. Despite its widespread use, the origin of the name remained mysterious for decades. Bruce Davis, former Academy executive director, investigated this question during his retirement and published findings in his 2022 book, The Academy and the Award, uncovering the nickname's true source after extensive research.
Read at www.npr.org
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