The Oscar statuette （奥斯卡小金人）

The Oscar statuette, designed by MGM's chief art director Cedric Gibbons, depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film with five spokes, signifying the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.

Frederic Hope, Gibbons' assistant, created the original Belgian black marble base; artist George Stanley sculpted the design; and the California Bronze Foundry hand cast the first statuette in bronze plated with 24-karat gold.

Oscar's height: 13 1/2 inches
Oscar's weight: 8 1/2 pounds
Number of Oscars presented at Academy Awards shows or to winners absent from show to date: 2,365
Number of eligible categories in 1927: 13
Number of eligible categories in 2001: 23
How many people it takes to make a statuette: 12
How long it takes to make a statuette: 20 hours
Number of Oscars manufactured each year: 50-60
How many Oscars have been refused: 3
Number of decorative prop Oscar statues: 65
Smallest decorative prop Oscar statue: 1-½ feet
Tallest decorative prop Oscar statue: 24 feet

Born in 1928, years would pass before the Academy Award of Merit was officially named "Oscar." Industry insiders and members of the press called the award "the Academy statuette," "the golden trophy" or "the statue of merit." The entertainment trade paper, Weekly Variety, even attempted to popularize "the iron man." The term never stuck.

A popular story has been that an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, Margaret Herrick, thought the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar and said so, and that as a result the Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar.

No hard evidence exists to support that tale, but in any case, by the sixth Awards Presentation in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name in his column in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress win. The Academy itself didn't use the nickname officially until 1939.

Since its conception, the Oscar statuette has met exacting uniform standards -- with a few notable exceptions. In the 1930s, juvenile players received miniature replicas of the statuette; ventriloquist Edgar Bergen was presented with a wooden statuette with a moveable mouth; and Walt Disney was honored with one full-size and seven miniature statuettes on behalf of his animated feature SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Between 1942 and 1944, in support of the war effort, Oscars were made of plaster. After the War, winners turned in the temporary awards for golden Oscar statuettes.

The traditional Oscar statuette, however, hasn't changed since the 1940s, when the base was made higher. In 1945, the base was changed from marble to metal and in 1949, Academy Award statuettes began to be numbered, starting with No. 501.

Approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago by the manufacturer, R.S. Owens. If they don't meet strict quality control standards, the statuettes are immediately cut in half and melted down.

Each award is individually packed into a Styrofoam container slightly larger than a shoebox. Eight of these are then packed into a larger cardboard box, and the large boxes are shipped to the Academy offices in Beverly Hills via air express, with no identifiable markings.

On March 10, 2000, 55 Academy Awards mysteriously vanished en route from the Windy City to the City of Angels. Nine days later, 52 of stolen statuettes were discovered next to a dumpster in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles by Willie Fulgear, who was later invited by the Academy to attend the Oscar 2000 ceremonies as a special guest.

For eight decades, Oscar has survived war, weathered earthquakes, and even managed to escape unscathed from common thieves. Since 1995, however, R.S. Owens has repaired more than 160 statuettes. "Maybe somebody used chemicals on them to polish them and the chemicals rubbed right through the lacquer and into the gold," explains the company president. "Or maybe people stored them someplace where they corroded." Although he stresses that the statuette is made to endure, Siegel offers this sage advice to all Oscar winners: "If it gets dusty, simply wipe it with a soft dry cloth."