Why do they call it an “Oscar”? We looked into it
The 2018 Oscar nominations were officially announced today, January 23rd, and we currently have a few questions. Like, why wasn’t Tiffany Haddid nominated for her amazing performance in Girls Trip? And will Greta Gerwig become the second woman to win an Oscar for directing ever?
But perhaps the more pressing question on our mind is: Why do they call it an Oscar? Sure, it’s a popular(ish) name, but is it linked to anyone specific? It is an acronym?
The Oscar itself is an award statue of a man holding a sword, and it may be one of the most widely recognized trophies around. The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929, and the statue design was brainstormed a few years earlier. According to Business Insider.com, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences initially worked with Cedric Gibbons, who was an art director at MGM, as well as a sculptor from Los Angeles named George Stanley, to create the official trophy.
But okay, why Oscar? According to the Academy’s website, legend has it that the 8.5-pound statue resembled someone’s relative. Academy librarian Margaret Herrick’s Uncle Oscar, to be exact. And the inside joke stuck.
Of course, a lot of that is just rumor. But the Academy seems pretty happy to stick by the popular story.
Can you imagine being the Uncle Oscar that made it all happen?
Even if it’s hearsay, we love the fact that the name for such a prestigious honor may have the most non-prestigious of origin stories. Cheers to Uncle Oscar!
