Film Industry’s Most Coveted Prize Starts Life in Illinois Trophy Firm

Blackened by decades of time and use, the four pieces of metal resemble hundreds of other trophy molds stacked on a long, tall row of dusty shelves.

Only when the parts are heated, clamped together, filled with a molten pewter alloy and hammered open do they reveal their special content--a shiny gray metal figure that will be hand-polished and gold-plated to become the movie industry’s most prestigious award--the Oscar.

Trophies and awards are an American ritual of recognition--from bowling leagues to Miss America to the Super Bowl. But few if any figurines or chalices are as easily recognized and awarded with such televised glitter as the few dozen gleaming gold Oscars that will be handed out today at the 59th motion picture awards ceremony at 6 p.m. on ABC.

1,729 Oscars Awarded

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members vote on the Oscars, 1,729 of the statuettes have been given out until this year.

Each of the individually numbered Oscars has been hand-cast from the original 60-pound mold that was transferred several years ago to R. S. Owens & Co., a trophy and awards manufacturer located in a series of brick buildings in a quiet industrial section of this northern Chicago suburb.

In the company’s locked showroom, the shiny gold Oscar--measuring 13 1/2 inches high and weighing 8 1/2 pounds, is easily noticeable in the center of the room, where three walls of glass shelves hold hundreds of trophies including footballs, golf balls, horses, even a tiny golden toilet.

Until about four years ago, the Oscars were made by the Dodge Trophy & Awards Co., which moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 1930 and began to produce them.

While making the Oscar provides more prestige than profit to a trophy manufacturer, the Owens firm had long sought the Oscar contract. Owen R. Siegel, founder and president of the company with nearly 300 employees, says his company got the job after the academy learned that Dodge had farmed out work on the Oscar to other firms and that Dodge also wanted to raise its prices to make a profit on producing the Oscar.

Siegel’s firm produces other major entertainment awards, including the gold Emmy, the shiny silver space figurine given out by MTV, along with other special recording and broadcast awards. Another special-order award now in production is a smaller copy of the Super Bowl trophy for individual members of the New York Giants.

Siegel says the fact that so few are made and given out in such a large industry makes the Oscar in his opinion “one of the most prestigious in the world.”

While the original Oscar mold has been refitted and some retooling work done to improve the base, its design has never changed from the one that Cedric Gibbons, who headed MGM’s art department from 1924 to 1956, sketched on a tablecloth in 1927.

Sculptor George Stanley transformed the sketch of a knight holding a crusader’s sword standing on a reel of film into the statuette. The five circles on the top of the reel are said to represent the five original branches of the academy--actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers.

Credit for the Oscar’s nickname goes to Margaret Herrick, a long-time employee of the academy, who took one look at it in 1931 and said it reminded her of her Uncle Oscar.

Siegel says the award is a simple, high-quality design that is far less complicated than other more intricate molds that have more than 20 pieces. Still totally hand-cast, polished and plated, each Oscar takes about 30 man-hours to make. It begins with filling the mold with britannia metal, the pewter alloy, and then it is electroplated with copper, nickel, silver, brass and heavy gold plate. Each Oscar goes into a separate white box fitted with plastic foam before being shipped to a company warehouse in California.

‘A Better Oscar’

“We actually are producing a better Oscar figure than has ever been produced because now we cover the gold with epoxy lacquer,” Siegel says. “Ten years ago, there wasn’t such a thing as epoxy lacquer.”

That is certain to be good news to those who receive the Oscar tonight. Siegel has several Oscars sitting in his office that are less than 20 years old that have been returned with the gold plating almost totally worn away.

“A lot of the recipients live near the ocean and the salt air will eat into the finish of any metal.

While the layer of epoxy lacquer produces a harder finish, Siegel says others have been returned because people have used cleaning solutions and polishes on them. Only a soft cloth should be used on them, he adds.

“People think they are doing the right thing by trying to polish them with a polishing agent. Actually they destroy the lacquer,” he says. Each Oscar is individually numbered, and a record is kept of each recipient. “The academy knows where every single one is,” he says.

In special circumstances, a recipient can receive a replacement. When fire burned actor Gene Kelly’s home, the academy asked Siegel’s company to provide Kelly with a new Oscar, complete with a new number.

Siegel ships 20 to 30 extra Oscars each year “because nobody knows exactly how many will be given out until the ceremony is over.” The bronze plates with the recipients’ names are engraved after the ceremony.

One of the questions Siegel is most frequently asked is how much it costs to produce the Oscar. He declines to answer.

“I like to say that they are worth a million dollars to the people who receive them,” he says.

Final countdown to the Academy Awards. Part VI, Page 1.