Well… maybe there’s a stretch here. But I’ll get back to that.
The main questions aRe: How did Oscar originate… and how did he
get his name?
Let’s start with how he got his name. There are a few versions…
but I have my favorite and so that’s the one I will present as fact.
The year is 1935. The movie is Dangerous. The actress is Bette
Davis. Upon receiving the award Ms. Davis is said to have made a
remark something to the effect that the statuette’s tuchis reminded
her of the one belonging to her then husband-du-jour… Harmon Oscar
Nelson. Keeping that in mind one might easily surmise that the
statuette was named after someone’s ass. Quaint… eh wot?
As to the origin of the Oscar… the year is 1926. A committee is
formed in order to the need for the Academy to have a strong image.
It was boring. Cedric Gibbons… committee chair… alleviates his
ennui by doodling a naked knight thrusting his sword into a reel of
film. One has to wonder–since the knight is naked–is the sword a
sword or a metaphor. His vorpal blade went snicker snack… but
that’s another story.
It’s not clear if that doodle was the germination of the ultimate
model which was created two years later by an out-of-work artist
named George Stanley. But I like to think it was… else why mention
it.
Which brings us by way of my now famous segue… to Walt Disney…
and how many Oscars he won. I believe the number is 22. However… I
have a bracelet… a gold bracelet… a gold charm bracelet in
fact… a gold charm Oscar bracelet with 20 replicas of the little
fellows hanging from the links… each one engraved on the bottom
with the name of the film for which he won the award and the date the
award was given.
Egocentric? Maybe. But if there was ever a man that deserved to
indulge in a bit of egocentricity upon occasion… Walt Disney was
him.
So… I know this is short… but that can be good at times. That
said… go… go… look. It’s an interesting an historical piece of
jewelry.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits… click it… and you will see represented on
our pages an Oscar winning bracelet of Oscars for Disney.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
atch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark