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Unlike this year's Academy Award snoozefest (which clocked in at 4 hours 16 minutes) and some of its lengthy acceptance speeches, the answer to your question is thankfully short and sweet. Hollywood's most-coveted leading man was designed by MGM's chief art director, Cedric Gibbons in 1928. It depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. The reel's five spokes symbolize the Academy's original branches: actors, writers, directors, producers, and technicians. Each Oscar checks
in at a statuesque 13 1/2 inches, weighs 8 1/2 pounds, and is made of bronze that has been plated with 24-karat gold. Over the years, Oscar has received several "facelifts." Juvenile actors like Shirley Temple and Hayley Mills received mini replicas, and Walt Disney was honored with a full-sized statue and seven dwarf-sized ones. During WWII, the award was made of plaster. The Oscar we know and love today hasn't changed since the 1940s, when the base was enlarged and changed to metal (it was originally marble) and the Academy started numbering each golden boy.
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