Message from Barry Popik about "Oscar" (Academy Award)

Mon Feb 27 02:53:34 UTC 2012

Barry Popik shared the message below with several ads-l members, and I now
share it with
the rest of ads-l.  Note also Barry's published item (the lengthy title sums
up the article):
"Reporter Sidney Skolsky, Not Margaret Herrick, Likely Coined 'Oscar"
Academy Award
(1934)--Inspired By Annoyance At What He Perceived As The Snobbery And
Phoniness of       
the Awards and the Desire To Poke Fun At Them; He Remembered A Standard
Vaudeville         
Line Following Which The Audence Laughed At 'Oscar' --- in: Comments on
Etymology, 
vol. 34, no. 2, Nov. 2004, pp. 2-8.

Gerald Cohen

From: Barry Popik [mailto:bapopik at aol.com]
Sent: Sun 2/26/2012 4:00 PM
To: Cohen, Gerald Leonard
Cc: fred.shapiro at yale.edu; bgzimmer at gmail.com; garsonotoole at gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: The mystery of "Oscar" (Academy Award) has been solved, and
he's Oscar Hammerstein

I always thought that some newspaper, somewhere, would get this right
.... Don't British newspapers have to print the truth or face large fines?
...
Barry Popik

 -----Original Message-----
From: Barry Popik <bapopik at aol.com>
To: expressletters <expressletters at express.co.uk>
Cc: news.desk <news.desk at express.co.uk>
Sent: Sat, Feb 25, 2012 10:23 pm
Subject: The mystery of "Oscar" (Academy Award) has been solved, and
he's Oscar Hammerstein

RE:
http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/304274
Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette earned its
more popular name because Academy librarian Margaret Herrick said it
resembled her uncle Oscar.
...
RE:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106226/Oscars-Old-Hollywood-glamour
-reigns-supreme-icons-Audrey-Hepburn-Frank-Sinatra-dazzle-awards.html
The root of where the name Oscar comes has become a highly contested
Hollywood legend. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named
the Oscar after her first husband - band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson.
Another claimed origin is that the Academy's secretary, Margaret
Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the
statuette reminding her of her 'Uncle Oscar'. The trophy was officially
dubbed the Oscar in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences.
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...
TO THE EXPRESS:
...
The mystery of who is "Oscar" (the Academy Award) has been solved.
Years ago, I submitted the first citation of "Oscar" to the Oxford
English Dictionary. That 1934 citation is from Hollywood reporter
Sidney Skolsky (1905-1983), and he's very clear about his coinage of
"Oscar."
...
The standard story (told since about 1947) is that Academy librarian
Margaret Herrick saw the statuette in 1931 and stated that it looked
just like her uncle Oscar. She never had an uncle Oscar. She had a
nephew, Oscar Pierce, whom she apparently called her uncle.
...
Here are the facts. In the March 19, 1934 _New York Daily News_,
Skolsky wrote, "Although Katharine Hepburn wasn¹t
present to receive her Oscar, her constant companion and the gal she
resides with in Hollywood, Laura Harding, was there to hear Hepburn get
a round of applause for a change."
...
>From _Time_ magazine:
...
>>Oscars²
Monday, Mar. 26, 1934
In the cinema industry the small gold-washed statuets (sic) which the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annually awards for
meritorious productions and performances are called ³Oscars.¹¹ <<
...
>From _Time_ magazine, 11 September 1939: "Skolsky is one of the ablest
columnists in the business (he originated the term 'Oscar' for Academy
Awards) and by far the most popular."
...
Sidney Skolsky's book, _Don¹t Get Me Wrong‹I Love Hollywood_ (1975),
tells most of the rest of the story, but not all of it:
...
>>The word ³statuette² really threw me. Freud would explain that I
resented the word and didn¹t want to know how to spell it. You know how
people can rub you the wrong way. The word was a crowd of people. I¹d
show them, acting so high and mighty about their prize. I¹d give it a
name. A name that would erase their phony dignity. I needed the magic
name fast. But fast! I remembered the vaudeville shows I¹d seen. The
comedians having fun with the orchestra leader in the pit would say,
³Will you have a cigar, Oscar?² The orchestra leader reached for it;
the comedians backed away, making a comical remark. The audience
laughed at Oscar. I started hitting the keys. ³Katharine Hepburn won
the Oscar for her performance as Eva Lovelace in _Morning Glory_, her
third Hollywood film.²<<
...
The saying "Will you have a cigar, Oscar?" takes us directly to our
Oscar. Oscar Hammerstein (1847-1919) was a famous cigar
manufacturer and opera impresario. Hammerstein founded the _U.S.
Tobacco Journal_, built New York's Manhattan Opera House in 1893 and
the London Opera House in 1911. "Have a cigar!" was his famous line,
cited in print since at least 1896. His grandson, named Oscar
Hammerstein II,
would become a famous songwriter, nominated for five "Oscars" and
winning two on some enchanted evenings.
...
SIdney Skolsky always told the same story about the origin of "Oscar"
and was furious that Academy librarian Margaret Herrick would take
false credit. The current Wikipedia "Academy Award" entry states
"Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick's
naming..."--completely wrong.
...
In 2009, I wrote to the Margaret Herrick (AMPAS) Library, telling them
that the identity of "Oscar" was at last known, and that it was the
75th anniversary of "Oscar," and that I'm a member of the American
Dialect Society and the American Name Society and an OED contributor
who researched this for them for free,
and the Margaret Herrick Library should know this.
...
No one emailed back.
...
You've probably heard many people at the Oscars "thank the Academy."
The Academy really should thank people like you and me, who buy its
product and
respect the traditions of the movies.
...
Maybe the people of London can fight for Oscar Hammerstein?
...
Barry Popik
16007 Rustic Lane
Austin, TX 78717
(512) 243-6227
www.barrypopik.com
...
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/oscar_academy_award/
...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award#cite_note-13
Naming
The root of the name Oscar is contested. One biography of Bette Davis
claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader
Harmon Oscar Nelson;[11] one of the earliest mentions in print of the
term Oscar dates back to a Time magazine article about the 1934 6th
Academy Awards.[12] Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy
for his Oscar as early as 1932.[13] Another claimed origin is that the
Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in
1931 and made reference to the statuette's reminding her of her "Uncle
Oscar" (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce).[14] Columnist Sidney
Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his
byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette
'Oscar'".[15] The trophy was officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by
the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.[16] Another legend
reports that the Norwegian-American Eleanor Lilleberg, executive
secretary to Louis B. Mayer, saw the first statuette and exclaimed, "It
looks like King Oscar II!".[17] At the end of the day she asked, "What
should we do with Oscar, put him in the vault?" and the name stuck.
...
http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/about/awards/oscar.html
Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better
known by its nickname, Oscar. While the origins of the moniker aren¹t
clear, a popular story has it that upon seeing the trophy for the first
time, Academy librarian (and eventual executive director) Margaret
Herrick remarked that it resembled her Uncle Oscar. The Academy didn¹t
adopt the nickname officially until 1939, but it was widely known
enough by 1934 that Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used it in a
piece referring to Katharine Hepburn¹s first Best Actress win.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org