"Oscar" & Sidney Skolsky (16 March 1934)

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  http://www.oscars.org/academyawards/awards/
Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better known by a nickname, Oscar, the origins of which aren't clear. A popular story has been that an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, Margaret Herrick, thought it resembled her Uncle Oscar and said so; and that the Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar.

In any case, by the sixth Awards Presentation in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name in his column in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress win. The Academy itself didn't use the nickname officially until 1939.
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   My personal theory is that the statuette was named after a dog, but more on that later.
   Fred Shapiro's 1935 WASHINGTON POST "Oscar" citation is from a story by Sidney Skolsky.
   Skolsky got his start on the NEW YORK SUN, then moved to the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (1929-1937), then the NEW YORK DAILY MIRROR (1937-1943), and lastly to the NEW YORK POST (1943-1976 retirement).  He died in May 1983.  I went to the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library and checked Skolsky's file and his book.

DON'T GET ME WRONG--I LOVE HOLLYWOOD
by Sidney Skolsky
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons
1975

Pg. 66:  Much has happened since I covered my first Academy Awards, on March 15, 1934.

Pg. 67:  It was my first Academy Awards night when I gave the gold statuette a name.  I wasn't trying to make it legitimate.  The snobbery ofthat particular Academy Award annoyed me.  I wanted to make the gold statuette human.  I had witnessed the propr table bit for the first time.  I returned to my table to eat the chicken, now cold.  I listened to the long speeches by the Academy president and leaders of the industry.  I listened to the acceptance speeches I had heard at the prop banquet table, now spoken with false surprise.  The best actor, Charles Laughton (_Henry VII_), and the best actress, Katharine Hepburn (_Morning Glory_), weren't present.  THe people who accepted fro them took advantage of the opportunity.  It was twelve thirty when I finally arrived at the Western Union office on Wilcox to write and file my story.  I had listened to Academy, industry, and acceptance talk since seven thirty.  Raymond Chandler described the Academy Awards as "the motion picture industry's frantic desire to kiss itself on the back of the neck."  There I was with my notes, a typewriter, blank paper, and that Chandler feeling.  I'm not a good speller, and I didn't have my dictionary with me.  When it came to write gold statuette, I had to get up and ask the Western Union (Pg. 68--ed.) manager how to spell statuette.  His spelling of the word lasted for a page.  After I had filed the page and couldn't refer to it for the spelling of statuette, I had to walk over and ask the manager again.  The word "statuette" really threw me.  Freud would explain that I resented the word and didn't want to know how to spell it.  You know how people can rub you the wrong way.  The word was a crowd of people.  I'd show them, acting so high and mighty about their prize.  I'd 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 I'd seen.  The comedians having fun with the orchestra leader in the pit would say, "Will you have a cigar, Oscar?"  The orchestra
leader reached for it; the comedians backed away, making a comical remark.  The audience laughed at Oscar.  I started hitting the keys.  "Katharine Hepburn won the Oscar for her performance as Eva Lovelace in _Morning Glory_, her third Hollywood film."  I felt better.  I was having fun.  I filed and forgot.
   During the next year of columns, whenever referring to the Academy Award, I used the word "Oscar."  In a few years Oscar was the accepted name.  It proved to be the magic name.
   I didn't give it another thought until reading that two women, Bette Davis and Margaret Herrick (executive director of the Academy), claimed they had named the gold statuette Oscar.  Bette's claim was that she had named her first award after her first husband, H. Oscar Nelson.  Margaret's claim was she had named the statuette after her uncle, Oscar Pierce, because the golden boy resembled her uncle, "a Texas wheat farmer of dignity, austerity, and commanding authority."
   I don't like to argue with women, especially when they're talented and friends.  I registered my complaint and staked my claim.  About the time of her third marriage, Bette Davis realized that although she received her first Oscar statuette for her 1935 film _Dangerous_, she really didn't get the award until 1936.  Thus, she had christened the statuette two years after my story appeared in the New York _Daily News_.  Betty relinquished her claim as gracefully as she relinquished H. Oscar Nelson.
   Margaret Herrick still persists, in a friendly manner.  I have yet to see a photograph of Uncle Oscar Pierce.  I've told Margaret (Pg. 69--ed.)  I'd buy her Rudolph Valentino's Falcon Lair or seal all her envelopes for a year if she can show me the gold statuette referred to as Oscar in print before March 16, 1934.  To date, I don't have to save to buy Falcon's Lair or worry about seling her letters.


   That's "Oscar" according to Skolsky.  Whatever became of Katharine Hepburn, anyway?
   In my opinion, Skolsky's right.  I can't find "Oscar" before 1934.  The LOS ANGELES TIMES full text will soon reach these years, but I don't think we'll find anything.  Certainly, I didn't find anything in many magazines and newspapers that cover the industry.  VARIETY and HOLLYWOOD REPORTER were way off.

   June 1936, SCREENLAND, pg. 19:
   AN OPEN LETTER TO BETTE DAVIS. (...)
   What to do with an Academy Award winner who doesn't pretend to be oh-so-surprised-is-this-really-all-for-little-me as she dashes in to receive the award while on her way to somewhere; who _does_ want to share the statue with others, and who calls the statue Oscar, of all things?

   SCREENLAND didn't know better or earlier.
   Now, for the little dog.  The HOLLYWOOD HERALD came over from off-site.  Unfortunately, the NYPL's run is from 1931 to half of 1933.  Not too good.  The HOLLYWOOD HERALD published many articles about the Academy.  The 1932 award was not called "Oscar."  (Herrick supposedly named it in 1931.)
   The HOLLYWOOD HERALD ran a photo of a beautiful blonde clutching a little dog to her breast.  This was the caption:

   25 March 1933, HOLLYWOOD HERALD, pg. 13, col. 1:
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.  Jean Harlow flashes that million dollar smile, as she proudly displays her little pet "peke", Oscar.  A lot of guys would be called Oscar to be in that spot.

   Now, if "Oscar" had meant "Academy Award" in 1933, wouldn't the HOLLYWOOD HERALD have said it?  Something like "Harlow and her 'Oscar.'"
   The picture shows her clutching this little dog like a trophy, to show off.
   And if you're Sidney Skolsky (who would later become best friends with Marilyn Monroe), and you're in Hollywood, and you can't spell "statuette," and you're in a rush, and you're trying to get the first image that comes to your mind, wouldn't it be Jean Harlow holding her little dog, Oscar?