Oscar Fun Facts

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in the Crazy Heart
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Best Animated Feature Film: Up
Best Art Direction: Avatar

Although its official name is the Academy Award of Merit, most know and refer to the golden statuette as Oscar, even though the origin of the nickname is not known.

The Oscar stands 13-1/2 inches tall, not including the 3-inch base, and weighs a hefty 8-1/2 pounds. The figure is hand cast in brittanium - an alloy of tin, copper and antimony and then deburred, degreased and polished to a mirror finish. Then the statuette is washed in silver-plate, which adheres well to gold. Finally, after more polishing, the statuette is plated in 24-karat gold and receives a baked lacquer finish.

Because the names are top secret until they are awarded, they're not engraved until later; manufacturer R.S. Owens receives the list of winners only after the ceremony, then engraves the plates to ship back to Hollywood.

The Oscar has changed very little since its birth in the late 1920s, except for slight variations in the base. More than 2,300 statuettes have been awarded since the first one was presented in 1928.

Historic Symbols of Victory and Achievement

So after the last few postings about the current Olympic medals, I began wondering if their unique designs were always the case, or even if medals have always been awarded. In the trophy and awards industry, torch and laurel wreath motifs occur frequently, often on medals. Is there historic background for these icons?

Turns out, that beginning with the modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens, the first place finishers were awarded silver medals. It was not until the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis that the now standard colors of gold, silver, and bronze were awarded to first, second, and third place finishers, respectively.

While I could not find information directly linking the torch icon to the Olympic medals, the torch itself is iconic of the Olympics. Originating during the ancient Olympics, where a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games, the flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection.

The laurel wreath, a circular wreath made of interlocking branches and leaves of the bay laurel, appears in Greek mythology, where Apollo is represented wearing a laurel wreath on his head. In ancient times, wreaths were awarded to victors, both in athletic competitions and in poetic events; in Rome, they were symbols of martial victory, crowning a successful commander during his triumph.

Paralympics Also Soon To Start

Yesterday I made reference to the Paralympic medals, manufactured in the same fasion as the 2010 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, the Paralympics often take a back seat to the mainstream event, although the challenges, sacrifices, and determination displayed by its participants are as great, if not more.

This year's Paralympics are scheduled for March 12 thru 21, also in Vancouver. Events include alpine skiing, cross country skiing, biathlon, wheelchair curling, and sled hockey.

Today's Paralympic Games are elite competitions for athletes from six different disability groups and emphasize the athletic achievements of the participants rather than their disability. Like its Olympic counterpart, the Paralympic Games continue to draw more and more athletes, with more than 1,300 athletes representing more than 40 countries expected.

Shortly after the Olympic flame is extinguished in Vacouver, the Paralympic flame will be lit in Ottawa, Canada, and travel on a 10-day relay through Candada. The torch itself, 1 meter in length, was designed and manufactured by Bombardier, inspired by the Canadian winter landscape and the lines left on ice by winter sports. The torch also features the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games emblem, a red maple leaf air intake cut-out and an engraving of the Games motto "With Glowing Hearts/Des plus brillants exploits."

Manufacturing Details

Designed by the same artists and created at the same time, the 2010 Winter Paralympic medals are similar to the Olympic medals, but are a squared circle and feature a raven on a totem rising.

On the reverse side, both sets of medals include the official names of the Games in English and French as well as Vancouver 2010's emblems, the name of the sport, and the event the medal was awarded in. On the Paralympic medals, Braille is also used.

Both sets of medals were manufactured by The Royal Canadian Mint, with metals from Vancouver-based mining company Teck Resources' operations in Canada, Alaska, Chile, and Peru. A total of 615 Olympic and 399 Paralympic medals were made. Collectively:

• 2.05 kg of Teck's gold were used, with 6 g of gold plating used for each gold medal
• 1,950 kg of silver was used for the silver medals
• 903 kg of copper were provided by Teck for the bronze medals
• 6.8 metric tonnes of scrap circuit board was diverted from landfills to make them
• 1,014 different crops of the two master artworks were laser etched into each one-of-a-kind medal
• Each medal is more than 500 grams (more than 1 pound), among the heaviest of all Olympic medals
• Each medal ribbon can hold up to 90 kg (nearly 200 pounds).

A Piece of the Puzzle

This year's Olympic medals are also unique (see post, A New Wave) in that each one includes a different design, yet is part of a bigger whole.

The master artwork features an original West Coast aboriginal design of an Orca whale and was created by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer and artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. From this artwork, each medal includes a cropped portion of the piece. Each Olympic medal winner will then also receive a silk scarf with the full image printed on it, to allow them to see how their medal fits in with the larger whole.

According to the designer, she used native traditions to guide the design. From a CBC news release in October 2009:

"The orca is a beautiful creature that is strong but also lives within a community. I felt the Olympic Games are a community, too, " said Hunt.

"The athletes may be training but they're always somehow connected to their community, to their teammates, or to their country. The orca is a creature that has wonderful capabilities but can't really survive without its pod," she said.

Check back tomorrow for more details on the Olympic medals.

A New Wave

As noted in Dande Company's February newsletter, one of our customer's recently mentioned that it would be fun to learn about different famous awards. For example, he asked me, did I know that the Olympic medals were different for each Games held? In fact, I did not.

So with a little bit of research, I learned that indeed they are. In comparison to the 2006 Winter Games held in Torino, Italy, where the medals featured a cut-out inside circle, leading some to compare them to donuts, the 2010 Vancouver medals, while solid, have an undulating surface, causing some to compare them to Pringles potato chips. I wonder why everyone compares the different versions to food?

The 2010 winter medals are the first Olympic medals to not have a flat surface. Canadian industrial designer and architect Omer Arbel, of Vancouver, Canada, created the innovative undulating design of the medals, to represent the West Coast landscape of mountains and waves and drifting snow.

This winter's Olympic medals feature other unique aspects, so check back tomorrow to learn more!