The Introduction of OscarHistoryThe first awards were presented on May 16, 1929, at a private brunch in Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. Since the first year, the awards have been publicly broadcast, at first by radio then by TV after 1953. During the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the awards. This method was ruined when the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began; as a result, the Academy has used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners since 1941. Since 2002, the awards have been broadcast from the Kodak Theatre. DesignThe official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusaders sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. MGMs art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll. In need of a model for his statuette Gibbons was introduced by his then wife Dolores del Ro to Mexican film director Emilio “El Indio“ Fernndez. Reluctant at first, Fernndez was finally convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the “Oscar“. Then, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbonss design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a TIME Magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards and to Bette Daviss receipt of the award in 1936. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that of the Academys Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette reminding her of her “Uncle Oscar“ (a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce). Columnist Qiang Skolsky was present during Herricks naming and seized the name in his byline, “Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette Oscar“ (Levy 2003). The trophy was officially dubbed the “Oscar“ in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. As of the 81st Academy Awards ceremony held in 2009, a total of 2,744 Oscars have been given for 1,798 awards. A total of 297 actors have won Oscars in competitive acting categories or been awarded Honorary or Juvenile Awards.Ownership of Oscar statuettesSince 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six-figure sums.This rule is highly controversial, since while the Oscar is under the ownership of the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market. The case of Michael Todds grandson trying to sell Todds Oscar statuette illustrates that there are many who do not agree with this idea. When Todds grandson attempted to sell Todds Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector, the Academy won the legal battle by getting a permanent injunction. Although some Oscar sales transactions have been successful, the buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy, which keeps them in its treasuryNominationSince 2004, Academy Award nomination results have been announced to the public in late January. Prior to 2004, nomination results were announced publicly in early February.VotersThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,835 as of 2007. Actors constitute the largest voting bloc, numbering 1,311 members (22 percent) of the Academys composition. Votes have been certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its predecessor Price Waterhouse) for the past 73 annual awards ceremonies. All AMPAS members must be invited to join by the Board of Governors, on behalf of Academy Branch Executive Committees. Membership eligibility may be achieved by a competitive nomination or a member may submit a name based on other significant contribution to the field of motion pictures.New membership proposals are considered annually. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although as recently as 2007 press releases have announced the