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History of the Oscars ceremony

Some lesser known facts and figures about the world's biggest showbiz bash

The 86th Academy Awards are upon us. Here are some of the numbers on the biggest showbiz bash of all:

1929 - the year the first ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

270 - the number of guests who attended that event.

15 - the number of statuettes handed out in 1929

3 - the number of times the ceremony has not gone ahead as planned. In 1938 flooding in Los Angeles delayed it by a week. The event was postponed in 1968 following the murder of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and in 1981 after the failed assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

1939 - the first time the Academy called the award by its nickname - the Oscar. Up until then they had been known by their formal title - the Academy Award of Merit.

3 - the number of years during the Second World War that painted plaster statuettes were given out because of a shortage of metal caused by the conflict. They were all exchanged for gold-plated metal awards when the war ended.

2000 - the year that ceremony's shipment of statuettes were stolen. They were recovered in time, but ever since the Academy has kept a spare ceremony's worth of statuettes on hand.

6,028 - members of the academy who are eligible to vote

50 - Oscar statuettes created for the ceremony

2,900 - Oscar statuettes handed out since the ceremony began

34.3 - the height of the statuettes in centimetres

152.5 - the length of the red carpet in metres

75 - photographers on the red carpet

19 - times that Bob Hope hosted the Oscars

76 - countries submitting foreign language films

225 - countries where the 86th Oscar telecast will be seen


2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


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