In 1940, when Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American Oscar winner for her supporting role in "Gone With the Wind," she was not allowed to join the other Oscar winners or the general public; it was against the law.
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Since 1950, Oscar winners must agree not to sell their statuettes without first offering them to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the price of $1.
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During the metal shortages of World War II, the Oscar statuettes were made of plaster.
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In 2000, 55 unengraved Oscars were stolen from a loading dock in Los Angeles but were later found in a trash bin a few days later.
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The most nominations for a single film are 14. (All About Eve, Titanic)
Bette Davis& Anne Baxter in “All About Eve” (credit: Getty Images)
Longest Oscar telecast: 2002, 4 hr 23 min (Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind)
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Bob Hope hosted the Academy Awards ceremony a record 18 times.
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The Oscar statuette is not made of gold but instead a pewterlike alloy called brittanium, which is 93 percent tin, 5 percent antimony and 2 percent copper. It is then plated with gold.
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The very Academy Awards ceremony was held in a banquet room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929. It was also the shortest, lasing 15 minutes!
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Whoopi Goldberg claims that she cannot find her Oscar statuette!
