Interesting facts about the Oscars

Here are some things you may not know about the Academy Awards

Tue, 04 Mar, 2014 - 00:00

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.