During WWII, the Only Men Getting Plastered for Oscar Night Were the Statuettes | Atlas Obscura

Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way (1944). (Image: Public domain/Wikipedia)

“Boy, it’s heavy!”

Those were the opening words of Faye Dunaway’s acceptance speech when she won the Best Actress Oscar for Network in 1977. Estelle Parsons expressed the same sentiment at the beginning of her Best Actress speech 10 years earlier, as have many other winners over the decades.

Oscar statuettes are 13.5 inches tall and weigh eight-and-a-half pounds. That’s a hefty little metal guy to be clutching when you’re emotionally overwhelmed and being broadcast live(ish) around the world. But for three years during World War II, Academy Award winners bore a lighter load when they accepted their statuettes.

Due to the wartime metal shortage, Oscars awarded at the…

Source: During WWII, the Only Men Getting Plastered for Oscar Night Were the Statuettes | Atlas Obscura