Editing Academy Awards (section)

=== Naming ===
The origin of the nickname of the trophy has been disputed, as multiple people have taken credit for naming the trophy "Oscar".

[[Margaret Herrick]], librarian and president of the Academy, may have said she named it after her supposed uncle Oscar in 1931.{{Efn|Sources conflict on whether she actually said this. ''[[Deadline Hollywood]]'' puts doubt on it, saying {{"'}}He reminds me of my Uncle Oscar,' she was reported to have said, while in the hearing of a 'nearby newspaper columnist' who picked up the anecdote and ran with it the next day". ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' and ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' state with certainty that she made a claim to the Oscar nickname.}} The only corroboration was a 1938 clipping from the ''[[Los Angeles Examiner]]'', in which Herrick told a story of her and her husband joking with each other using the phrase, "How's your uncle Oscar".<ref name=":2"/>

[[Bette Davis]], in her 1962 autobiography, claimed she named it in 1936 after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, of whom the statue's rear end reminded her.<ref name=":2"/><ref>{{cite web |date=February 18, 2015 |title=Oscars: Who Came Up With the Name "Oscar" and More About the Statuette's History (Video) |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-who-came-up-name-774775 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029231953/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-who-came-up-name-774775 |archive-date=October 29, 2019 |access-date=October 29, 2019 |website=The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref> But the term had been in use at least two years before. In a 1974 biography written by Whitney Stine with commentary from Davis, Davis wrote, "I relinquish once and for all any claim that I was the one—so, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the honor is all yours."<ref name=":2"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stine |first1=Whitney |title=Mother Goddam: The Story of the Career of Bette Davis |last2=Davis |first2=Bette |publisher=[[Hawthorn Books]] |year=1974 |isbn=0-8015-5184-6 |location=New York |page=74 |lccn=73-10265 |oclc=1150862598}}</ref>

Columnist [[Sidney Skolsky]] wrote in his 1970 memoir that he came up with the term in 1934 under pressure for a deadline, mocking [[Vaudeville]] comedians who asked "Will you have a cigar, Oscar?" The Academy credits Skolsky with "the first confirmed newspaper reference" to ''Oscar'' in his column on March 16, 1934, which was written about that year's [[6th Academy Awards]].<ref>{{cite web |date=August 27, 2014 |title=The 6th Academy Awards Memorable Moments |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1934/memorable-moments |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226111216/https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1934/memorable-moments |archive-date=February 26, 2019 |access-date=February 25, 2019 |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences}}</ref> But in the newspaper clipping that Skolsky referred to, he wrote that {{qi|these statues are called 'Oscars'}}, meaning that the name was already in use.<ref name=":2"/>

In 2021, Brazilian researcher [[Waldemar Dalenogare Neto]] contradicted Skolsky's claim to have used the term first, finding the probable first public mention of the name "Oscar" in journalist [[Relman Morin]]'s "Cinematters" column in the ''[[Los Angeles Evening Record]]'' on December 5, 1933. Since the awards didn't take place that year, he said: "What's happened to the annual Academy banquet? As a rule, the banquet and the awarding of "Oscar", the bronze statuette given for best performances, is all over long before this."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dalenogare |first=Waldemar |date=June 6, 2021 |title=Descoberta: primeira menção ao nome Oscar na imprensa |url=https://dalenogare.com/2021/06/descoberta-primeira-mencao-ao-nome-oscar-na-imprensa/ |access-date=February 20, 2024 |website=Movie Reviews by Dalenogare |language=en-US}}</ref>

Bruce Davis, a former executive director of the Academy, credited Eleanore Lilleberg, a secretary at the Academy when the award was first introduced, for the nickname. She had overseen the pre-ceremony handling of the awards. Davis credits Lilleberg because he found in an autobiography of Einar Lilleberg, Eleanore's brother, that Einar had referenced a Norwegian army veteran named Oscar whom the two knew in Chicago, whom Einar described as having always "stood straight and tall".<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Cieply |first=Michael |date=June 26, 2022 |title=So, Once And For All (We Hope), Bruce Davis Settles Why They Call It 'Oscar' |url=https://deadline.com/2022/06/once-for-all-bruce-davis-settles-why-they-call-it-oscar-1235052129/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626154131/https://deadline.com/2022/06/once-for-all-bruce-davis-settles-why-they-call-it-oscar-1235052129/ |archive-date=June 26, 2022 |access-date=June 26, 2022 |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]}}</ref><ref name=":3"/> He asserts credit "should almost certainly belong to" Lilleberg.<ref name=":3"/>