Academy Awards have Oscar: Award Names Explained

Academy Awards Have Oscar: Award Names Explained

Some award names make sense. The Golden Globes are, well, a globe that’s golden. The Grammys are short for “gramophone,” which makes sense given the fact that a golden one crowns the music industries highest honor. However, with some awards you have to wonder – what do they mean? What on earth does the word “Emmy” have to do with television, or “Oscar” have to do with the Academy Awards? Last Friday marked the anniversary of the first Tony Awards, which were presented on April 6, 1947 to celebrate the best in American theater. But who or what was behind the name of the Tony Awards, and what did they have to do with theatre?

The Tony Awards actually refer to “Toni,” also known as Antoinette Perry. A pioneer for women in American theater, Antoinette Perry was an actress, a director, a producer and a philanthropist who revolutionized the theatrical industry. She led the Theatre Wing of Allied Relief during World War Two, and personally financed six USO tours to entertain the troops. An accomplished actress, Antoinette Perry toured the nation in some of the most popular hits of her day, and as a director she took on a role typically reserved for men, enjoying her greatest success as the co-producer and director of Harvey. After her death in 1946, the Theatre Wing of Allied Relief (now the American Theatre Wing) decided to give an award in her honor. When presenter Jacob Wilk slipped and referred to the award by Antoinette Perry’s nickname, the Tony Awards were born.

The Emmy Awards have a similarly creative history, though they are not named for any individual person. At first, the television awards were supposed to be called the “Ike,” short for “iconoscope,” which was a component television cameras. However, fearing that the award be too similar to the nickname of then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry Lubcke came up with the name “Immy,” short for the early image orthicon camera. Since the statue depciated a winged woman holding an atom, the producers changed the name to “Emmy” for a more feminine touch, and thus the Emmy Awards came into being.

There are any number of stories about the origins of “Oscar” for the Academy Awards. Some claim it was because it looked like King Oscar the II of Norway; others avow that it was named for Harmon Oscar Nelson, a popular bandleader. However, the most popular story is that Academy librarian Margaret Herrick, upon seeing the Academy Awards statuette for the first time, remarked “It looks like my Uncle Oscar!” That’s the story that the Academy Awards website is sticking to, and far be it from us to argue (though goodness knows I’ve argued with them enough).

When it comes to branding, it seems that Tony Awards, Emmys, and Oscars will far outlive their original, more academic names. While there’s a certain thrill in hearing, “The Academy Award goes  to…” or “The Antoinette Perry Award goes to…” nothing beats hearing the name of Oscar or Tony called on awards night, except hearing your own name called too.

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