Special Academy Award - Through
the years
that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences has presented Oscars, only rarely has
it departed from the norm with its awards.
Juvenile actors were occasionally presented with
small- size Oscars, and Edgar Bergen received a
wooden one in honor of his ventriloquist dummy,
Charlie McCarthy. But, the most elaborate of all
the special Academy Awards was the Oscar
presented to Walt Disney for "Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs." Since the film had made such
a tremendous impact on the movie industry, but
had not been nominated in the regular
categories, the Academy decided to present a
special award consisting of one full-size Oscar
and seven dwarf Oscars, on a specially-
constructed stair-step wooden base. The award
was presented to Walt by Shirley Temple in
1939.
