Oscar, the world's most recognizable trophy, is made in Chicago

What? This is where the most recognizable trophy in the world comes from? Here?

From the outside, the R.S. Owens company looks like any other nondescript building in a Chicago industrial park. Inside, the place is Spartan spare with exposed wires snaking out of the walls and holes punched where interior windows will eventually be.

"We're in the middle of renovations," explains David Kogan, an R.S. Owens public relations rep.

Frankly, the place looks like something out of a '40s B-movie, ripe for a late-night raid by the bunco squad.

Don't be fooled by surface appearances, though.

More Coverage Video , class="mediaItem">Making an Oscar

R.S. Owens, 5535 N. Lynch Ave. in Chicago, is a magical place where some of the most exquisitely handcrafted trophies known to man are created. This is also the home of Oscar and Emmy: Oscar as in the Academy Awards statuette; Emmy as in the winged award for the television industry.

The company creates and manufactures a whole line of world-famous awards.

But let's be honest. Who really cares about those other trophies? The Oscar rules as the world's best known and most awe-inspiring figurine of a naked man with a big sword in his hands.

Every Oscar statuette you see at the upcoming Academy Awards show on Feb. 24 (if the writer's strike doesn't kill the program as it did the Golden Globes) comes from the same single mold here at R.S. Owens. Only one other Oscar mold exists, and that one is kept under tight security at the academy offices on the West Coast.

"Oscar is safe here," says Noreen Prohaska, an R.S. Owens sales manager, company historian and guardian of the Oscar. "Security is very tight."

For 24 years, Prohaska has ridden shotgun on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences account. For three years, she became Oscar's personal bodyguard, traveling with him to make sure he arrived on time in Los Angeles. Since the big Oscar heist of 2000, security has been a paramount issue.

Prohaska remembers that fateful night when she received a telephone call from a worried associate.

"She whispers to me on the phone, 'They think the Oscars have been stolen.' I said, 'Don't worry. They're probably just late getting there.'

"She called me back the next day. 'They still haven't arrived. And the police are looking for them in L.A.' So, we were sworn to secrecy for at least five days."

Everyone at R.S. Owens kept the Oscars theft a secret. Eventually, the news media found out. The academy put Owens' employees on emergency overtime to whip up a new batch of handmade statuettes in six days, just in case the stolen ones didn't turn up in time.

As it turned out, authorities recovered all but three of the stolen Oscars, but as pieces of police evidence, they couldn't be used for the 2000 awards show anyway.

What is it that gives Oscar his magnetic personality?

Prohaska has a theory, delivered with a wee Irish flair that betrays she moved to Chicago from Dublin at the age of 19. "He's about the only male who's timeless and generates interest wherever he goes."

What exactly is this timeless Oscar fellow made of?

In the beginning, it was gold-plated solid bronze. Later, during the lean years of World War II, gold-painted plaster.

Today, Oscar begins as a raw, hand-cast chunk of Britannia metal, a dull silver alloy that resembles pewter. Oscar next gets his rough edges taken off with a sander before being polished to a mirror finish. Then come four layers of electroplated copper, nickel and silver. For the final touches, the statuette receives a layer of 24-karat gold and a finishing bath of protective lacquer. (To view the entire sequence, log on to www.dailyherald.com.)

R.S. Owens artisans embed serial numbers into the base of each Oscar. Nameplates for the winners are created after the awards show and are attached to the statuettes by academy personnel.

"We don't just make Oscars here," Prohaska volunteers. "Sometimes, the Oscars come back for refinishing. Sometimes a cleaning person will polish them with something abrasive and take the shine off. Sometimes they have been stored in basements and there will be mold on them. It has the protective lacquer on them, but sometimes the elements eat into that and the plating will be affected."

Any examples?

"We re-plated Frank Sinatra's Oscar. Gregory Peck's for 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' The most unique Oscar out there belongs to Geena Davis for 'Accidental Tourist.' After an earthquake, her Oscar stood at an angle. She did not want it repaired. So, the only thing that can break an Oscar is an earthquake."

Really?

"Really. There were a few that were broken in the earthquake that we had to re-do. We also replaced Gene Kelly's. It was lost in a fire."

Has anyone ever replicated a fake Oscar and tried to foist it off as the genuine item?

"No," Prohaska says, "not to my knowledge. It's under scrutiny all the time. The eyes are always watching."

R.S. Owens was founded in 1938 by Owen Siegel. Why, then, didn't he name the company Siegel's?

"He changed his name around. He had a son named Robert and his wife was named Shirley," Prohaska says. "He also has a son named Scott who is now president of the company. So, it's all intermingled."

Kogan has another explanation. "It was 1938 and Siegel didn't want his company to sound too Jewish. You have to remember the times. It was simply a business decision."

Mystery solved. But does R.S. Owens harbor any other big secrets?

"Yes," Prohaska says. "What an Oscar costs. That's secret."

Maybe not.

According to Chicago magazine writer Bradley Lincoln, 2000 police reports indicated the value of the stolen Oscars to be about $350 per statuette. Does that sound about right?

"I don't know," Prohaska replies, "but in any case, inflation has set in, right?"

Although she has been Oscar's companion and protector for almost a quarter of a century, Prohaska has only attended the Academy Awards show twice.

What did she think?

"Surreal," she says with her gentle Irish lilt. "Out of this world. A lot of fun."

Even when her tiny golden date goes home with another person.

Oscar facts

bull; Oscar's official name is "The Academy Award of Merit." The statuette depicts a knight, apparently sans armor and clothing, holding a broadsword while standing on a film reel with five spokes. The spokes signify the five original branches of the academy -- directors, actors, producers, technicians and writers.

bull; Oscar stands 13#189; inches high and weighs 8#189; pounds.

bull; R.S. Owens was founded in 1938, and if you invert the 3 and 8, you get 1983, the year the company started manufacturing the Oscars.

bull; The academy does not know the exact number of Oscars needed until winners are announced. Ties and multiple recipients make it tough to gauge the number that will be handed out.

bull; R.S. Owens receives two free tickets to the Academy Awards show. President Scott Siegel, son of the founder, gives them to his senior employees based on tenure. He also springs for the airfare and hotel.