Walt Disney Still Record-Holder for Most Won Academy Awards in History

Walt’s Oscar Collection Showcased at The Walt Disney Family Museum

 San Francisco, CA (January 8, 2013)—The Walt Disney Family Museum celebrates the 2013 Academy Awards season with recently compiled fun facts about the legendary Oscars and Walt Disney. Twenty-six of these famed Awards are on view at the Museum including the celebrated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Oscar which is on exhibit through April 14, 2013 in the special exhibition, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic.

• Between 1931 and 1968, Walt Disney won 32 Academy Awards and still holds the record for most individual Academy Awards won. This number includes special and technical awards.
• Twenty-six of Walt’s Academy Awards—including the Honorary Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs—are on display at The Walt Disney Family Museum.
• Walt’s first Oscar was the first ever Academy Award for Animated Short Subjects, his Silly Symphony “Flowers and Trees.” That same Academy Award Ceremony in 1932, Walt was also given an Honorary Award, which was presented to him for the creation of Mickey Mouse.
• In 1939, Walt received a custom-made Oscar statuette for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The Honorary Award consisted of one standard Oscar statuette, standing above seven other miniature ones—representing each of the Dwarfs, placed on a stepped, 20-inch long base. Shirley Temple presented this second Honorary Award (he won a total of four in his lifetime)—this by far was the most distinctive award in Academy history.
• The first ever nature documentary Academy Award was awarded to Walt in 1948 for Seal Island.
• In the 1960s, Walt purchased 20 miniature Oscar charms, each engraved with the name of the work for which it was awarded. He created a beautiful charm necklace and gifted it to his wife Lilian, who then converted it into a charm bracelet, which is on view at The Walt Disney Family Museum.
• Academy Award host Bob Hope is rumored to have said (in tribute to Walt’s many wins), ‘if we have any of these statues left over, we’ll just send them to Walt Disney.’
• Walt also holds the record for themost Academy Award nominations with 59 nods.

Join us for a daily screening of the Academy Award-winning film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the Museum’s Fantasia-inspired theater. The film screens daily at 4pm through April. Check www.waltdisney.org for more info and tickets.

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