The exhibition "Meet the Oscars, New York" will display 50 new Oscar statuettes, two inscribed Academy Awards, and one Oscar for the public to hold. The East Coast version of "Meet the Oscars" will take place at the Times Square Studios in New York City from Friday, February 15, through Saturday, February 23. The exhibition will be open daily from noon to 7 p.m. Admission is free.
The Oscar won by Gary Cooper for his performance as the title character in Sergeant York (1941, right) will be on display alongside Thelma Schoonmaker's Academy Award for Film Editing for The Departed (2006).
Cooper and Schoonmaker each have won three Academy Awards.
Gary Cooper won his second Oscar for the 1952 Western High Noon and a 1960 Honorary Award "for his many memorable screen performances and the international recognition he, as an individual, has gained for the motion picture industry." Cooper, suffering from terminal cancer, was unable to attend the ceremony. James Stewart accepted the statuette on his behalf.
All of Schoonmaker's Oscars have come for editing Best Picture contenders directed by Martin Scorsese. Her two other wins were for Raging Bull (1980) and The Aviator (2004).
The 50 new statuettes featured in the exhibition will be presented to winners at a future Academy Awards ceremony. (The statuettes on display in "Meet the Oscars, Los Angeles" from February 1 through 23 will be presented at the 2008 Academy Awards telecast.)
Each Oscar weighs 8½ pounds and stands 13½ inches tall. Handmade annually by R.S. Owens & Company in Chicago, the statuettes are made of britannia, a metal alloy, and are plated in copper, nickel, silver and 24-karat gold.
In one format or another (thanks to the WGA strike), the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 24, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in the congested heart of Hollywood.