While no one is quite sure how Oscar came to stand for the annual motion picture award and statue, Emmy’s lineage is clear. She was named after a camera. Actually “she” was almost a “he.” Syd Cassyd, founder of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS), proposed Ike after the iconoscope but since there was a standing president by that name, this idea was quickly abandoned.
The statue started out as Immy, named after an early image orthicon camera. Immy was changed to Emmy after the statue was designed, to be a more clearly female name.
How did the design evolve?
In 1948, after rejecting 46 design proposals votes, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) members agreed on a design created by engineer Louis McManus who modeled the statue on his wife. In keeping with the times, Emmy holds out an atom, representing science and sports wings, representing art.

Here’s a video (editing is slap-dash) on how the 4¾ lbs statuettes that winners receive, are made today:

admin Awards, History/research, Television