In honor of Tech’s 125th birthday year, we’re partnering with Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine to highlight a piece of Tech history. This issue’s topic: the Freeman Oscars.

The following excerpt is number 109 on the list “125 Pieces of Tech History,” featured in the September/October 2010 issue of Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine: 

Y. Frank Freeman, who headed Paramount Pictures for two decades in his career as a film producer, received two Oscars, which are now housed in the library’s archives. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Freeman the first Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1957 and an honorary award in 1966 for his distinguished service to the film industry. 

Freeman was the Alumni Association president from 1921 to 1923, and he received its Distinguished Service Award in 1939, when the Association said, “As executive vice president of Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, his salary is among the highest paid in the country, even if through tax laws it is largely taken over by the government.”