[12] Recognizing that children could be placed at a disadvantage in the hearts and minds of Academy voters when nominated alongside their adult counterparts in the competitive Best Actor and Best Actress categories[13] – and with no categories for Best Supporting Actor or Supporting Actress having yet been created[14] – the academy saw the need to establish an Honorary "Special Award" specifically to recognize juveniles under the age of eighteen for their work in film.

[2] Playfully dubbed the "Oscarette" by Bob Hope in 1945,[15] the statuette itself was a miniaturized Oscar, depicting an Art Deco image of a knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film.

[16] Standing approximately one-half the size of its full-sized counterpart, this rare child-sized trophy remained the prototype for the statuette throughout the history of the Award, with only relatively small modifications to its base over time.

[24] By 1938, 16-year-old Durbin was a rising star as the singing ingenue in such films as Mad About Music and That Certain Age, while Rooney had risen to fame in the Andy Hardy comedies and received critical acclaim for his dramatic turn in Boys Town.

[26] In 1939, 16-year-old Garland had become one of Hollywood's brightest young stars, appearing that year in the MGM musicals Babes in Arms and The Wizard of Oz.

[4] That year, 7-year-old O'Brien had become one of the most popular child actresses of her day, starring in the films The Canterville Ghost, Music for Millions, and Meet Me In St. Louis alongside former Juvenile Award Honoree Judy Garland.

Hosting the Annual ceremony that year was Bob Hope who dubbed the Juvenile Award the "Oscarette" upon presenting O'Brien with her miniature Oscar.

[31] Twelve years old in 1946, Jarman was honored with the Juvenile Oscar for his screen debut as Jody in the MGM family drama, The Yearling, which was presented to him by former recipient Shirley Temple.

[33] Born in Czechoslovakia, and beginning his relatively brief film career in 1948 at the age of eleven, Jandl was the first foreign child actor to be honored with the Juvenile Oscar.

[35] That year, 12-year-old Driscoll had starred in the Disney tear-jerker So Dear to My Heart, as well as garnering critical acclaim for his dramatic performance in the RKO melodrama The Window.

Demonstrating the prestige the Honorary Juvenile Award held for Hollywood child stars of the time, on the night of the ceremony, Driscoll nervously accepted his miniature statuette saying, "I don't ever think I've been so thrilled in my life.

[17][40] The academy obliged, but asked Garland to sign its well-known right of first refusal agreement covering the duplicate Oscar as well as her original, should it ever turn up.

)[17][40] After her death in 1969, many of Garland's personal effects came into the possession of her former husband, Sidney Luft who attempted to sell a miniature Oscar statuette at a Christie's auction in 1993.

[17][43] After once again tracing the auction back to Sidney Luft, the academy again took legal action to halt the sale claiming the 1940 statuette fell under the terms of the agreement Garland had signed in 1958.

[47] The two men decided to split the $500 asking price hoping to resell it at a profit and lent it to a photographer to shoot for an upcoming auction catalogue.

[46] This led to Bruce Davis' discovery that the statuette had resurfaced and, upon learning of the award's history, Nash and Neimand agreed to return the Oscar to O'Brien.

[46] On February 7, 1995, almost fifty years after she had first received it, the academy held a special ceremony in Beverly Hills to return the stolen award to O'Brien.