If the red carpet were a sentient being, you could forgive it for feeling rather taken for granted. Rolled out across the globe for any ceremony, state visit or award requiring a touch of pomp and grandeur, few bother to think about the semiotics behind the phrase. Worse, it has become so synonymous with treating a visitor well, we can metaphorically "roll out the red carpet" and give people "the red carpet treatment" without there actually being a physical floor covering at all.
So where does the tradition of putting out an oversized welcome mat come from and why is it red? Most authorities trace the origins of the ceremony back to at least Ancient Greece, because in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon (circa 458 BC) the hero's wife welcomes him home from the wars with a red (or in some versions, purple) carpet, which he declines to walk on because the gods would punish his vanity if he did so (a consideration than troubles few Hollywood stars these days).
Subsequently, carpets become particularly prominent as a status symbol in Renaissance paintings, highlighting the importance of the subject. And while few are plain red, many do have a crimson or red background and are often shown cascading down steps, like their modern equivalent. The red pigments came from various sources, the most prized and expensive being Armenian cochineal, made by crushing small insects, and Venetian Red, which had a secret ingredient that increased its intensity – arsenic. Hence bright crimsons, vermilions and reds were associated with elevated wealth and social standing throughout the middle ages.
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But the twin strands indicating the presence of VIPs – the carpet and the solid red colour – only really came together in the broader public imagination relatively recently, when the New York Central Railroad used a red carpet to welcome passengers to its first-class service on the 20th Century Limited train, which -beginning in 1902 - ran from Grand Central New York to Chicago. This is the origin of the phrase "getting the red carpet treatment".
It didn't take long for showbiz to adopt the practice. Hollywood's original showman Sid Grauman is credited with starting the tradition by creating a crimson-coloured walkway in front of his Egyptian Theatre for the 1922 premiere of the movie Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks.
Oddly, the Academy Awards were slower to follow suit. The 33rd Academy Awards on April 17, 1961, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium marks the first time a red carpet was deployed. Although arguably 1966 was the real landmark – the first time the Oscars were broadcast in colour, giving the viewing public (at least in the USA) its first real glimpse of what would become an integral part of the awards season, the parade of stars along that cushioned crimson path. Slowly, of course, it has morphed into today's fashion catwalk: "Red carpet disaster" does not mean anything has happened to the actual carpet - just that a sartorial car crash has occurred.
Sometimes, though, the carpet gets the rap for the odd mishap. "Jennifer Lawrence trips over the red carpet," cried the headlines after she stumbled and fell at the 2014 Oscars. But it wasn't the carpet's fault. It was the heels.
These days the carpet used on Oscar night is made and dyed in Dalton, Georgia, by the American Turf and Carpet Company. It covers 16,500 square feet and takes two days to install. And, given the pounding it takes from those heels, it isn't surprising that, even though it is hardwearing sealed nylon, it has to be replaced every two years.
And it isn't red. Well, not entirely. It is dyed with a carefully designed palette of colours that will make it glow the appropriate hue on television. After all, when it comes to a red carpet, appearance is everything.
The 89th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on 26 February at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood; oscar.go.com
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