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==Controversy over roles==
==Controversy over roles==


McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community as her fame grew. Groups such as the [[NAACP]] complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted blacks to servant roles and but often portrayed blacks as lazy, dim-witted, perfectly satisfied in lowly positions, or violent. In addition to speaking with studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more expansive roles and at least not to pander to stereotypes. They argued that the systemic portrayals were unfair and that, coupled with segregation and other discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all blacks, not just actors, to overcome racism and succeed.<ref>W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 122-23</ref> Some in her day attacked McDaniel as being an "Uncle Tom," or a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions.<ref>W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 117, n. 67 citing No Hope For The Negro In Films, Says Writer, As Long As Hattie McDaniel ‘Toms’,CLEVELAND GAZETTE, Feb. 17, 1945, at 9</ref> McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. And she reportedly said,"Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."<ref name="cbsnews.com">[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/26/ap/entertainment/mainD8FC6TRO1.shtml CBSNEWS.com: First black Oscar winner honored with stamp], Thursday, January 26, 2006</ref> McDaniel may also have been criticicized because, unlike many other black entertainers, did not become publicly involved in civil rights battles and was largely absent from efforts to establish a base in independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild until 1947, very late in her career. The Guild was a benevolent organization that helped black entertainers in need and many major black stars and some white ones belonged to it.<ref name="carter123">W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 123</ref> McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors in those days, [[William Mieklejohn]], to advance her career.<ref>Jill Watts, Black Ambition, White Hollywood, page 129</ref> Evidence suggests that she made a tactical decision not to become openly involved in politics, even on the pressing issue of civil rights. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined in a letter, saying that she had made a decision to stay out of politics. Referencing her TV persona she stated, "Beulah is everybody's friend." <ref name="carter123"/> She claimed she was making an honest dollar and should not be criticized for taking the work that was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to play to stereotypes were not a neutral force, but rather were willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community as her fame grew. Groups such as the [[NAACP]] complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted blacks to servant roles and but often portrayed blacks as lazy, dim-witted, perfectly satisfied in lowly positions, or violent. In addition to speaking with studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more expansive roles and at least not to pander to stereotypes. They argued that the systemic portrayals were unfair and that, coupled with segregation and other discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all blacks, not just actors, to overcome racism and succeed.<ref>W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 122-23</ref> Some in her day attacked McDaniel as being an "Uncle Tom," or a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions.<ref>W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 117, n. 67 citing No Hope For The Negro In Films, Says Writer, As Long As Hattie McDaniel ‘Toms’,CLEVELAND GAZETTE, Feb. 17, 1945, at 9</ref> McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. And she reportedly said,"Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."<ref name="cbsnews.com">[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/26/ap/entertainment/mainD8FC6TRO1.shtml CBSNEWS.com: First black Oscar winner honored with stamp], Thursday, January 26, 2006</ref> McDaniel may also have been criticicized because, unlike many other black entertainers, did not become publicly involved in civil rights battles and was largely absent from efforts to establish a base in independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild until 1947, very late in her career. The Guild was a benevolent organization that helped black entertainers in need and many major black stars and some white ones belonged to it.<ref name="carter123">W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 123</ref> McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors in those days, [[William Meiklejohn]], to advance her career.<ref>Jill Watts, Black Ambition, White Hollywood, page 129</ref> Evidence suggests that she made a tactical decision not to become openly involved in politics, even on the pressing issue of civil rights. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined in a letter, saying that she had made a decision to stay out of politics. Referencing her TV persona she stated, "Beulah is everybody's friend." <ref name="carter123"/> She claimed she was making an honest dollar and should not be criticized for taking the work that was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to play to stereotypes were not a neutral force, but rather were willing agents of black oppression.


McDaniel and other black actors feared that their roles would dry up if the NAACP and other critics of Hollywood stereotyping complained too loudly.<ref>Watts, Jill. ''Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood'', page 226-27</ref> McDaniel blamed these critics for negatively affecting her career and sought the aid of allies who some deemed questionable. After speaking with McDaniel, columnist Hedda Hopper wrote a column claiming that McDaniel's career problems were not the fault of racism but were caused by McDaniel's "own people."<ref>Hedda Hopper, Screen and Stage: Own People Slow Hattie McDaniel Up, L.A.TIMES, Dec. 14, 1947, at H3</ref>
McDaniel and other black actors feared that their roles would dry up if the NAACP and other critics of Hollywood stereotyping complained too loudly.<ref>Watts, Jill. ''Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood'', page 226-27</ref> McDaniel blamed these critics for negatively affecting her career and sought the aid of allies who some deemed questionable. After speaking with McDaniel, columnist Hedda Hopper wrote a column claiming that McDaniel's career problems were not the fault of racism but were caused by McDaniel's "own people."<ref>Hedda Hopper, Screen and Stage: Own People Slow Hattie McDaniel Up, L.A.TIMES, Dec. 14, 1947, at H3</ref>

Revision as of 14:19, 29 February 2012

Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel in 1941
Born(1895-06-10)June 10, 1895
Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
DiedOctober 26, 1952(1952-10-26) (aged 57)
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1932–1949
Spouse(s)Larry Williams (1949-1950) (divorced)
James Lloyd Crawford (1941-1945) (divorced)
Howard Hickman (1938-1938) (divorced)
George Langford (1922-1922) (his death)

Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1895–October 26, 1952) was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).

In addition to having acted in many films, McDaniel was a professional singer-songwriter, comedian, stage actress, radio performer, and television star. Hattie McDaniel was in fact the first black woman to sing on the radio in America.[1][2] Over the course of her career, McDaniel appeared in over 300 films, although she received screen credits for only about 80. She gained the respect of the African American show business community with her generosity, elegance, and charm.

McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street. In 1975, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in 2006 became the first black Oscar winner honored with a US postage stamp.[3]

Background and early acting career

Hattie McDaniel was born June 10, 1895, in Wichita, Kansas, to former slaves. She was the youngest of 13 children. Her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd USCT and her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of religious music.[4] In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie graduated from Denver East High School. Her brother, Sam McDaniel (1886–1962), played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges’ short film Heavenly Daze. Another acting sibling of Hattie and Sam was actress Etta McDaniel.

In addition to performing, Hattie was also a songwriter, a skill she honed while working with her brother's minstrel show. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and it wasn't until 1920 that Hattie received another big opportunity. During 1920–25, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a touring black ensemble, and in the mid-1920s she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver.[5] In 1926–1929 she also recorded many of her songs on Okeh Records[6] and Paramount Records[7] in Chicago. In total, McDaniel recorded 7 sessions; 1 in summer of 1926 for the rare Kansas City label Meritt, 4 sessions in Chicago for OKeh (late 1926-late 1927) - of the 10 sides, only 4 were issued, and 2 sessions in Chicago for Paramount (both in March, 1929).

In McDaniel's time, America was segregated in virtually every respect in terms of race.[8] In the South, blacks were barred by law from attending school with whites and subjected to segregation in all other public places.[9] Even outside the South, many restaurants and hotels refused to accept black customers. Job opportunities were limited. Custom or restrictive covenants kept blacks from living in "white" neighborhoods.[10] Marriage between blacks and whites was illegal in most states of the United States.[11] The United States military required blacks to serve in all-black regiments.[12] Black Americans also faced the terrorism of lynch mobs without the assurance of federal or state protection. Indeed, in 2005, the U.S. Congress issued an apology for the federal government's failure to enact lynching legislation to protect blacks in that era.[13]

The field of entertainment emerged as a profession in which blacks were allowed to reach white and black customers. Still, however, the success of black entertainers and their ability to rise into ownership and management was limited by racial restrictions. Often, many of the same places that allowed blacks to be on stage, did not allow them to sit in the audience as patrons.[14] State laws allowing discrimination and requiring segregation assured that black entertainers were not allowed the same benefits and opportunities as white ones.[15] Black actors were cast repeatedly in menial roles and were consistently required to speak in contrived stereotypical "Negro dialects." If black actors did not know how to speak that way, they had to learn to in order to succeed in Hollywood. Movie houses often hired white dialect coaches to teach the so-called "Negro dialect." [16]

When the stock market crashed in 1929, the only work McDaniel could find was as a washroom attendant and waitress at Club Madrid in Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, McDaniel was eventually allowed to take the stage and became a regular.

In 1931, McDaniel made her way to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam[17] and sisters Etta[18] and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on KNX radio program called The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and he was able to get his sister a spot. She appeared on radio as Hi-Hat Hattie, a bossy maid who often "forgets her place." Her show became extremely popular, but her salary was so low that she had to continue working as a maid.

Her first film appearance was in The Golden West (1932), as a maid; her second was in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), as one of the plump black maids West camped it up with backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses.

In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She began to attract attention and finally landed larger film roles that began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.

Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming.

In 1935 McDaniel had prominent roles with her performance as a slovenly maid in RKO Pictures' Alice Adams, a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid/traveling companion in MGM's China Seas, the latter her first film with Clark Gable, and as Isabella the maid in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi.

She had a featured role as Queenie in Universal Pictures' 1936 version of Show Boat starring Irene Dunne, and sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and the African-American chorus. Later in the film she and Robeson sang I Still Suits Me, a song written especially by Kern and Hammerstein for the film.

After Show Boat she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, The Shopworn Angel (1938) with Margaret Sullavan, and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a very minor role in the Carole Lombard/Frederic March vehicle Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she appeared as the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.

McDaniel had befriended several of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland and Clark Gable, with the last two of whom she would star in Gone with the Wind.

It was around this time that she began to be criticized by members of the black community for roles she was choosing to take and her decision aggressively pursue the roles and not to rock the Hollywood boat. For example, The Little Colonel (1935) depicted black servants longing for a return to the Old South. Ironically, McDaniel's portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures' Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences. She managed to steal several scenes away from the film's star, Katharine Hepburn. She would become best known for the role of the sassy and opinionated maid.

Gone with the Wind

The competition to play Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939) had been almost as stiff as that for Scarlett O'Hara. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part.[19] McDaniel did not think she would be chosen, because she was known for being a comic actress. One source claims that Clark Gable recommended the role go to McDaniel; when she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform, she won the part.[20]

Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the NAACP fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the film (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. One fictional scene of particular concern from the book was that in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara and the Ku Klux Klan, which had a long history of practicing racial terrorism on black communities, responds as saviors.[21] Throughout the south black men were being lynched on shady allegations that they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered and some offensive language was changed. Still, another epithet, "darkey," remained in the film and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's script also referred to poor whites as "white trash," and it ascribed these words to black and white characters [22]

The Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, was selected as the theater for the premiere of Gone with the Wind, Friday, December 15, 1939. When the date of the Atlanta premiere approached, all the black actors were barred from attending and excluded from being in the souvenir program as well as southern advertising for the film. David Selznick had attempted to bring Hattie McDaniel, but MGM advised him not to because of Georgia's segregationist laws. Clark Gable angrily threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel was allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.[23]

Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed.[24][25] While the Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. This time, upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was featured prominently in the program.[26]

It was her role as the house slave who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), that won McDaniel the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first black American to win an Oscar. She was also the first black American ever to be nominated. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara."[27] Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the Southern audience; there were complaints that in the film she had been too familiar with her white owners.[28] However, one author has observed that McDaniel's character is not far off from the persona of Mammy that Margaret Mitchell created in the book, that in both the film and the book the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in a way that would be unacceptable for a Southern teen of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film make any hint to Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive) or her desires to have anything other than her life at Tara serving on a slave plantation.[29] Moreover, while she scolds the younger Scarlett, Mammy never crosses the senior white female in that household: Mrs. O'Hara.[29] Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but in her press comments actively affirmed Hollywood's stereotypical practices as appropriate, providing fuel for critics of those who fought for black civil rights.[29] Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.[30]

While many blacks were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They saw Gone With the Wind as a book that celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it.[31] For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic racial stereotypes would find work and success there.[31]

1940 Academy Awards

The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:

"Hattie McDaniel earned that gold Oscar, by her fine performance of "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind. If you had seen her face when she walked up to the platform and took the gold trophy, you would have had the choke in your voice that all of us had when Hattie, hair trimmed with gardenias, face alight, and dress up to the queen's taste, accepted the honor in one of the finest speeches ever given on the Academy floor. ...[32]

"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of their awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you."[33][34]

— Hattie McDaniel: Acceptance Speech delivered on February 29, 1940 at the 12th Annual Academy Awards

The Oscar McDaniel took home was not the well-known tall Oscar. Instead, she received a plaque-style Oscar approximately 5 1/2 x 6 inches, the type of Oscar awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses in that time.[35]

On the same night that McDaniel became the first African American to be honored by the motion picture industry, she was also reminded of how far the industry and the country had yet to go in overcoming racism. She and her escort were seated at a segregated table for two, apart from her Gone with the Wind colleagues and her colleagues in the motion picture industry.[36]

Gone with the Wind was awarded ten Academy Awards, a record that stood for years, and has been named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time.[37]

Later career

In the 1942 Warner Bros. film In This Our Life, starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, she once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues as her law student son is wrongly accused of manslaughter.

The following year, McDaniel was in Warner Bros' Thank Your Lucky Stars, with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time listed McDaniel was one of the points of relief in an otherwise "grim study," saying, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie."[38]

Hattie McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years, in Warner Bros' The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down.

She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949). She was still quite active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black American to star in her own radio show with her comedy series Beulah. She starred in the ABC television version, taking over for Ethel Waters after the first season. Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role. It was a hit, earning McDaniel $2,000 a week. But the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting The Beulah Show, in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to do their mission.[39] After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.[40]

Legal case: Victory on "Sugar Hill"

Time magazine, December 17, 1945:

Spacious, well-kept West Adams Heights still had the complacent look of the days when most of Los Angeles' aristocracy lived there. In the Los Angeles courtroom of Superior Judge Thurmond Clarke last week some 250 of West Adams' residents stood at swords' points.
Their story was as old as it was ugly. In 1938, Negroes, willing and able to pay $15,000 and up for Heights property, had begun moving into the old eclectic mansions. Many were movie folk—Actresses Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, etc. They improved their holdings, kept their well-defined ways, quickly won more than tolerance from most of their white neighbors.
But some whites, refusing to be comforted, had referred to the original racial restriction covenant that came with the development of West Adams Heights back in 1902 which restricted "Non-caucasians" from owning property. For seven years they had tried to enforce it, but failed. Then they went to court ...
Superior Judge Thurmond Clarke decided to visit the disputed ground—popularly known as "Sugar Hill." ... Next morning, ... Judge Clarke threw the case out of court. His reason: "It is time that members of the Negro race are accorded, without reservations or evasions, the full rights guaranteed them under the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Judges have been avoiding the real issue too long."
Said Hattie McDaniel, of West Adams Heights: "Words cannot express my appreciation."[41]

It was McDaniel, the most famous of the black homeowners, who helped to organize the black West Adams residents that saved their homes. Loren Miller, a local attorney and owner/publisher of the California Eagle newspaper represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case.[42] In 1944, he had won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision for a black Pasadena, California, family that had bought a non-restricted lot but was sued by white neighbors anyway.

McDaniel had purchased her white two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, would be faithfully present at all of McDaniel's Movieland parties.[43]

Controversy over roles

McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community as her fame grew. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted blacks to servant roles and but often portrayed blacks as lazy, dim-witted, perfectly satisfied in lowly positions, or violent. In addition to speaking with studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more expansive roles and at least not to pander to stereotypes. They argued that the systemic portrayals were unfair and that, coupled with segregation and other discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all blacks, not just actors, to overcome racism and succeed.[44] Some in her day attacked McDaniel as being an "Uncle Tom," or a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions.[45] McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. And she reportedly said,"Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."[46] McDaniel may also have been criticicized because, unlike many other black entertainers, did not become publicly involved in civil rights battles and was largely absent from efforts to establish a base in independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild until 1947, very late in her career. The Guild was a benevolent organization that helped black entertainers in need and many major black stars and some white ones belonged to it.[47] McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors in those days, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career.[48] Evidence suggests that she made a tactical decision not to become openly involved in politics, even on the pressing issue of civil rights. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined in a letter, saying that she had made a decision to stay out of politics. Referencing her TV persona she stated, "Beulah is everybody's friend." [47] She claimed she was making an honest dollar and should not be criticized for taking the work that was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to play to stereotypes were not a neutral force, but rather were willing agents of black oppression.

McDaniel and other black actors feared that their roles would dry up if the NAACP and other critics of Hollywood stereotyping complained too loudly.[49] McDaniel blamed these critics for negatively affecting her career and sought the aid of allies who some deemed questionable. After speaking with McDaniel, columnist Hedda Hopper wrote a column claiming that McDaniel's career problems were not the fault of racism but were caused by McDaniel's "own people."[50]

Community service

McDaniel was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of four African-American Greek letter sororities in the United States. During World War II. She was appointed the Chair of the "Negro Division" of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The military was segregated and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She asked her friend actor Leigh Whipper and other well known black entertainers to join her Negro Division Victory committee. She also put in numerous personal appearances to hospitals, threw parties, performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies, to raise funds to support the war, on behalf of the Victory Committee.[51][52] Bette Davis also performed for black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by Hattie McDaniel, that also included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.[53] She was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.[54]

She joined actor Clarence Muse, one of the earliest black members of the Screen Actors Guild, for an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans, who had been displaced by devastating floods. She gained a reputation for generous giving, often feeding and lending money to friends and stranger alike.[55]

Marriages

While her career was advancing in the 1920s, her husband, George Langford, died soon after she married him in 1922, and her father died the same year. She married Howard Hickman in 1938 but divorced him later the same year. In 1941, she married James Lloyd Crawford, real estate salesman. According to the book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, by Donald Bogle, McDaniel happily informed gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and setting up a nursery. Her plans were shattered when the doctor informed her she had a false pregnancy; McDaniel fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. She said he was jealous of her career and once threatened to kill her.[56]

In Yuma, Arizona, on June 11, 1949, she married Larry Williams, interior decorator. She divorced him in 1950, after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." Ms. McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to create dissension among the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't got over it yet", she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."[57][58]

Death

Cenotaph at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

McDaniel died at age 57 from breast cancer, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, on October 26, 1952. She was childless and was divorced from her fourth husband. She was survived by her brother, Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to remember her life and accomplishments. In her will, McDaniel wrote: "I desire a white casket and a white shroud; white gardenias in my hair and in my hands, together with a white gardenia blanket and a pillow of red roses. I also wish to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery".[59] The Hollywood Cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood was the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, and others. Hollywood Cemetery refused to allow her to be buried there, because it, too, practiced racial segregation. It did not accept the bodies of black people. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery, where she lies today.[60]

In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery, who had renamed it Hollywood Forever Cemetery, wanted to right the wrong and offered to have McDaniel interred in the cemetery. Her family did not want to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Hollywood Forever Cemetery instead built a large cenotaph memorial on the lawn overlooking the lake in honor of McDaniel. It is one of the most popular sites for visitors.[61]

McDaniel executed her last will and testament in December 1951. In it, she willed her Oscar to Howard University. McDaniel had been honored by the students of Howard University with a luncheon after winning her Oscar.[62] She died in October 1952. But indeed, in her time, McDaniel would have had few options other than black institutions to place the Oscar. There were very few white institutions in that day that preserved black history. Historically, black colleges often were the places in which such artifacts were placed for preservation.[63] Despite evidence that she had made a good income as an actor, surprisingly, McDaniel's final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed that her estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors.[64] Years later, the Oscar apparently showed up at the place McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University. According to many reports, McDaniel's Oscar was displayed in a glass case in the University's Drama Department.[65]

Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar

Today, a controversy exists over the whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar. In his 1990 biography of McDaniel, Carlton Jackson stated that Howard University was not able to find the Oscar. According to Jackson, some Howard officials had speculated that it disappeared during the Civil Rights student protests of the 1960s. In 1992, Jet Magazine ran a story repeating that Howard University could not find it and allegations that it disappeared in the 1960s during the protests.[66] In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard.[67] Subsequently, many other news organizations reported that the Oscar had been stolen or lost. In 2007, in the Huffington Post writer Tom Gregory reported it was rumored that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry Civil Rights protesters in the 1960s. [68] That story too was repeated in various media outlets and Gregory reiterated the assertion in the Huffington Post in 2009.

In 2010, attention focused on the McDaniel Oscar again. In her acceptance speech, Best Supporting Actress winner Mo'Nique gave tribute to McDaniel. Mo'Nique wore a blue dress, with gardenias in her hair, in homage to McDaniel, who reportedly wore a similar outfit to the award ceremony in 1940. In 2010, The Washington Post, reported the results of an investigation by its reporter J. Freedom duLac. Again, sources told duLac that the award disappeared during the '60s racial unrest. So too Gregory was quoted as repeating that his sources said that the Oscar was tossed in the Potomac River by angry protesters.

In November, 2011, Prof. W. B. Carter of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year and a half investigation of the Oscar's fate. Professor Carter rejected the claims that students took the Oscar (and threw it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on stereotype. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or possibly boxed up and stored in the Drama department in that same period. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather the desire to make room for a new generation in black theater emerging out of that era. If the Oscar cannot be found at Howard today, she claimed, the reason is more likely due to insecure storage in a time of tremendous national turbulence and possibly too, the failure of a new generation of caretakers to realize that the small 5 1/2" x 6" McDaniel plaque that did not look like the traditional tall Oscar, was in fact an Oscar.[69]

Legacy and recognition

Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard.

McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street.[70] In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.[71]

In 1994, actress and singer Karla Burns launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), which examines the life of McDaniel. She went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2002 including Off-Broadway in New York and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.[72]

In 2002, the legacy of Hattie McDaniel was celebrated when American Movie Classics (AMC) portrayed her life in the film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life Of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy, Ph.D., and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The one-hour special showed the struggles and triumphs as McDaniel, in spite of racism and adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.[73]

McDaniel was featured as the 29th inductee on the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. The 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006. This stamp features a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore when she accepted her Academy Award in 1940.[74][75] The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members, as well as scripts and other documents.[46]

August 16, 2011, was officially declared “Hattie McDaniel Day” on the Frank Decaro Show on Sirius OUTQ 108

Filmography

Features

Short subjects

Radio

Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Hattie McDaniel Biography". MTV. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  2. ^ Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel, Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990. ISBN 1568330049
  3. ^ "Hattie McDaniel, First African American To Win An Academy Award, Featured On New 39-Cent Postage Stamp", Press Release for US Postal Service, January 25, 2006.
  4. ^ Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel, page 4
  5. ^ Lyman, Darryl. Great African American Women, Jonathan David Company, 2005 - ISBN 0824604598
  6. ^ Laird, Ross. Discography of Okeh Records, 1918–1934, Praeger/Greenwood, pp. 392, 446, 2004 - ISBN 0313311420
  7. ^ Vladimir, Bogdanov. All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues, Backbeat Books, p. 274, 2003 - ISBN 0879307366
  8. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, 55 How. L. J. 108, page 115-16 (2011)also available at [1]
  9. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 121, n. 97
  10. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, at page 121, n. 95
  11. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, at page 121, n. 98
  12. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 123, n. 110
  13. ^ Kenneth Mallory, Baltimore Afro-American, June 18, 2005, page A1
  14. ^ Equity Opens Fight on Jim Crow Policy, Warns Washington Theater It Will Keep Actors Off the Stage Unless Negroes Admitted, New York Times, Apr. 24, 1947, p. 1
  15. ^ Jonathan Dewberry, Black Actors Unite: The Negro Actors Guild of America, 1937-1982 (1988) (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, New York University) (on file with Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University)
  16. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, 2005, pages 83, 161 - ISBN 0060514906
  17. ^ Sam McDaniel at the Internet Movie Database
  18. ^ Etta McDaniel at the Internet Movie Database
  19. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, Harper Collins, 2005, p. 151
  20. ^ Harris, Warren G. Clark Gable: A Biography, Harmony, (2002), p. 203; ISBN 0307237141
  21. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, 2005, pages 152-171 - ISBN 0060514906
  22. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 114, n. 40,
  23. ^ Harris, ibid., p. 211
  24. ^ Time Magazine: Gone with the Wind Premiere, article dated Monday, December 25, 1939
  25. ^ Bridges, Herb. Gone With the Wind: the Three-day Premiere in Atlanta, Mercer University Press, 1999 - ISBN 086554672X
  26. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, 2005, page 172 - ISBN 0060514906
  27. ^ Lyman, Darryl. Great African American Women, Jonathan David Company, 2005, p. 161 - ISBN 0824604598
  28. ^ Lotchin, Roger W. The Way We Really Were: The Golden State in the Second Great War, University of Illinois Press, 1999, p. 36; ISBN 025206819X
  29. ^ a b c W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 114, n. 40, p. 115, n. 47
  30. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, 2005, page 188-90 - ISBN 0060514906
  31. ^ a b W. B. Carter, Finding the Oscar, pages 199-20, n. 40
  32. ^ "Hattie McDaniel Expresses Gratitude of Her Race for Recognition, at the Academy Awards, 1940". Wysinger.homestead.com. 1940-03-10. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  33. ^ See and hear Hattie McDaniel acceptance speech at the end of this video.
  34. ^ Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel, page 52
  35. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 109, n. 08
  36. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, pages 115-116 citing Photograph of Guests at 12th Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Awards Banquet (1939) in Margaret Herrick Library, Special Collections
  37. ^ "American Film Institute". Connect.afi.com. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  38. ^ Time Review: Thank Your Lucky Stars (Warner), Monday, October 4, 1943
  39. ^ Milton A. Smith, Offensive to GIs, Banned: Army Drops ‘Beulah’ Show Taken Off Air After Fighters Complain, BALT. AFRO-AMERICAN, Feb. 17 1951, at 1.
  40. ^ Three of McDaniel's episodes are readily available on videocassette and can be found by checking sources on the internet.
  41. ^ Time' magazine, Victory on Sugar Hill, Monday, December 17, 1945
  42. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, p. 328
  43. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, page 212
  44. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 122-23
  45. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 117, n. 67 citing No Hope For The Negro In Films, Says Writer, As Long As Hattie McDaniel ‘Toms’,CLEVELAND GAZETTE, Feb. 17, 1945, at 9
  46. ^ a b CBSNEWS.com: First black Oscar winner honored with stamp, Thursday, January 26, 2006
  47. ^ a b W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 123
  48. ^ Jill Watts, Black Ambition, White Hollywood, page 129
  49. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, page 226-27
  50. ^ Hedda Hopper, Screen and Stage: Own People Slow Hattie McDaniel Up, L.A.TIMES, Dec. 14, 1947, at H3
  51. ^ "Hattie McDaniel and the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee". Cghs.dade.k12.fl.us. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  52. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, page 210
  53. ^ Spada, James. More Than a Woman: An Intimate Biography of Bette Davis, Little, Brown and Company (1993), pp. 191–192. ISBN 055356868X
  54. ^ "Network and Local Radio Listings". The Sunday Sun. 4 Jan 1942. Retrieved 8 Jan 2011.
  55. ^ Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, 2006, p. 126
  56. ^ Monday, Dec. 31, 1945 (1945-12-31). "Time Magazine article, Monday, December 31, 1945". Time.com. Retrieved 2010-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  57. ^ Time magazine article, Monday, December 18, 1950
  58. ^ Long Beach Press-Telegram, Long Beach, California, Wednesday, December 6, 1950
  59. ^ Associated Press, First black to win Oscar to get part of final wish, The Frederick Post, Frederick, MD, Monday, October 25, 1999
  60. ^ "Hattie McDaniel's gravesite at Rosedale Cemetery". Findagrave.com. 2001-01-01. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  61. ^ "The Memorial to Actress Hattie McDaniel at Hollywood Forever Memorial Park". Cemeteryguide.com. 1952-10-24. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  62. ^ "And Hattie McDaniel's Oscar went to .... ? 1940 prize, Howard U. play roles in mystery". Washington Post. May 26, 2010
  63. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 136-37
  64. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 129
  65. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 139
  66. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 109, n. 10 citing "Howard University Can't Find McDaniel Oscar," Jet Magazine, May 4, 1992, at. 24.
  67. ^ W. Burlette Carter, Finding the Oscar, page 109, n. 10 citing "Hattie McDaniel's Academy Award is Lost," JET MAGAZINE, Apr. 13, 1998, at. 33.
  68. ^ Tom Gregory, Oscar Time for Hattie McDaniel, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-gregory/oscar-time-for-hattie-mcd_b_60228.html.
  69. ^ W. Burlette Carter" Finding the Oscar, page 110-11, n. 13
  70. ^ "Gone with the Wind: Hollywood Walk of Fame Stars". Destinationhollywood.com. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  71. ^ Ferguson, Carroy U. Transitions in Consciousness From an African American Perspective, University Press of America, p. 243, (2004) - ISBN 0761827005
  72. ^ 2004.html "Karla Burns: Broadway To Vegas, May 30, 2004". Broadwaytovegas.com. Retrieved 2010-04-21. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help) [dead link]
  73. ^ "2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Awards". Infoplease.com. 2002-05-17. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  74. ^ "Hattie McDaniel, First African American to Win an Academy Award, Featured on New 39-cent Postage Stamp" (Press release). United States Postal Service. 2006-01-25. Retrieved 2008-07-09. Hattie McDaniel, movie actress, singer, radio and television personality, and the first African American to win an Academy Award today became the 29th honoree in the U.S. Postal Service's long-running Black Heritage commemorative stamp series
  75. ^ William J. Gicker (ed.) (2006). "Hattie McDaniel 39¢". USA Philatelic. 11 (3): 12. {{cite journal}}: |author= has generic name (help); |format= requires |url= (help)

References

  • The Life and Struggles of Hattie McDaniel (author Jill Watts audio interview), hear the voice of Hattie McDaniel
  • Carter, W. B., Finding the Oscar, 55 Howard Law Journal 107 (Nov., 2011), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1980721.
  • Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
  • Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990. ISBN 1568330049
  • Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
  • Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
  • Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0060514906
  • Young, Al. "I’d Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
  • Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: ‘(I’d). . . rather play a maid.’" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
  • Access Newspaper Archive - search for "Hattie McDaniel"

External links

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