McDaniel, Hattie (1895–1952)

First African-American actress to win an Academy Award . Born on June 10, 1895 (some sources cite 1898), in Wichita, Kansas; died on October 26, 1952, in Los Angeles, California; daughter of Henry McDaniel(a Baptist minister) and Susan (Holbert) Mc-Daniel; sister of Etta McDaniel (an actress); married James Lloyd Crawford (a real-estate agent), in 1941 (divorced); married Larry C. Williams (an interior decorator), in 1949 (divorced 1950); married once more and possibly once again.

Sang on Denver radio station (1915); made film debut (1931); won Academy Award (1940); cast in title role of "Beulah" for radio (1947).

Selected filmography:

The Golden West (1931); Blonde Venus (1932); I'm No Angel (1933); Imitation of Life (1934); Judge Priest (1934); The Little Colonel (1935); Alice Adams (1935); Show Boat (1936); Nothing Sacred (1937); The Mad Miss Manton (1938); Gone With the Wind (1939); The Great Lie (1941); George Washington Slept Here (1942); Never Say Goodbye (1946); Song of the South (1946); Margie (1946); The Flame (1947); Mickey (1948); Family Honeymoon (1949).

The image of singer and actress Hattie Mc-Daniel as "Mammy," one of Gone With the Wind's most memorable background characters, is indelibly etched in the American pop-culture consciousness. Her portrayal of the slave housemaid in the Civil War epic won her an Academy Award, but for this and other roles McDaniel was accused of participating in the perpetuation of African-American stereotypes. "I'd rather play a maid than be a maid," she once said.

McDaniel was born in Kansas in 1895, the last of Henry and Susan McDaniel 's 13 children. Her father was a Baptist minister, a former slave who had fought in the Civil War, and a performer in minstrel shows. After the family moved to Denver, Colorado, McDaniel completed two years at East Denver High School and began a singing career while still in her teens. She sang on the radio, took top prizes in drama contests, and joined the traveling tent show run by her brother Otis after he convinced their parents of her talents and his responsibility. They played throughout the South, and by 1924 Mc-Daniel had enough performing experience to join the Pantages Circuit of vaudeville shows.

Such work was far from steady, however, and McDaniel often supplemented her income with jobs as a cook. Stranded in Milwaukee once, she took a job as a ladies' room maid in a hotel; when the night's entertainment walked out, she sang "St. Louis Blues" and was hired for the floor show. After a successful run there, Mc-Daniel decided to try her luck in Hollywood. Although initially she found little work and had to take in laundry to make ends meet, persistence paid off and she began appearing in a number of minor roles, beginning with The Golden West in 1931. Usually cast as a servant, one of the few roles in which Hollywood would then cast African-Americans, McDaniel tried to inject some personality into these generally invisible roles. Over the course of a decade, she perfected the character of the maid who, though loyal and respectful to her employers, is wiser and deeper than they are. Audiences of all colors loved to see snooty lead characters get their comeuppance, and McDaniel's comic timing was flawless.

The number of outstanding Hollywood films McDaniel appeared in during the 1930s includes I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West , Judge Priest (1934), in which she sang with Will Rogers, the screen version of Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams (1935) with Katharine Hepburn , The Little Colonel (1935), one of the most popular of the Shirley Temple (Black) vehicles, and Show Boat (1936), a film adaptation of the stage musical based on Edna Ferber 's novel that paired her with Paul Robeson. When she auditioned for the part of Mammy in the highly anticipated screen version of Margaret Mitchell 's novel Gone With the Wind, she was signed immediately to a contract. Her performance in the 1939 movie won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, marking the first time an African-American had been so honored, but in subsequent years the pejorative term "mammy" was employed by African-Americans angered by Hollywood's persistent portrayal of blacks almost exclusively as subservient domestic workers.

McDaniel's real-life persona was anything but meek, however. She initiated a lawsuit over a discriminatory real-estate policy in California and emerged victorious. Married several times, she was active in charity work in Hollywood, entertained military personnel during World War II, and continued to work in films and on radio during the decade. (Her brother Sam and sister Etta McDaniel also made a living in Hollywood for some years in minor roles.) But after the war, some African-American groups, including the NAACP, successfully petitioned Hollywood studios to stop portraying blacks as servants and slaves, and roles for McDaniel grew scarcer. She appeared on the "Amos 'n' Andy" radio program, and in 1947 was cast as the title character in the successful radio series "Beulah." With this part she became the first African-American to play a lead role in a program not geared specifically to the minority community. (The part had originated with a white actor, Marlin Hurt, on the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio series.) "Beulah" moved to television a few years later

and first starred Ethel Waters . McDaniel replaced Waters in 1951 but was unable to continue. She had suffered a heart attack during the show's first season, and battled breast cancer for two years before dying of the disease on October 26, 1952. Louise Beavers replaced McDaniel.

In her will, McDaniel had stipulated: "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." But the Hollywood Cemetery was segregated; blacks were not allowed. Instead, McDaniel was buried at Angelus-Rosedale Memorial Park. In October 1999, 47 years later, new owners of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed Hollywood Forever) installed a memorial there to honor Hattie McDaniel. The gray-and-pink granite monument was placed next to a lake and in view of the famous hillside "Hollywood" sign.

sources:

Current Biography. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1940, 1952.

Igus, Toyomi, ed. Book of Black Heroes, Volume 2: Great Women in the Struggle. Just Us Books, 1991.

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. NY: Harper-Collins, 1994.

Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green, eds. Notable American Women: The Modern Period. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980.

Carol Brennan , Grosse Pointe, Michigan