McDaniel, Hattie

Career

Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10, 1895 in Wichita , Kansas , in the family of a former slave and soldier of the Civil War, Henry McDaniel and Susan Holbert, a performer of religious songs ^[6] . She was the youngest of thirteen children. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado , where he first settled in the town of Fort Collins, and then in Denver , where McDaniel spent his childhood. She developed an interest in performances while studying at high school in eastern Denver. Her first debut became performances in the show of her father, along with two brothers.

In 1916, one of her brothers, Otis, died, and the show gradually ceased to exist. After that, she toured with an ensemble of black singers for a while, and in the early 1920s she began performing with her songs on Denver Radio. In 1927–1929, she even recorded some of her songs, first at Okeh Records ^[7] , and later at Paramount Records ^[8] in Chicago .

After the collapse of the stock exchange in 1929, McDaniel lost her job, and her only income was a part-time job at the Madrid Club in Milwaukee as a waitress and a toilet cleaner. Over time, despite the doubts of the owner, she began to perform various numbers on the club scene.

In 1931, Hattie McDaniel moved to Los Angeles , where her two sisters, Etta and Orlen, and brother Sam lived. Having appeared in one of the centers of American cinema, McDaniel decided to try herself as a film actress, but, despite all her efforts, it was not so simple, and she worked as a cook for the first time in Los Angeles . Her brother soon got a job as a radio host and some time later helped her sister get into the airwaves. Hattie McDaniel was leading her own show, which has become very popular. But the salary was so low that she had to leave the radio and get a maid. However, McDaniel continued to dream of a movie, and in 1932 she still managed to get a cameo role in the film “Golden West”, with which her film career began. In the early 1930s, she starred in many films, playing mostly singers or performers in the choir, and in most of them her name was not included in the credits. In 1934, Hattie McDaniel joined the United States Film Actors Guild , and from that time began her more active career with more significant film roles.

Gone With the Wind

The 1934 film Judge Priest was the first to have Hattie McDaniel’s credits. Later, she played quite large roles in films such as Floating Theater (1936), Saratoga (1937), True Confession (1937), and some others. Hattie has become quite in demand in Hollywood and has acquired friendly relations with such stars as Joan Crawford , Bette Davis , Henry Fonda , Ronald Reagan , Olivia de Havilland and Clark Gable . It was Gable who helped McDaniel get the role of Mommy in the movie " Gone With the Wind ", although almost as many actresses fought for this role as for Scarlett. Even Eleanor Roosevelt appealed to the producer of the film David Selznick with the request to take on the role of mammy her own maid Elizabeth McDuffie ^[9] .

The premiere of " Gone With the Wind " was scheduled for December 15, 1939 in Atlanta in the presence of all the actors who starred in the tape. But on the day of the premiere, all the black actors of the film were removed from the list of guests, including Hattie. Producer David Seleznik still tried to get Hattie McDaniel at the show, but MGM didn’t recommend it because of the then laws of Georgia , according to which Hattie would have to live in a black hotel and sit on the show separately from their colleagues. Clark Gable also tried to get McDaniel’s presence and threatened to boycott the premiere, but the actress herself persuaded him to go ^[10] . Despite the difficulties encountered in Atlanta, McDaniel attended the debut film in Hollywood on December 28, 1939.

Greatly played the role of Mommy brought the actress great popularity, and in 1940 she became the winner of the Oscar for the " best supporting actress ." McDaniel became the first black actress who was nominated for an Oscar and honored. In subsequent years, the actress has repeatedly played in the movie the role of maids and servants. Among the films with her participation the most famous were “This is our life” (1942), “Thank your fate” (1943) and “ Since you left ” (1944).

Subsequent years

Hattie McDaniel became the prototype for creating the image of the black hostess Tom ( Mommy Two Slippers ( English Mammy Two Shoes )) in the animated series " Tom and Jerry ". This character first appeared in 1940 in the episode "Broken Hope."

During World War II, Hattie McDaniel was chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee and organized concerts for soldiers at military bases ^{[11] [12]} .

On the big screen the last time she appeared in 1949 in the film “Family Honeymoon,” but after that over the next years she continued to work actively on radio and television. Her comedy radio series Beulah was very popular with the audience, and she starred in his TV version on ABC . Hattie McDaniel's career ended after she was diagnosed with breast cancer .

Personal Life

At the very beginning of his career, in 1922, McDaniel married George Landford, who died shortly after their wedding. That same year her father, Henry McDaniel, was gone. The second time she married in 1938, she was Howard Hickman. In the same year they divorced.

In 1941, Hattie McDaniel became the spouse of the seller of real estate, James Lloyd Crawford, and a year later acquired a large two-story mansion in Pasadena , California . After her success in “ Gone With the Wind ”, the actress became a frequent guest at many Hollywood parties, which was also sometimes promoted by Clark Gable ^[13] . In 1945, McDaniel reported in the press about her pregnancy. She began to buy things for the baby and to equip the nursery. Her plans were ruined after the doctor reported a false pregnancy. McDaniel became depressed and in the same year she divorced her husband. She stated that her husband’s jealousy for her career and frequent threats to kill her served as a reason for the divorce ^[14] .

Her latest husband was decorator Larry Williams, for whom she was released in the summer of 1949. But again, married life did not take place, and a year later they broke up. During the divorce, McDaniel burst into tears and said that her husband was trying to embroil her with her colleagues in the radio program and in every way prevented her from working ^{[15] [16]} .

In 1952, Hattie McDaniel was diagnosed with breast cancer . She was gone October 26, 1952 in the hospital at the House of film actors in Woodland Hills , a suburb of Los Angeles , at the age of 57 years. In her will, she wrote that she would like to be buried in a white coffin under a white blanket, with red roses on a pillow, in a cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard , where such movie stars as Rudolfo Valentino , Douglas Fairbanks, and many others rest ^[17] . But since McDaniel was black, the cemetery owner Jules Roth did not agree to this, and the actress was buried in the Rosedale cemetery ^[18] , where it still rests.

Recognition

In 1999, the new owner of the Hollywood cemetery, Tyler Kesseti, suggested that McDaniel’s relatives should bury her in his cemetery, but they, referring to a long time since the funeral, refused. Then a large cenotaph was built in honor of the actress at the Hollywood Forever cemetery .

Oscar statuette Hattie McDaniel was kept after her death at Howard University in Washington , but during the city riots in the late 1960s, she mysteriously disappeared and is still not found ^[19] .

Hattie McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame : for her radio performances on Hollywood Boulevard and for her contributions to the movie on Vine Street. In 1975 she was posthumously added to the Hall of Fame of Black Cinema People.

January 29, 2006 was issued a postage stamp with the image of Hattie McDaniel. The stamp was a reproduction of a photograph of the actress of 1941, and its price was 39 cents ^{[20] [21]} .

• Family Honeymoon ( 1949 ) - Phillies
• Song of the South ( 1946 ) - Aunt Tempi
• Since you left ( 1944 ) - Fidelia
• Thank Fate ( 1943 ) - Gossip Girl
• This is our life ( 1942 ) - Minerva Clay
• More respectfully yours ( 1941 ) - Cynthia
• The Great Lie ( 1941 ) - Violet
• Gone With the Wind ( 1939 ) - Mummy
• Confession ( 1937 ) - Ella
• Saratoga (1937) - Rosetta
• Stella Dallas (1937) - the maid
• Nothing Saint (1937) - Mrs. Walker
• Floating Theater ( 1936 ) - Queenie
• Chinese seas ( 1935 ) (without indication in the credits)
• Judge Priest ( 1934 ) - Aunt Dilsey

• 1940 - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress ( Gone With the Wind )

• The McDaniel's Life and Struggles (author Jill Watts audio interview), hear the voice of McDaniel
• Hopper, Hedda. Hattie Hates Nobody. Chicago Sunday Tribune , 1947.
• Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel . Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990. ISBN 1-56833-004-9
• 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 0-06-051490-6
• Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One." The New York Times , October 15, 1989.
• Zeigler, Ronny. “Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'” NY Amsterdam News , April 28, 1979.
• Access Newspaper Archive - search for "Hattie McDaniel"