In This Our Life: Hattie McDaniel

A nightclub mic no one expected to be open. A maid’s uniform worn to an audition. An ovation that shook the room while the system kept her at the far wall. Hattie McDaniel’s life reads like a ledger of impossible choices—yet it’s also a map of how to push a closed world a few inches wider.

We walk through Hattie’s early years in a musical family, the vaudeville grind, and the Great Depression moment in Milwaukee that landed her a two-year gig and a path to Hollywood. Once the “talkies” took off, the roles were narrow: maids, mammies, comic relief. Hattie didn’t deny it; she outperformed it. Scene by scene, she squeezed dignity and agency into bit parts until Gone with the Wind arrived and she turned Mammy into the film’s moral compass. The 1940 Academy Awards gave her the first Oscar ever awarded to a Black performer—and a bitter snapshot of segregation, from seating charts to after-party doors.

We dig into the backlash and the bigger questions. Did an honor for a stereotype help or harm? Hattie argued she stripped out caricature where she could, fought for better dialogue, and used the jobs available to open space for others. When Hollywood failed to evolve, she did: headlining the Beulah radio show, stepping onto early TV, and leading the Sugar Hill legal fight in Los Angeles that helped crack housing covenants and set the stage for Shelley v. Kraemer. Her later years brought illness and another barrier—denied burial at Hollywood Memorial—followed by a slow, overdue wave of recognition: a Hollywood Forever memorial, a USPS stamp, and tributes from Oscar winners like Whoopi Goldberg and Mo’Nique.

If you care about film history, civil rights, and the craft of turning constraints into impact, this story matters. Press play to explore how Hattie McDaniel made history on screen and changed lives off it—and why her legacy still challenges Hollywood and all of us to measure progress by both the doors opened and the cost of opening them. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves classic cinema, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show.

Transcript

Drinks, Banter, And Today’s Topic

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

How's it going, Kate?

SPEAKER_02 0:20

I'm good. How are you, Bradley?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I am well. We are the history of buffoons.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

And today we're gonna talk about Hattie McDaniel. She is the first black actor to win an Oscar. Praise for her talent, but restricted by segregation and stereotypes and impossible choices.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

All right.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

So what do you have to drink today?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Oh boy, I have a plethora of beers from the the the Yeah, you do. I do. From Surlee Brewing Company, which I think it's out of Minnesota, if I'm not mistaken. The lighting isn't the best for my eyes in here right now. Anyways, I have a Axeman IPA. I have a Mosh Pit hazy IPA. I have a Mosh Pit juicy. And I have a Furious IPA. I uh I I have had this before. It's delicious. Um so I am gonna start with I think I'm gonna go juicy. Well what do you got?

SPEAKER_02 1:25

I have three.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Well, so you're like, how many do you have? I have one more than you.

Early Life And Family Roots

SPEAKER_02 1:32

I hope I have some time to drink through some of these. So I've had all of these before, but they were delicious. We've had them on the podcast. And I wasn't wanting anything too heavy right now, but yeah. This is the Modello Spiked um Aguas Frescas. Aguas frescas. Yes, and this is hibiscus, and I have watermelon, and my favorite is the cucumber lime.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah, that one. Me not being a cucumber fan, I'm actually I do like that one because it's not very cucumbery at all. So I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I like that one. So cheers. Cheers. Whoa dear.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Oh, it's delicious. Oh, and I just dropped some on the table.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Oh dear. What do we do? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

So delicious.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

That is good, yeah. I like this one.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Okay, so have you heard of um Hattie McDowell McDaniel before?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I don't think I have. So what what age range or not age, I'm sorry, time frame is she from?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

So she was born June 10th, 1893.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Oh, okay. So we're talking like early Hollywood.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Oh, okay. I mean, that makes sense with the whole segregation and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

I believe she was the first, she was the first um black actor to win an Oscar.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

And I believe Whoopi Goldberg was the second.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Really? I believe so. Quite a gap.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

A gap, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Wow. Yeah. Um what do you know what year? Do you go into what year she won that? You don't if you think you do. Okay, perfect. Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

I was just curious because I don't know at the top of my head, but I do have that information.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

That's quite right. I mean, obviously, it's the one um award show I like to watch is the Oscars.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

I don't think I actually caught it last year. I ended up watching the because it was uh yeah, last year was Conan O'Brien hosted it.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I I watched it after the fact. I all I wanted to see was the Conan O'Brien part because I'm a big fan of him. Um but um normally if I watch an award show, it's the Oscars. Obviously, I don't know every Oscar winner. So um, no, I don't think I've ever heard of her, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

I want to say it was Hattie McDaniel, Whoopi Goldberg, and then Halle Berry.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

I think. Don't quote me on that.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

I'm I've quoted.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

But huge leaps like of time.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Awful.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, well, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Okay, so Hattie McDaniel was born June 10th, 1893, in Wichita, Kansas, and she was going to Wichita. She was the youngest of 13 children.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

And her parents, Henry and Susan, were both born into slavery.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

So Henry McDaniel had fought for the Union in the Civil War. He served with the U.S. Colored Troops and he sustained some serious injuries in battle. Oh bummer. After the war, Henry became a Baptist preacher and moved the family west, part of like the great migration of black Americans, fleeing the deep-seated racism of the South. The South, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So by the time Hattie was born in the 1890s, the McDaniels were living in Kansas and then later settled in Denver, Colorado.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Oh, nice. I love I love Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

So life obviously wasn't easy for the McDaniels. Um Henry's war wounds and the difficulty with black families um faced in finding consistent work.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Do you have what his war wounds were?

SPEAKER_02 5:04

No, I don't.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Because that's all I mentioned of him. It's just that that's it.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

I mean, that's enough. He was dad. He was dad.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

But not having consistent work um meant that the family struggled quite a bit financially.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I'm sure. I mean, we all know people who have been out of work through our lives, and it doesn't make shit easy. No. Because bills keep coming. Yeah. They don't care that you're out of work. No. So I mean, it's it's shitty, especially. Can only imagine back then for them how hard it was, especially, you know, not you know, shortly post-war civil war and all that shit. So yeah, it could not have been easy for them. Yeah. So crazy.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

So despite the the poverty, the household was was pretty rich in musicality.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

And laughter.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

The family was clo close knit and very musically inclined. Hattie's mother, Susan, was a gospel singer and the children all loved to perform. Sure. In Denver, Hattie attended integrated schools and sang in the church choir. Okay. Um, she also gained reputation pretty quickly at as being an entertainer. Sure. Um, Hattie said once, I knew I could sing and dance. I was doing it so much that my mother would give me a nickel to stop.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

That's awesome. That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

So at Denver's East High School, she was in school plays and talent shows, but by 1910, at age 17, Patty decided to leave school in her sophomore year to pursue the stage full-time.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Oh wow. Okay. In in Colorado. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Um, so her father and two of her brothers actually started a minstrel show troupe. Oh, wow. Do you know what that is?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Kind of, but do tell.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah. So it's a traveling variety act that often featured white performers in blackface.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

And it was a popular form of entertainment laden with racist stereotypes.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Well, right.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

But also, this was one of the opportunities that black individuals had a chance to be entertainers in.

Finding A Voice In Vaudeville And Blues

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Oh, sure. I mean, obviously, look at the times we're talking about early 1900s. I mean, 10 years tell women can vote right now. So, I mean, way different time frame that we're talking about. So, you take advantage of the opportunities you can, honestly, at that point.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

And that was Hattie's whole mantra throughout her life. I take it where I can.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

So Hattie joined her family's touring troupe, and later alongside her sister Etta. Etta, okay. And one early review of a 1917 Denver show headlined The McDaniel Sisters, and they noted that Hattie brought the house down with her antics.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

She had a gift for comedy, for song, and a big personality fit for any theater. Okay. So hat Hattie's um young life was touched a little bit with some tragedy. Oh dear. She married her first husband, Howard Hickman, in 1911. But their life together was pretty brief. He later he died a little bit later in 1915 of pneumonia. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Wow. So she got married when she was 18 and lost her first husband already when she was 22. That's fucking clear.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

She was married four times.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

The first one died. The second one was shot, but he lived. And then they later divorced, and the last two divorced. Hmm. So not long after her first husband died, her brother Otis had also died in 1916 of an illness. It was not disclosed of what. Okay. So these were pretty heavy blows for her. Sure. Hattie persisted with her craft, um, pouring her heartache into her blues singing.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Oh, okay, sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

So through the 1920s, she established herself as an entertainer, touring the vaudeville circuit with varying acts. She developed a sly bluesinger persona and wrote her own songs and made her first recordings during this period. Wow. Between 1926 and 29, she recorded as many as 16 blues tracks that showcased her deep expressive voice.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Sure. Does she have an accompanying band, as far as you know, to these? Or you didn't look into the colours.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

I did not look into it. Um, but she was still I would assume, but she was still groundbreaking in this, as she is widely credited as credited as the first black woman ever to sing on American radio.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

That's wild. Yeah. Good for her.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

So by the late 1920s, Hattie had gained plenty of experience, but she was still seeking that big break.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Then the Great Depression hit.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

It was pretty depressing that time.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

The 1929 stock market crash decimated the entertainment industry.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

And vaudeville uh venues dried up.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yep. Well, at that time, how could you afford to spend on entertainment when we need to put fucking food on the table or name your essentials here? Exactly. I'm not going to the show. So yeah, that's got to be one of the first things to fucking dry up for sure.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

And because these venues dried up, she was actually stuck in Milwaukee. Oh. In 1929.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Algonquin for the good land.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

No money, no show. Um, and she had to take a cleaning job just to survive. Sure. Uh this cleaning job was like the a woman's um bathroom kind of a thing. Sure. Like an attendant. Okay. Um, late one night she was working at Sam Picks Suburban Inn. Sam Picks. Which was a Milwaukee nightclub. Oh. Later I found that it was also called called Club Madrid.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

I've heard of that.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Neither of which are around. And I I tried to find where it was, and I heard the intersection of like 124 4th Street and Blue West Blue Mound. Oh, okay. And it was, yeah, but the the two streets don't intersect, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

No, and that makes it tough because well, I mean, it they kind of intersect, but either way, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

So she was singing at the or excuse me, she was working at this nightclub and the scheduled performers canceled, had finished, but the audience wanted more.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Right, what do we got?

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yeah. And the manager was like, uh, our entertainers are gone. So Hattie volunteered to sing on the spot.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

So she climbed up on stage and sang WC Handy's St. Louis Blues. The nightclub patrons were stunned, but they loved it and they erupted in applause.

The Great Depression Break In Milwaukee

SPEAKER_01 12:02

So was this nightclub mostly like white patrons at this time then?

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Okay. I mean, I just I figured.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

But okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Yeah. So McDaniel's impromptu performance was such a hit that the club hired her as a regular entertainer.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Oh wow. Yeah. Very fortuitous uh timing there.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Because she signed like a two-year contract here.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

That's huge for a black woman in nine. We're in 29 now still. Are we in 30? Where are we at?

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Uh we are in, I think we're still in 29. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

That's I mean, that's that's impressive for her to get a two-year contract with a club. That's that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah. So in 1931, she finally saved enough money to move to Los Angeles. Okay. Where the evolving film industry offered some new possibilities. Sure. She was nearly 40 years old and arriving in Hollywood at the dawn of the talkies. So she was determined to find her place on that silver screen.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

The talkies are actual talking pictures, not silent pictures. Correct. That's what they called them. Talkies, yeah. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yeah, they called them talkies. You didn't know that. No, yeah, the brand new ones where they finally added voiceover or whatever, they were called talkies.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

I never heard that before. And I love movies, and you know how much I love movies. That's surprising. I've never heard that. That's wild.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

I think I have a hair in my eyeball.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

I know.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Hold please. Hold please. Um, talkies, really. I never heard that before. I'll have to ask my mom being as old as she is. She was around before movies, so um just kidding. Uh, but she's a big old movie person, so I wonder if she knew that's what they were called.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

I bet you she does.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

My mom calls stuff thingies a lot. Like, can you go get the thingy?

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Because she can't find the words, and I I relate to that. I can't find the words for a lot of like normal things like coffee. I can't find the word for coffee sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

So you just say thingy?

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yeah, or I point to it, but or I'll use every descriptor the brown liquid stuff. No, I'll say like the brown liquid stuff. Oh my god. With the caffeine. I'll say every other word, but the actual word for coffee.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

From this, from here on out, you'll be known as Kathy. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Okay. So when Hattie got to California, work in movies obviously didn't come easily at first. It never does.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Her name is Hattie, right? H-A-T-T-I-N. For some reason, I keep going Hetty, and I'm like, that's not right. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

So there was something that said that she was also Hetty, but I have seen far more Hattie's. It's on her gravestone. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

So I was just I just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting it wrong because for some reason I can't because Hetty is more common, even though it's not very common.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Like Henrietta.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

No, I'm just talking about Hetty. I mean, where why did you have to bring Henrietta in this?

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Sorry, my bad.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

She fucking writes it.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Okay, so sh Hetty Hattie could take whatever she could get. So stop it.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

That's on me. I brought it up and then you fucked it up.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

She often worked as a film extra or singing in the background of musical scenes.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Hollywood in the early 1930s was booming, but roles for black actors were scarce and very stereotypical.

Moving To Hollywood And Typecasting

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Well, and they were because the whole segregation thing was still very, very huge, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

They were usually limited to servants, maids, porters, and comic relief.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

That's why you'd see a lot of like a lot of the movies that my mom watched, even in you know, these from the 40s and shit, you would see them as like a a waiter, uh a butler, stuff like that, more of a servant type role. Yeah. Just because that's what they were stereotyped into, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

And then of course, eventually they broke out of that. But back then, yeah, they had very shit roles, if you will. They weren't the lead actor. And a lot of I mean, there's there's always some, like, okay, back to Casablanca, which was in 42. Is that right? No. God damn it. I should know this. It's one of my favorite movies. Um I'll look it up. You know, Sam the um piano player. Do you remember watching that with me? Yeah. Because I had to show it to you.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

1942.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Ah, look at me go. Uh, play it again, Sam. He was, you know, again, it wasn't a lead role by any stretch, because obviously Humphrey Bogart and whatever, but um he was very prevalent in the movie. He was Humphrey's friend, and you know, the Rick is friend, but um it took a long time for them to get more substantial roles. We'll just say that, is I guess what I'm getting at.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

So um Hattie was armed with her timing, her charisma, and she also found that her size, she was a larger woman, okay, um, and her knack for comedy actually made her a natural fit for typecasting of the era. Sure. So she appeared in a string of uncredited or small parts playing maids, nannies, or mammies um in various films. Mammies? They called them mammies.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

What what what's a mammy?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

It's a type of maid. Oh. Maid slash nanny.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

So it's a it's a maid and a nanny, basically is what it is. So I didn't know that. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Thinking about the time frame that we're talking about and the type of people that she's playing. Do you have any inclination of what her ice her Oscar might have been from before like we get to it?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Like the movie? Yeah. Oh boy. I'm gonna go with.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

I'm guessing you've probably seen it at least once.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Gone with the wind.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Good job. I'm picturing her right now, actually.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Yeah, that's Hetty.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

God damn it. I that's you put it in my brain. I'm so sorry. At least something's in there. Fuck off. Fuck right off. Fuck right off and get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Okay, so bit by bit, she was starting to get noticed around town.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

So an early break came in 1934 when she landed a part in the film Judge Priest, where McDaniels sang a duet with Will Rogers. Oh. Then she was in the comedy The Little Colonel in 35, opposite Shirley Temple again as a maid.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

And then Alice Adams in 1935, which was a comedy drama starring Catherine Katherine Hepburn. Sure. And um Hattie played a cook, and she turned like this really brief dining room scene into a comedic highlight, basically outshining Catherine Hepburn herself. Sure. So opportunities for substantial roles remained painfully limited by the segregationist unwritten rules of Hollywood.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

So studios were reluctant to cast black actors and anything but servants' parts. So it was a frustrating reality for Hattie. Um, she would say later, quote, why should I complain about making seven hundred dollars a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be a maid making seven dollars a week.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Well, exactly. Like seven hundred dollars for a black actress in her late thirties, probably early forties at this time. That's a lot of fucking money.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

I would take that now.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

$700 a week, I would take that now.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

And could you imagine, like obviously, that we're talking again, uh late 30s, right? Was when we're at um what that would be equivalent to today. Probably pretty pretty decent pay, honestly. Oh yeah. So I mean, God, yeah, that's she not saying she I didn't do that conversion.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

I should have.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Not saying she's living lavishly, but that's a pretty good living for uh a woman of color back.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

For such for small roles for bit parts, basically, yeah, for sure.

Landing Mammy In Gone With The Wind

SPEAKER_01 20:20

No, that's I mean, good for her to take every opportunity she could get. And she's so right. She would have made far fucking less doing the job she's imitating instead of actually just imitating it or playing it, whatever you want to call it. But it's like, yeah, she would have made far fucking less and been a lot harder work, and a lot unhappier. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't like cleaning.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Who does? There's some weirdos out there.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

There are some weirdos out there.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

My dad's one. Well, he doesn't necessarily like to clean, he just likes the after effect.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Well, obviously, that's always the benefit of doing anything.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

It takes after my grandma, who's very who had a very nice.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

That's even like when I did when I sold beer, you know, I'd fill the cooler and face it up so it looked all nice. I'd look across like a big long cooler and be fucking flat. I'm like, yeah, look at it. And then Budweiser would be all fucked because they're stupid. But um it'd be like that looks great.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

It's an accomplishment, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

It's it's the the goal, the finished goal or or outcome relationship. That you see, and it's like, I did that, yeah, you know, kind of thing. And it looks good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

So Hattie was aware, well aware that the only roles available to her were maids and mammies. So she decided that she would play those roles better than anybody else and make a good living with it.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Well, fuck yeah. It's like, you know what? If this is what I'm gonna be typecast into, I'm gonna fucking own this. So when you need this character, you're calling Hattie. Not Hattie, you're calling Hattie.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

So the part that would let her truly shine that came in the late 1930s was Gone with the Wind. Yep. Great job. Thank you. Margaret Mitchell's epic Civil War novel, Gone with the Wind, was a nationwide sensation in the late 1930s. Sure was. And producer David O. Selznick, his film adaptation was one of the most highly anticipated projects in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Do you remember uh what happened with our Wizard of Oz episode?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yes, Victor Fleming.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

He left Wizard of Oz to go do to go do um Gone with the Wind.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Sure did.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Look at us learning shit.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Look at us remembering shit. That's the fucking case. That's the feat. That's why we record this so we can fucking learn it again if we forgot. We can just rewatch it or listen to it. Look at us go.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

So the novel story is set on a Georgia plantation. Yep. And it featured a housemaid character named Mammy.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Mammy, okay. And it's that's right. Hey, Mammy. Yep, that's right, that's right. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

An enslaved maidservant deeply devoted to the O'Hara family. Yeah. So the role was dripping in stereotypes, of course. Was sick and it, but it was significant to the story and offered a rare chunk of screen time for a black character.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

That is true. I mean, it was very it was a bigger role than what people would think for that type of actress.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

When was the last time you watched it?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Oh boy. It's been all it's been a same for me.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

I think I've only seen it once and I probably didn't appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

It's really long. It's really long. Isn't it like three plus hours long, if I'm not mistaken? Yeah. It's again, it's been a while since I've watched it.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah, it's a long time.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Like to the point where I believe there was an intermission when they played it in the theater. Could be back in the day. I don't know if they still do that if they ever re-release it, but um all I remember is um who's the main chick again? Um Vivian Lee. Thank you. Like she had uh kissed um what's his name, and apparently he had really bad breath.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

Rat butler was at his his That was his name in the movie.

unknown 24:02

What's his name?

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Clark Gable.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Right? Am I getting this wrong?

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Yes, it's Clark, yes, Clark Gable, because that's my next line.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Oh read on trouble. But no, I if I remember right, like he had because he used to smoke and drink coffee a lot and whatever, and I don't know, apparently didn't brush his teeth. I have no idea. But yeah, apparently I heard that rumorslash tidbit or whatever you want to call it, that he was really yeah, so that's funny. You need some gum.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So Hattie by now was known around town for her talent in maid roles and was eager to audition. Um, she actually did fear that her comedic reputation might hurt her for this role.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

I can see that. She was actually kind of friends with Clark Gable. Was she really? Oh, nice. And he was the one that privately urged the producers to give Hattie the role.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Oh, that's awesome. Good for him.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

So obviously, Hattie did everything she could to land it herself. She famously showed up to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform from that time frame, that's awesome. And embodied the part of Mammy. Oh, good for her. So whether it was Gable's suggestion or her own bit, whatever, she got the role.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

So you'll probably get the get to this, and I'm apologize if I'm jumping the gun here. But did she win for a supporting actress? Supporting. That's what her ask was for? Okay. I figured, but obviously I just kind of was curious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

So the the securing of the role of Mammy was a huge breakthrough, but it did come with baggage.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Even before filming began, black leaders and newspapers raised concerns about Gone with the Winds content. Oh, Jesus. They knew the story glorified the antebellum South and could easily reinforce racist tropes.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

What is antebellum? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Because it's a period in the South before the Civil War.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

So why is that racist?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Because it is um characterized by the plantation economy that was built with uh slave labor in mind.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

I understand that, but it also is just referring to a time frame. Yes. Because I'll be honest, Lady A, no respect that they changed her name from Lady Antebellum. Just want to say that aloud. I also don't like them.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

I saw them in concert once.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

I don't mind it.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

That's that's your thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

So moving on. Yeah. So the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and figures like Walter White, who is the NAACP's executive secretary, pressed the producer Selznick to avoid the most offensive despic uh depictions from the book.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

And they succeeded in getting the N-word removed from the screenplay.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Well, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

But many African Americans remained deeply uneasy about the film.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Oh, okay.

Protests, Premiere, And The Oscar Night

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Um, many people calledznick's Selznick's um movie a weapon of terror against black America before it even hit the screens.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

See, that's not fair if you've never seen it. They read the book. Okay, but this is this isn't the book. Yes. I mean, it's it's it's different.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

So in this type of atmosphere, Hattie's decision to play mammy was controversial. Sure. Some black observers felt that no matter how talented McDaniel was, the mammy role itself, a loyal slave, seemingly content with bondage, was a betrayal of bat black dignity. But okay, you don't have to argue with me.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

I'm I'm not saying I'm not arguing with you.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

I'm just sharing details, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Yeah, which I appreciate. What I was gonna say is like, and again, I'm not from this time frame. Yeah, I'm only recalling things I've read and such and so on. There was a lot of slaves that were very loyal to their owners, and luckily, some, not all, obviously, when things turned benefited from that, meaning they got opportunities to actually make wages from previous owners and such and so on. Instead of owning you, we're gonna employ you because we know what you can do, we like what you do, so on. So, I mean, I get what they're saying because oh, I get that, but at the same time, it's like, yeah, that fucking part sucked. I get it, but it happened, yeah, and we got out of it, and it's been a long fucking hard road, don't get me wrong, but some people actually, I'm not gonna say benefited from it, but were able to utilize that friendship and or loyalty to better themselves after the fact. So it's like I get what they're coming at because they thought maybe well shit if it might go backwards now.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

That's that's what they were terrified about, which I understand is fucking would be horrific, obviously, but that's not what they were going for either. They were just adapting this book from this time frame. That's why I don't like when certain things like even to today and in our woke society that we live in, they they alter things to fit the narrative of today when it's like let's do this book that was written in this year, but we're gonna put it in today. I get it's an adaptation, and it's not gonna be fucking word for word, it's not gonna be everything's gonna be exactly the same, but it's like don't change history as well. Yeah, we learn from history, that's why we are doing what we're doing, yeah. And I I don't like I don't like that. Yeah, that that it makes it so it's like we're erasing history instead of actually learning from it and growing from it. And I just I feel like, yeah, there's been a lot of terrible things, and slavery was one of them, but there's also a thousand million fucking other things that were fucking terrible in history, so Nazis, am I right?

SPEAKER_02 30:41

So Hattie saw Gone with the Wind as a chance of a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

This is good for her, and she explained that she approached Mammy not as a stereotype but as a fully realized human being. Yeah, she said, quote, I loved Mammy, I think I understood her because her own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

My own grandmother, I'm sorry if I misspoke. Her own grandmother worked on a plantation, not unlike Tara.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

I kind of figured you meant that.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah. So for Hattie, honoring the struggles and warmth of women like her grandmother gave her character depth beyond what was written on the page. Sure. So filming of Gone with the Wind in 1939 was huge, and Hattie held her own among stars like Vivian Lee and her friend Clark Gable. Yep. On set, she kept things light. She would crack up Gable with her sly deliveries.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

As Mamie, she was warm and maternal, but also sharp-tongued and unafraid to put Scarlet in her place.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Which is great.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Victor Fleming, the um director who left Wizard of Oz for this, um, let her improvise and her performance filled with charisma and authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

That's I don't want to say it's rare for the time, but I feel like it's rare for the time, especially in that particular role that she had.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

That's that's awesome. Yeah. That he would let her do that. That's pretty fucking great.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

When the film pre uh premiered, critics raved. Um, the Atlanta Constitution said the she stole the show, praising the strength and moral backbone she brought to the role. In a movie that romanticized the old South, um, Hattie's Mammy stood out as one character who truly um had integrity and sense, turning a stereotyped role into something deeply human and moving.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

See, and that's why it's shitty that people shit on it prior to it even being made.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

I mean, I get it. I see what they were trying to do to whatever, but it's like you haven't even seen this yet. You don't know what the adaptation is. Yeah. So I don't know, maybe wait, but people have knee-jerk reactions and fucking fly off the handle before they even know what the fuck's going on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

I mean, that's prevalent today, so so if if Hattie hoped Gone with the Wind might begin to bridge Hollywood's racial divide, reality hit a little bit hard at the premiere.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

The producer Selznick staged the world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia on December 15th, 1939. A grand gala affair in a city still strictly segregated.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Well, I mean Atlanta, South, Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Hattie was not invited.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

See, that's too bad.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

To the own premiere.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Do they do it in Georgia because that is that where it's set?

SPEAKER_02 33:42

It is. I think it is where it's set in. I believe, right?

Aftermath: Roles, Respect, And Resistance

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Okay. So So I can I can see why they would they would want to do it there. Do it there, but I feel like they missed an opportunity by having everyone involved there because not having everyone involved there. Well, you know, that's what I meant. I'm sorry. Um but because like the fact that, you know, in 1939 she couldn't be invited, even though she was a very prevalent part to this movie, as we just literally discussed. Um, and she's friends with the fucking main male actor and everything and so on. But yet, nah, you know, why don't you stay home for this one? It's like fuck that. That's so stupid.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

So the theater bar barred black patrons entirely.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

And Georgia's segregation laws extended to the film's own black cast members. Clark Gable was furious when he learned that his friend Hattie had not been invited.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Like I kind of just said, in a way. That I mean, as he should have been furious because again, she was a big part of the movie. Also his friend.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

So Gable reportedly threatened to boycott the premiere in protest. Okay, telling Selznick he wouldn't show up unless Hattie could come.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Good for him.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

It was a bold stance from one of Hollywood's biggest stars, exactly. However, upon hearing about Gable's boycott plan, Hattie urged him to drop it. Oh she didn't want him to jeopardize his career for the film's success on her account. And she convinced Gable to attend without her.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

I mean, good on her.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

She handled it with grace and pragmatis pragmatism. Pragmatism? Pragmatism. Pragmatism.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

We got there.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

That's that's big on her part to do that. Um she's she really like what's the what's the way I want to say this? She could um read the I don't want to say read the room.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

She had the the overall picture of what this could be, and she's like, I'm just a small portion of this big thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Even though she was bigger than she probably gave herself credit for in this movie, which she was.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Um she had her finger on the pulse of of what this could be and be like, don't fuck this up because I feel like this is something we made something great here. I understand what you're doing, but put that aside for now. Yeah. So good good on her. I mean, that's that's fucking amazing that she she went that route. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

So on premier night in Atlanta, Mayor William Hartsfield asked the all-white audience to give a round of applause to the Negro members of the cast, none of whom was present. That's literally all he said. None of whom was present. It's not because they weren't present, it's because you you didn't invite them.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

You didn't not even invite them. You didn't you wouldn't have allowed them. Allowed them.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Even if they showed up, that you wouldn't have allowed them in.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

So, I mean, is it cool that he did that?

SPEAKER_02 36:53

I guess you could say that, but round of applause for those who weren't here because they can't be here on purpose.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

They can't be here because we don't want them here. That's that's called a dick move on his part. And he should be drawn in court. I'm sorry. Um, that that's shitty.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

So two weeks later, Gone with the Wind had its Hollywood premiere.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Okay, so we're back in LA.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

And Hattie was able to attend.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

The Oscars were looming, and another color line awaited her there when the Academy Award nominations were announced in early 1940. Um, Gone with the Wind led the pack with 13 nominations. It's like Titanic all over again. Well, I mean Well, to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

All over again. Or or my ears hurt. Oh board, my ears hurt. Um 13 nominations, especially back in 1940, is fucking great. I mean, that's huge.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

So Hattie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first black performer ever nominated for an Oscar.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

That's fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

And on Oscar night, February 29th, 1940.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

She got to attend.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

David, yes. Oh, thank god. David Selsnik ensured that McDaniel would be welcomed as his guest at the ceremony, despite the venue.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

What was the venue?

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Um, the Ambassador Hotel's Coconut Grove.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

I'm not familiar, okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

It was a strict whites-only policy, and somehow they're like, could they not have done that in Atlanta? But whatever. Whatever. Hattie arrived in a turquoise gown and gardenia blooms and accompanied by her escort, F. P. Yober, who was Y-O-B-E-R Yober. He was a black newspaper man and her white agent, William Micheldron. Michaeldrawn?

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Um, even so, once inside the Coconut Grove's um ballroom, um, Hattie faced segregation yet again.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Do they have separate bathrooms?

SPEAKER_02 39:04

The hotel would not let her sit with the rest of the Gone with the Wind team at the main table.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Are you fucking serious? Good lord. People suck.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Instead, Hattie, her date, and her agent were seated at a small table set apart from the others near a far wall of the banquet hall.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

It was Was it an obstructed view?

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Jesus Christ. Probably. You see that column? You're sitting right behind.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Exactly. She felt like an outsider way over there.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Well, no shit. That's stupid.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

The the the ceremony dragged on for hours.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Well, back then, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

They didn't have TV commercials and slots and everything to contend with.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

I'm pretty sure they also didn't have music to play off the fucking.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

You got nine seconds to go. So it wasn't until 1 a.m. that the presenters finally reached the supporting actor and actress categories. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

Yeah, what time did it start?

unknown 40:01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

I didn't look it up.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Because if it started at 12.30 a.m. guy for that era. If it started at 12 30 a.m., we're not too bad.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

That's not too bad.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

But if it started at 2 p.m. the day before, we're fucked. Obviously, it didn't, but I know.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Actress Faye Banter was presenting the supporting actress award. Okay. And she acknowledged the significance of the moment. Sure. Quote, it opens the doors of this room, moves back the walls, and enables us to embrace the whole of America. Obviously hinting at the barrier about to be broken.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Yeah, way to give it away. Right. What the fuck?

Clash With The NAACP And Image Politics

SPEAKER_02 40:43

She announced the winner, Patty McDaniel, for the role of Mammy. And for a few seconds, the room room actually fell silent, but then it corrupted.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Because they're like, wait, this actually just happened.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

This just happened. And they're like, fuck it, exactly. And then they just erupted with the plot.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

That's so cool. Don't you wish that this could have been, I'm sure it wasn't, because of the timing filmed?

SPEAKER_02 41:08

I think it was.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Was it really? I think so. I wonder if we can find video of this because that would be fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

I think so. I watched a documentary with Whoopi Goldberg as the presenter, and I want to say that that it was filmed. I watched it while I was at work, so I was doing other things.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Let's look into that after this because if at all possible, if we can even just include that clip, I would love to because that's fucking awesome. I mean, what a fucking groundbreaking thing for Hollywood.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

And for Hollywood, for women, for black women.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

I mean, yeah. Yeah. It's just awesome because middle-aged black women.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

I mean, she she was a very specific type of woman. Very, a very specific minority.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

And and that that time frame, very looked down upon, unfortunately. And good good on fucking her to do that. And for those people to realize, wait, that just happened. Fuck yeah, it just happened. You know, I'd I'd I'd like this. Let's look into that. If we can include a clip, we will. Um, if not, um maybe a picture, but um, that would be fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

So yeah. So many witnesses said it was one of the most emotional ovations in Oscar history. I know.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

No doubt.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

It would probably give me goosebumps. No shit. Um, Hetty was momentarily stunned, and she later wrote that she wanted to burst out of her skin with happiness when she heard her name announced.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I can imagine.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Collecting her self, she walked to the podium, accepted the golden Oscar plaque, and spoke from her heart.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

So back then it was a plaque, not the statue.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

I think it I think it was still the statue, if I recall. Okay. But it's there's like a little plaque on it as well that says like best supporting. Right, right, right, right. But I could be wrong. But either way. She said, quote, this is one of the happiest moments of my life.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

This is in 40.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

So she would have been 47, 46, 47 at this time. God damn, that's fucking awesome. Sorry, sorry, brief that.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

She thanked those who had a part in selecting her and expressed how it made her feel very, very humble.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

And then came her closing, which apparently has been made famous, although I don't think I've ever heard it.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Oh, I wonder if I have.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

She said, quote, 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.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

Oh, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

Have you heard that before?

SPEAKER_01 43:48

I don't know. I'm I mean, maybe, but I it doesn't ring a bell, unfortunately. So if I have, I don't recall it, unfortunately. But yeah, that's fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Many in the audience, hardened industry veterans, um, were in tears witnessing the uh the the groundbreaking.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Groundbreaking moment. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Yeah. So press coverage of Hattie's win was largely celebratory, with writers praising her as her Oscar as proof that talent could rise above prejudice. Um, others were more skeptical, skeptical. A radio host noted that she'd likely return to playing maids, and some studio executives even vowed not to cast black actors in major roles again.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

That's fucking stupid. Why are people why are people shit? I know. Seriously.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

Within the black community, reactions were mixed. Pride in her achievement, but discomfort that Hollywood's first honored black role reinforced a um a stereotype.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

See, I get what they're saying by that, but in my opinion, they're looking at it the wrong way.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

They're looking at a story.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

They're looking at a story, they're looking at the role she played.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

But like she's a an actress in Hollywood, correct, and a singer and a comedian, and she's she won, not Mammy.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

And and correct, exactly. Yeah, not the character, not the character the actress one, yes, and her parents came from that life. So it's it's a great fucking progression. Her parents were fucking born into slavery, or right, born into they obviously civil war, everything, they're not had 13 fucking children, and their youngest is now fucking winning a goddamn Oscar and had stuff to pull from because of her upcoming. She had the emotions, she had the emotion, she had the the knowledge of what her parents went through and so on, and whatever. That's fucking huge. Don't look at it that way. That is such the wrong way to look at it, and that's that's unfortunate because this was very significant. And yes, it sucks that it took fucking forever for Whoopi if she was the next one, which I believe you're right, um, to get one.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

I think it was for the color purple.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Or was it ghost?

SPEAKER_02 46:11

Oh, it might have been ghost.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Right?

SPEAKER_02 46:14

It might have been ghost. Yeah. No, you it might have been ghost. We'll look we'll look it up later.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

We'll look it up later.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

But okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

But it it's so significant, they're looking at it, in my opinion, the wrong way. Yeah. I get where they're coming from, don't get me wrong. But look at what she just fucking did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

So at the banquet's end, um the celebration did have its limits when the Gone with the Win team headed to an after party at a no blacks club in Hollywood. Patty was not allowed in.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Which obviously we have to, in case you don't know, Gone with the Win won best picture.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Did they?

SPEAKER_01 46:54

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_02 46:55

No, I don't know.

Radio Stardom And Early TV Work

SPEAKER_01 46:56

Look it up. So I'm gonna just ramble while she does this. Um I live, I uh I I was gonna say I like, and then I'm like, I love movies.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Best picture.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

I know. Weird. Bradley knew something.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

Best actress was Vivian Lee. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Didn't did didn't Clark Gable win best actor? Um Do you have all 13 nominations? That would be interesting to know.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Best picture, best actress in a supporting role, best writing, okay, um, an academy academy honorary award.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Honorary. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

I don't know what that one's about. Best production, best overall DVD? Probably not. What the fuck? Duff. Best actress in a leading role, best directing, um, best cinematography, best film editing.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

Did Clark Gable win best actor?

SPEAKER_02 48:03

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

It's not sounding that way, but for some reason I thought he did. But I I mean again, I'm not a fucking steel trap here. I can't remember everything.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Um yeah, he won best actor. That's what I thought.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Okay. Look at me go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Okay, let's get back to it.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Never mind, steel trap.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Let's get back to it.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Sorry. So I like to derail shit from time to time.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

In the months and years following Gone with the Wind, Hattie found herself navigating a strange new status. She was rewarded with a lucrative long-term studio contract at MGM following her Oscar win. Sure. But the type of roles that she was offered did not improve.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Still the same.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Hollywood still saw Hattie only as a maid or a comic mammy for life. Sure. In the 1940s, she continued to be cast in servant roles, often giving more lines and bits of business than before. But not. But still servant roles just the same.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Yeah, but it's it's good work for her.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

One exception came in with Warner Brothers. Okay. Their drama in this Our Life in 1942. Um, Hattie played the mother of a young law student falsely accused of a crime. Oh. The role had depth and dignity, and Hattie delivered an amazing performance, according to critics.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Yet the NAACP leader, Walter White, who saw the film, wrote a congratulatory, congratulatory letter to not Hattie, but to her white co-star for being in a film that addressed racism. He never even reached out to Hattie. And he's the one who's trying to fight for black lives, black voices. What what?

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Do you find it funny that that the the the head guy for the NAACP's last name is White?

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Yes, I find it funny.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

Isn't that kind of ironic?

SPEAKER_02 50:14

It's ironic.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

Don't you think? Thank you, Alanis.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

I'm going in with my hibiscus.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Great choice. These are good. I like these. I like mine I'm on my third.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

I'm on my second. So the this slate reflected a deeper rift between Hattie and the NAACP leaders like Walter White, who condemned Hollywood stereotypes and criticized black actors who took such roles.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Hattie resented being held up as the problem. But the break became public in 1942 at the NAACP convention, where White showcased newcomer Lena Horn as the quote unquote ideal future of Black Hollywood while ignoring veterans like Hattie. She's a singer, Lena Horn.

SPEAKER_01 51:05

The name sounds familiar, but I I I okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

She was young, she was elegant, and she had lighter complexion.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

See, fuck that. Okay.

Sugar Hill Lawsuit And Civil Rights Impact

SPEAKER_02 51:16

She was being groomed by MGM to be a different kind of black movie star, one who would never play a maid. And humiliated Hattie later said that he treated her like a southern colonel to his favorite slave.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

That's shit.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

So immediately after the convention, Hattie fired back publicly. She said, quote, I have no quarrel with the NAACP or colored fans who object to the roles some of us play. But I naturally resent being completely ignored at the convention. Sure. She defended her career, saying, quote, I have struggled for 11 years to open up opportunities for our group in the industry and have tried to reflect credit upon my race and exemplary conduct both on and off screen.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:01

Hattie felt that she had done the best she could in an unfair system and that her own achievements, including her Oscar win, had actually helped black actors gain more visibility. Points the NAACP was willing over was willfully overlooking in her mind.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

Correct. I mean, seriously. What the fuck? Bonnie's like, I should probably get up and go.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

Bonnie, you want to be on camera?

SPEAKER_01 52:26

Not really. I just want to go. Ma, can you let me out?

SPEAKER_02 52:30

Uh baby. You want to be on camera?

SPEAKER_01 52:33

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

Oh, she was on my heat today.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

So it's not on, is it?

SPEAKER_02 52:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

It's on? Yeah. Oh, Jesus. No wonder she's been there so long. She's been just chilling this entire time while we've been recording. And she's such a sweetie. She's such a sweetie. Yeah, she's so pretty too. Hi, Bonnie. She's like, hey, dude. Um, I gotta go potty. Do you want to get down?

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Oh no, she doesn't want to get down.

SPEAKER_01 53:04

No, now she doesn't. Now that you did this. Noma. Noma. All right, fine.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

Good girl.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

Bye, Bonnie. She's silly.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

So a few years later in 1946, White convened a small gathering of black actors to discuss strategy for better film roles and invited Hattie.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

Oh, so convenient.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

But by then her patience had worn out and she refused to attend.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

It has worn thin.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

I have Bonnie hair all over now.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

Well, yeah, no shit. Your whole house has Bonnie hair all over.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

Bonnie. Okay, so I've got four cats. Bonnie is she sheds worse than all four of them combined.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Amos is probably runner up. Two penny probably Oliver's, you're not going to notice as much because of the orange. It's going to blend in with more stuff. Yeah. But uh obviously Bonnie being more white, Amos being more white, and then Penny has quite a bit of white, even though she's good black and white.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Um that's a lot of hair.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

You were telling me how much you had to lint roll your pants. Oh, Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

You think those beers were shaking up before you bought them.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

They've been sitting here for 50 an hour now. Um I know. Whatever. Anyways. But yeah, you you have a lot of hair in your house.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

Okay, so Hattie's patients had run out and she refused to attend this meeting.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

Good for her.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

So in a leather, she wrote, quote, in a letter. In a letter, she wrote, quote, I cannot accept your invitation to break bread with Walter White, for he has openly insulted my intelligence.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Good for her.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

She asserted that White knew nothing of her true ability, saying, quote, God has endowed me with other talents and they are not menial, as he has said.

SPEAKER_01 54:52

No, fuck him. He he like what was this beef, man? I mean, seriously.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

Because she played roles that he thinks shouldn't beneath them. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

Basically.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

So Hattie was deeply hurt by suggestions that she and by extension all dark-skinned plus size characters, actresses, had no place in double A the NAACP's vision of black progress.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

That's that that feels like complete opposite of what they're trying to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:25

Does it not? It does.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

I mean, what the fuck did How about you just give her space?

SPEAKER_02 55:29

Maybe give her a platform.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

I also feel like he doesn't matter what he really needed to change his last name.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

So trying to defend her vo her choices, um, Hattie wrote a 1947 Hollywood reporter op-ed. Oh, insisting she would never apologize for her roles. She explained that she'd quietly pushed directors to s to drop exaggerated dialect and argued that audiences knew that she was acting. Right. Hollywood's limited imagination, not her, kept stereotypes alive. Of course, 100%. So given that most black workers in Hollywood were maids and butlers, she said it was unrealistic to expect her to refuse the only roles available.

SPEAKER_00 56:12

Well, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Of course, her stance divided people, and young performers like Lena Horn had different opportunities in terms of the channel. Okay. And she was being held up as a new image, while Hattie, dark skinned, plus size, and comedic, was unfairly dismissed as a part of the old Hollywood regime, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

So Lena Horn was lighter skinned, black girl, sin, Hollywood pretty. So that's what they were trying to push. Sounds like what was White's first name?

SPEAKER_02 56:45

Walter.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Why is why do I keep thinking of Breaking Bad?

SPEAKER_02 56:48

Isn't it Walter White?

SPEAKER_01 56:50

That sounds right.

SPEAKER_02 56:51

Isn't that his his name on Breaking Bad?

Declining Health, Death, And Missing Oscar

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Maybe that's why I keep fucking thinking about it then. So it's like Walter, otherwise known as dick bag, apparently, because he's pushing this, but like it's literally going against what you're try what you're trying to achieve here because you're pushing a lighter fared skin black girl who is skinnier and so on, which I'm not saying they they're not they don't exist, but also Hattie did exist too. There's a fucking wide variety, just like we uh white people have a wide variety, black people have a wide variety, Asians have wide variety, it doesn't matter. So why are you pushing this but fucking forgetting about I don't know where you came from? We'll just call it, which isn't proper, but you know what I mean, right? Oh, absolutely. It's like she was way more prevalent than this this sorry, what's her name? Lena Lena Horn. Okay. I don't know. Just I feel like Walter White was kind of not the right choice.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

So for now that you say Walter White, I instantly think of Breaking Bad now, even though I knew this whole time. Yeah, it's breaking bad. I have to pee so bad. And we're back. Blätter is emptied.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

Oh, thank God.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

So, yes, by the mid-1940s, Hattie's film career had slowed, but she pivoted to radio and found some new success.

SPEAKER_01 58:29

Was she singing?

SPEAKER_02 58:30

She was saying, was she really? No. Oh in 1947, she became the first black um um black woman to headline a national, nope, national radio comedy with the Beulah show.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

With the what?

SPEAKER_02 58:46

The Beulah Show. She was a warm, quick-witted maid. Okay, and of course, role critic disliked, but audiences loved it.

SPEAKER_01 58:55

Of course they did. And it's funny because like critics, am I right? So Rotten Tomatoes.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:04

Big thing these days. A lot of people look to that like, should I go see this movie? Right. They don't know shit. They don't know shit. But there's also a uh so there's a critic score or whatever, and then there's also um reviewer score? Yeah, whatever, and so on. Audience, audience, yeah, whatever. And it's funny, like you look at the differences for like okay, critics hated this movie, but why did the fucking audience like it? Because the critics are wrong.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:38

I'm sorry. I I have never went to a movie based off a critic's recommendation or non-recommendation for that matter, because fuck them. Yeah, they're not me. I won't I love so many movies that people not hate. Not people hate it. That shouldn't be liked.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

Is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Because you know what? Fuck you. I have my own fucking mindset. I like this. Like, I made you watch Starship Troopers once. That movie's stupid. But I fucking love that movie. It's so good. Casper Van Dien, also in Sleepy Hollow, fucking love that guy. Because of that movie. It's a great fucking movie. Is it critically acclaimed? Of course not. But it's fucking great. And should it be? No. But I love it. So it doesn't matter. So fuck critics. That's why I like Roger uh Ebert and what the fuck were the two guys? Roper and Ebert, Robert and Ebert, blah blah blah. I'm fucking drawing a mic on that. Ebert is one of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

I don't even know what you're talking about right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

All right. Critics. Am I right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

Well no, I I can't help you, is what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

No, I know. It's one of them died. I don't think both of them maybe no. Roger, Roger and Ebert is what it was. They were critics, movie critics. And they were like, that's what people fucking went to. Like, oh, they gave it the thumbs up, let's go see it. They gave it the thumbs down. We should pass. Fuck those guys. I mean, were they right sometimes? Sure. Were they wrong a lot of times? Probably. My point is make your own fucking decision.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

Absolutely. Okay, so in 1947, she became the first black woman to headline in the Beela Show on National Radio. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

Um, her rich voice made the show a hit and it paid better than her film work.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

Did it really?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:40

Mm-hmm. Though the NAACP objected to the continued Mammy stereotype, Hattie argued that starring as a clever, central character was far better than the real world opinions as black domestics faced, and the show created jobs for other black performers. I really want to keep going, but yes, Bradley, please, please, please ask your question or state your state your piece.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

You said she made more money. How much more did she make?

Recognition, Memorials, And Modern Reflections

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

That was not part of my research. When Beulah moved to TV. Oh, it went to TV in 1951.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:22

Oh shit. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:23

Hattie filmed several early episodes, becoming one of the first black actresses on American TV.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

What what uh station was it on?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:33

Bradley Jesus Christ. That's my name. Sadly.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:38

Oh dear, did she die?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

Worsening health with diabetes and heart trouble and eventually breast cancer did force her to step down.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:47

She had the diabetes. That's sad. As her film breast cancer, too? Fucking hell.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

As her film career slowed, Hattie became a key figure in a civil rights fight in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:59

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

In the 1940s, she and other black professional moved, professionals moved to the upscale Sugar Hill neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

I've heard of Sugar Hill before. Why have I heard of that? Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:13

But it prompted white homeowners to try enforcing racially restrictive covenants to push them out. Seriously. So in 1945, McDaniel rallied her neighbors, hosted strategy meetings, worked with the local NAACP, and helped hire attorney Lauren Miller to challenge the covenants in court.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:37

In 1945, the Sugar Hill case went before Judge Thurmond Clark with white homeowners arguing black residents like Hattie should be evicted under old racial covenants. No. After hearing both sides, Clark personally visited the neighborhood, then returned to court and dismissed the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Good for him.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:00

He declared that black Americans were entitled to full 14th Amendment rights and that such covenants could not stand.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

Well, yeah, the the whole point was to fucking remove that shit. Not fucking keep going backwards, you dumb fucks. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

He declared, oh, excuse me, his ruling became a landmark early blow against housing segregation. Good. Paving the way for the Supreme Court's decision in Shelley versus Kramer three years later.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:30

That was a landmark case that that ruled states state courts cannot constitutionally enforce racially restrictive housing covenants because doing so constitutes state action in violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:49

Fair enough. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:50

So McDaniel was thrilled by the court victory, and the black press celebrated as victory on Sugar Hill.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

Victory on Sugar Hill.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

And by standing with her neighbors and civil rights attorneys, she helped open housing access for countless black families.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

Good for her.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

This little known chapter revealed her courage beyond the screen, shifting her image from a criticized stereotype to a real life advocate for equality. Okay. As the Los Angeles Tribune noted, she and her community had laid the groundwork for ending residential segregation perfectly matching her belief in being a credit to her race.

unknown 1:05:29

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

By early 1950s, Hattie McDaniel's health was failing.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

Okay. Well, so early 1950s, she would have been 57 at this time. Even in 50, she would have been 57. 56, 57. So okay. That's sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:46

Decades of relentless work. Yeah. The stress of fighting prejudice, perhaps her own personal battles.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

I'm sure she had plenty.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

She went through the four divorce or excuse me, four marriages.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

Three divorces and a death.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

And she had taken a physical toll.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:02

Lost her brother. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

Yes. In 1950, she endured a deeply disappointing episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

She suffered a false pregnancy.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:15

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

Yeah. I knew that was a thing. But it's it, I think it's pretty rare. Yeah. It's a condition that mimics pregnancy symptoms.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:26

Sure.

Final Thoughts, Oscars Timeline, And Wrap

SPEAKER_02 1:06:27

And she had to believe that she was finally going to have a baby at 57 years old, only to learn that it was a medical delusion.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

But also it probably would not have been a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

But she it left her emotionally drained.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

Sure. I mean. My so Vespers plus three. Um Sarah had her at 39. That was a fucking miracle. So at 57.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:00

Oh, Sarah was 39.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:02

I'm gonna say that's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:05

Because I think so. Right? Yes. Let's go with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:12

So in 1952, her illnesses intensified, and she was admitted to the Motion Picture Country Home, a retirement sanitarium for film industry people.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:23

That doesn't sound great.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

It doesn't. She was the first black performer ever accepted there.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

And see, she's fucking breaking grounds. She's breaking ground stuff. Look at her fucking go. I love Hattie.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:35

She updated her will to specify how she wanted to be laid to rest.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:39

Oh, okay. How was that?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:40

In an era where even cemeteries were segregated.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:44

Oh, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:45

McDaniel's last wish was to be buried at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, now known as Hollywood Forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:52

Hollywood Forever, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:53

Knowing the prejudices, um, Hattie pragmatically named a second choice because she is a smart woman.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

Because she's like, I want this. I know how the world is. But this is okay. I know how the world is. Let's go with this as a backup just in case. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

So her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery, which is known to accept black burials. Oh. In October 26, 1952, Hattie McDaniel passed away from breast cancer at age 59.

unknown 1:08:25

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:26

As she predicted, I know it really was. As she predicted, Hollywood Memorial Cemetery denied the burial because of her race. Good fucking God. Instead, thousands of mourners, some 3,000 people, gathered to honor her at a funeral chapel, and a long line of 125 limousines escorted Hattie to the Rosedale Cemetery where she was laid to rest. So that was her second choice.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

Good on her for having that backup because unfortunately she knew better. God, is that fucking irritating that she had to go to her second? But at least, you know, she was she had the for the wherewithal, the for the forethought, everything to be like, I want this, but probably not gonna happen. I know better, yeah, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

So this was one of the largest funerals LA had seen, and it was attended by celebrities and NAACP representatives and ordinary fans.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:27

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:28

And true to her generous nature, Hattie's will left most of her modest estate to charity and family.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:35

Oh, good for her.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

Famously, famously, she bequeathed her Oscar Award to Howard University in Washington, D.C., which was a historically black university. Okay. She likely hoped that the plaque would inspire young black students in the arts.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:54

Howard University um proudly displayed the Oscar in a glass case in his drama department for many years until the late 1960s when the award mysteriously went missing.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:07

Seriously? Yeah. Someone stole it?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

I don't know. I don't it has never been found.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:14

That is so sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:16

Some say it was stolen as an act of protest against Gone with the Wind. Others believe it was just simply misplaced due to renovations, but it has never been found.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:28

It sounds like someone stole it. Don't you agree? I'm not saying, I'm not saying because of Gone with the Wind. It sounds like someone stole it, though. In my opinion. You don't have to agree. My opinion, someone stole that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:43

So in the immediate aftermath of her death, she did not receive formal honors from the film industry. Of course not. The 1950s were still a segregated area. It rescues me in Hollywood moved on, often overlooking its black pioneers.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

And over the decades, appreciation for um Hattie's barrier-breaking achievements steadily grew.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:04

And in 1969, when singer-actress Diana Ross played a character loosely inspired by Hattie in the movie Lady Sings the Blues, it sparked renewed interest in Hattie's real story. Oh, nice. By the 1970s, the contributions of early black film stars were being reassessed.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:24

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

In 1975, Hattie McDaniel was inducted into the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame, enshrining her among the greats of black cinema. Nice. The city of Los Angeles finally acknowledged her as well. A decade earlier, the once all-white Hollywood Cemetery that had rejected Hattie opened its gates to all races.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

So did they exhume her and rebury her?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:50

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:50

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

In 1999, on the 47th anniversary of Hattie's death, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is yeah, which is the same place. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Um, installed a large monument and honor a memorial stone in Hattie Bank Daniel's name on a serene lawn overlooking the lake. Etched in the marble is Hattie's image and the inscription, beloved lady, a great talent. That's awesome. Hattie was not one but two star, not has not one but two stars on the Hollywood block of stores.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

I was just gonna ask that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

One for one for film and one for her radio work.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:31

Really? Oh, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:33

In 2006, the U.S. Postal Service honored her with a commemorative postage stamp. Did they really making her the first black Oscar winner ever featured on a U.S. stamp?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:44

Oh, that's so cool. Could you imagine? Like, let's go find that stamp.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:48

That'd be cool as fuck.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:49

Modern black actors and filmmakers frequently frequently cite Hattie as a source of inspiration, acknowledging acknowledging the doors that she had opened. How can you not?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:00

She she was a fucking pioneer. Seriously.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

At the 2010 Academy Awards, 70 years after Hattie's win, Monique became the first black woman since McDaniel to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. And she paid homage to um by wearing white gardenias in her hair.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:21

Because that was her thing. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:23

Just as Hattie had done in 1940, and she thanked Hattie McDaniel in her acceptance speech for quote, for enduring all she had to, so I would not have to, end quote.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:35

Well, yeah, she fucking she was a fucking pioneer for the the black actresses of the world and just actors in general. I mean, good on her. She was I kind of wanna well I'm sorry if if you don't know off the top of your head that don't have to look back, but what was the movie after that where she was like wrongly accused, or whatever you said? Um that oh uh she was more of a leader.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

She was the mother of a law student.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:07

That's what it was. What was I kind of want to watch that now?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:12

I want to watch that and I want to watch Gone with the Wind. Well, I do own it, so In This Our Life, 1942.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:23

I kind of want to watch that just to check it out. Um, I'm kidding I'm very curious. I've never seen it before. Um I would love to watch Gone with the Wind with you because we've never watched it together. Um and it's been a long, it's been a long fucking time.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:40

Me too. I couldn't even tell you about it really. Except for Drapes.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:46

It's set in Georgia named Tara. It's Clark Abel.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:52

And Vivian Lee.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:55

I'm pretty I don't know why I'm second guessing myself. I'm pretty sure I own it, but no, I'm second guessing myself.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:03

Well, what do you think about Hattie McDaniel?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:05

Fucking awesome. Good on her. No. She's a fucking pioneer, and she should be celebrated every fucking Oscar year because if it wasn't for her, she she paved the way for a lot of good fucking people.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:20

I remember when Halle Berry won Best Actress for I think it was Monster's Ball.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

I think that sounds right. Yeah, that was I just think of Halle Berry and I'm like, yep. She's so hot. Halle Berry. Am I right? Um I th the Monsters Balls does sound right. That sounds correct. What did Whoopy do we determine that Whoopi won it for Ghost or for I want to say she she did.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:53

Um, let me look.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:54

Because that would make the most sense to me. I obviously again, I am not a fucking connoisseur. No, that's not the right word. I am not a fucking encyclopedia in terms of Oscar wins, but that that's the one I would pick if I had to. I love the clicking sounds.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:16

It's fucking it's just not a for whatever reason, it's just not easy to to find.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:23

I I get it. I can trim this up. So um while she's doing this, oh I got a random kit here in my koozie. Um, good on you. Uh I am currently having a second.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:44

Uh Whoopi Goldberg. Oh, I wasn't talking, but alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:47

Whoopi Goldberg won for Oda May Brown and Ghost in 1990. So I was right. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:55

God. Patrick Swayze, am I right?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

And that was for best supporting actress. Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:06

Yeah, because she wasn't Demi Moore was the actress, so certainly wasn't that she was supporting. Now what are we looking at? Alright, I'm gonna get back to my surly. Delicious. Um I think I want to say their Furious IPA, which is their base, not I don't want to say basic, but it was delicious. This mosh bit hazy, fucking good. So good, good choice.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:35

Good, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:36

Yeah. Kate, we were went to go look for podcast beers. Kate's like, I think I found yours. And it was the surliest furious, so I'm like, sounds good. And I did not tell her that I've had that before. No, so I'm like, why don't we get this one for me, which was the variety pack? It has four different flavors, which I've had on this episode. Um and they're all IPAs, so I love it, but it's great. How are your modello frescoes? So good always. I know you really like them. I was super excited. I still remember my mother-in-law. I saw these, these look really good. Do you want me to go get some? Would you have some with me if I did? She's like, okay. So I did, and I'm like, Kate's really gonna like these, so that's why we did those on those episodes. That was like a fucking year plus ago or whatever it was. And so she was undetermined on what she wanted. Okay, she wants no, you. Oh, yes, you're saying, okay. Um you were undetermined on what you wanted, you didn't want anything heavy, so I'm like, these aren't bad. So let's go with these again. You haven't had these in a while, so good choice.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:53

So Yeah. Halle Berry. No, yes, Halle Berry won for best leading role in 2001.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:05

For Monster's Ball?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:08

And then Okay, so first was Hattie, then was Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi Goldberg did it for Oda Mae Brown and Ghost as supporting actress in 1990.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:19

So it was 50 years later.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:21

Is that not insane?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:24

It's sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

And then so that was 2001 that Hallie won.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:28

Yep, so 11 years later.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:29

And then Jennifer Hudson for Best Supporting won in 2006. For the For Dream Girls. Thank you. There it is. And then Monique in 2009. Otherwise, and then and then Octavia Spencer from The Help in 2011.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:46

She was so good. I still have not seen that movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:49

Uh that's so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:52

I'm sorry though. Lost respect for Jennifer Hudson because she goes by J. Hood.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

I hope I'm hoping it's just. Her show that she goes by J-Hud and not in real life.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:02

I don't know. Either way, that that was fucking irritating.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:06

Anyway. Welp.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:10

I suppose. Alright, buffoons, that's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:14

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:25

Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at History Buffoons Podcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:39

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:44

Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:48

Remember, the buffoonery never stops.