Despite cringe-worthy depictions of obsequious slaves, a boisterous and protective mammy, and a “simple-minded darky,” Gone with the Wind (1939) is one of my favorite movies.
No matter how exaggerated and biased, the film is a masterpiece and the story is compelling.
Years ago I encouraged a friend of mine to watch the movie because she’d never seen it. The next day I asked her what she thought. As soon as she saw actress Hattie McDaniel with that rag on her head (which is perhaps the third or fourth scene in the movie), she switched the channel. My friend couldn’t take it.
As many of you know, Hattie McDaniel was the first black actress to win an Oscar. For her role as Scarlett O’Hara’s protector, she received the award as best supporting actress. McDaniel, who died in 1952, will be honored with a postal stamp. From the AP:
McDaniel is the 29th person honored in the Postal Service’s long-running Black Heritage stamp series…“She was a most special lady,” McDaniel’s “Gone with the Wind” co-star
Ann Rutherford told AP Television News.Rutherford recalled how McDaniel thought some of her friends looked down on her for playing a maid.
“But (McDaniel) said, ‘I’d rather play a maid than be a maid,’” Rutherford said.
McDaniel and many black actors and actresses were criticized for playing in what people consider demeaning roles. McDaniel reportedly said she’d rather be paid $700 a week to play a maid than be paid $7 a week to be a maid. Louise Beavers, who played a mammy-like character in the 1934 movie “Imitation of Life” with Claudette Colbert and Fredi Washington, reportedly said she had her own maid when someone asked about her well-manicured nails.
When I think of black actors in Stepin Fetchit-like roles back in the day, I feel the anger rising to the surface, but I have to remind myself that those people had choices, as limited as they may have been. Of course, $700 a week is a better option than $7 a week. I guess we all have a price. 
For instance, I consider some of today’s “black” movies and TV shows worse than the worst from the Stepin-Fetchit and “blaxplotation” eras. Highly bloggable and controversial stuff…
Resources:
- Blacks in Hollywood
- Top Ten Blaxploitation Films
- Hollywood Shuffle (very funny movie)
- WashPost review of “Hollywood Shuffle”
- NYT review of “Hollywood Shuffle”
