She played Mammy in “Gone with the Wind”. “I’d rather play a maid than be one.” She received an Oscar for this role

Hattie McDaniel was born in 1893 in Wichita, Kansas to former slaves. She was the youngest of 13 children. She began her career as a performer, joining the local minstrel troupe and her brother Otis’s carnival troupe in high school. Since they weren’t very profitable, McDaniel took jobs as a maid and laundress on the side to make ends meet.

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Chasing the Hollywood dream. Hattie McDaniel is forever etched in film history

In the mid-1920s, Hattie McDaniel became one of the first African American women to appear on radio. In 1934, she had a cameo on screen in the film “Judge Priest”. When she auditioned in 1937 for the role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind, a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel, she came to the audition dressed in a maid’s outfit. She ultimately secured the role, thus beating out Eleanor Roosevelt. It was the highlight of her career. But all black actors and actresses in the film, including McDaniel, were banned from the film’s premiere, which took place in 1939 at Loew’s Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. After the film’s premiere in December 1939, the actress who played the role of Mammy allegedly received a telegram from the author of the novel, Margaret Mitchell:

I wish you could hear those ovations.

As it later turned out, thanks to the role of the maid Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh), McDaniel became the first black actress to win an Oscar in 1940. Also in this case, racial segregation almost prevented the actress from participating in the ceremony. Ultimately though they set up a special table in the corner of the room for Hattie McDaniel, her agent and her bodyguard. When her name was read, she couldn’t hide her emotion, saying:

I sincerely hope that both members of my race and the entire film industry will be proud of me. My heart is too full to explain to you how I feel right now.

She played a maid or maid 74 times throughout her career. “I’d rather play a maid than be one”

Although Hattie McDaniel herself never spoke out on political issues, over time she became the object of criticism from both conservatives and the African-American community. Interestingly, throughout her career she played the role of a maid, cook or maid at least 74 times, including in films such as “I’m No Angel”, “Chinese Seas” and “Murder by Television”. This was one of the reasons why she was accused of taking roles in films that perpetuated false stereotypes about African Americans. McDaniel responded to criticism by stating that she “would rather play a maid and make $700 a week than be a maid and make $7 a week.” The actress appeared in a total of 300 films, but only 83 had her name in the credits. She died on October 26, 1952, after a battle with malignant breast cancer.