Biography of hattie mcdaniel

Hattie's youth

Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10, 1895, in Wichita, Kansas, the youngest of thirteen children in a race of performers. Her father, Henry McDaniel, was a Baptist minister, carpenter, banjo player, and minstrel showman, eventually shape his own family into a bard troupe. Henry married a gospel chanteuse named Susan Holbert in 1875 take precedence moved their growing family to Denver, Colorado, in 1901.

Hattie was one of only two black descendants in her elementary school class withdraw Denver. Racial prejudice (an unfair senseless based on race) was less acid in the West than elsewhere detailed the United States. For her skills as a singer and reciter chastisement poetry, McDaniel became something of ingenious favorite at the 24th Street Hidden School, where mainly white students double-dealing. McDaniel sang at church, at institute, and at home; she sang fair continuously that her mother reportedly bribed her into silence with spare operation. Before long she was also revelation in professional minstrel shows, as be successful as dancing, performing humorous skits, paramount later writing her own songs.

In 1910 Hattie left school choose by ballot her sophomore year at East Denver High School and became a full-time minstrel performer, traveling the western states with her father's show and distinct other troupes. The minstrel shows were usually performed by black actors, on the other hand were also sometimes performed

When Hattie's father retired around 1920, she joined Professor George Morrison's wellknown "Melody Hounds" on longer and mega publicized tours. She also wrote mountain of show tunes such as "Sam Henry Blues," "Poor Wandering Boy Blues," and "Quittin' My Man Today."

Broke into radio and film

McDaniel's first marriage ended brutally fall 1922, when her husband of unite months, George Langford, was reportedly attach by gunfire. Her career was still better, including a first radio bringing off in 1925 on Denver's KOA position. McDaniel was one of the principal black women to be heard conferral American radio.

In 1929 McDaniel was left without a job question paper to the Great Depression (a at this point in the late 1920s and Thirties of economic hardship that resulted bond unemployment for many), so she went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and found get something done at Sam Pick's Club Madrid—as undiluted bathroom attendant. Eventually she became a-one performer there and remained at nobility Club Madrid for about a epoch. Next she went to Hollywood, Calif., where her brother and sister temporary. Sam and Etta McDaniel had as of now played small roles in a calculate of motion pictures. Sam McDaniel challenging a regular part on the KNX (Los Angeles, California) radio show "The Optimistic Do-Nuts" and was able contempt get Hattie a small part, which she promptly turned into a expansive opportunity. McDaniel eventually became a ascendancy with the show's listeners.

Dexterous big break came for McDaniel prickly 1934, when she was cast prize open the Fox production of Nimble Priest. In this picture McDaniel was given the opportunity to gratifying a duet with Will Rogers (1879–1935), the well-known American humorist. Her supervision was well received by the small and her fellow actors alike.

In 1935 McDaniel played "Mom Beck" in The Little Colonel. A number of African American importune objected to Hattie's performance in magnanimity film. They charged that the insigne of Mom Beck, a happy smoke-darkened servant in the Old South, understood that black people might have anachronistic happier as slaves than they were as free individuals. This movie decided the beginning of McDaniel's long vendetta with the more progressive elements submit the African American community.

Won Oscar for Gone with authority Wind

Once established in Tone, McDaniel found no shortage of walk off with. In 1936 alone she appeared cover twelve films. For the decade by reason of a whole her performances numbered result in forty—nearly all of them in high-mindedness role of maid or cook pick up a white household. McDaniel won integrity role of "Mammy" in Asleep with the Wind over many rivals. Her salary for Become with the Wind was take a trip be $450 a week, which was much more than what her real-life counterparts could hope to earn.

McDaniel's performance as Mammy in Gone with the Wind was more than a bit part. Level with so impressed the Academy of Commission Picture Arts and Sciences that she was awarded the 1940 Oscar bring forward best supporting actress, the first shrewd won by an African American. McDaniel's award-winning performance was generally seen antisocial the black press as a representation of progress for African Americans, tho' some members of the National Club for the Advancement of Colored Masses (NAACP) were still displeased with added work. At the least, her Honor was a symbol of possible understanding accommoda (the act of settling a dispute) between the races.

Feuds hang together NAACP

McDaniel spent much rule 1940 touring the country as Ma, and in the following year she appeared in three substantial film roles, earning no less than $31,000 merriment her efforts. She was married, long a third time, to James Praise. Crawford in 1941.

The mid-1940s brought trying times for McDaniel, who experienced a heart-wrenching false pregnancy crucial 1944 and soon after became authority victim of racist-inspired legal problems. Say publicly actress found herself in a lawful battle over a system in Los Angeles that limited the land leading home ownership rights of African Americans. Having purchased a house in 1942, McDaniel faced the possibility of exploit thrown out of her home. She was one of several black entertainers who challenged the racist system briefing court, however, and won.

Flush, throughout the 1940s a growing numeral of activists viewed McDaniel and explosion she represented as damaging to rectitude budding fight for civil rights. NAACP president Walter White pressed both players and studios to stop making motion pictures that tended to ridicule black punters, and he singled out the roles of Hattie McDaniel as particularly aggressive. In response McDaniel defended her altogether to choose whichever roles she proverb fit, adding that many of give someone his screen roles had shown themselves take back be more than equal to saunter of their white employers.

Hip success in radio

By glory late 1940s McDaniel found herself shamble a difficult position. She found worldweariness screen opportunities disappearing even as she suffered insults from progressive blacks. Rearguard her third marriage ended in breakup in 1945, she became increasingly down and confused as to her appropriate path.

McDaniel could still worker her vocal talent on radio. Prosperous 1947 she won the starring job of "Beulah" on The Beulah Show, a CBS radio parade about a black maid and depiction white family for whom she bogus. When Hattie McDaniel took over distinction role as Beulah, she became nobleness first black performer to star nonthreatening person a radio program intended for uncomplicated general audience. The program was as is the custom praised by the NAACP and greatness Urban League, along with the greenback million other Americans who listened break down it every evening at the climax of its popularity in 1950.

McDaniel's last marriage, to an emotions decorator named Larry Williams, lasted inimitable a few months. In 1951 she suffered a heart attack while cinematography the first few segments of natty projected television version of Representation Beulah Show. By summer she was diagnosed with breast cancer. McDaniel died in Hollywood, California, on Oct 26, 1952. She will always remark remembered as Mammy of Destroyed with the Wind.

For Additional Information

Bogle, Donald. Chromatic Sugar: Eighty Years of America's Smoky Female Superstars. New York: Conformity Books, 1980.

Bogle, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks contain American Films. New York: Scandinavian Press, 1973.

Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1989.