18 thoughts on “WCW: Hattie McDaniel

  1. Out of the above I have only seen GWTW – she had the best lines in the film….”and there you are, sitting like a spider”. Kills me each time.

    But I had no idea about most of these other performances. I need to see them, especially the one where Ms McDaniel sings.

    Oh, her house parties – they sound incredible!

  2. Thank you for including Hattie in your WCW. I didn’t know anything about her personal life. She sounds amazing and I am impressed!

  3. I love the scene in GWTW where she shows off her red taffeta petticoats to Rhett Butler after he noticed that she was rustling as she walked!!!

  4. That version of “Show Boat” is worth seeing. McDaniel and Paul Robeson work well together, and it was clear (to me, anyway) that Robeson’s role was altered so he’s not a shuffling darkie, but a smart, sensitive man who comes across as the conscience of the film.

    1. Still my favorite version of Show Boat. A lot of the original Broadway cast was involved, and Helen Morgan’s Julie will break your heart.

  5. Haven’t seen any of these movies. I do enjoy her logic behind the roles she took. Yes, it sucked that there were few non-servitude roles available. Good on her for making the best of a not so great situation.

  6. I really need to see that version of Show Boat – didn’t even know it existed! Her costume in that picture sells me on it.

    Honestly, Hattie’s performance is amazing in GWTW. She was severely typecast, but in all the “made the best of a bad situation” roles here, Mammy is a powerful force onscreen and it’s 100% due to Hattie. She more than earned that Oscar, and I think hers is the supporting performance that even now should be used as the benchmark for the award.

  7. Looking back at Hattie McDaniel’s story, I’m reminded of a bit that was in the post-episode 3 featurette of the Gilded Age where Denée Benton points out that we will never know how many Black writers gave up the rights and recognition to their work in order to get paid and have it see the light of day, and that she can’t truly blame anyone who made that choice. I can imagine Hattie McDaniel approaching things from a similar mindset— in addition to the pay being better as an actor, there was also probably the sobering reality that if all the Black actors didn’t take these roles, white people would just play the roles in blackface. So she took the roles, and did what she could off-screen to try and mitigate the damage. A truly fascinating woman.

  8. She really was wonderful in Judge Priest. She and the Will Rogers character have a real relationship and her singing is marvelous.

  9. I read somewhere that when someone told her that she shouldn’t play a slave (in GWTW) she quipped back something like, ‘what should I have done – held out for being Clark Gable’s leading lady?’ (Not an exact quote, I’m sure.)

  10. As a woman of ample proportions, I have a mighty need for more images of that striped dress, and the “Showboat” outfit. Those silhouette re amazingly flattering.

  11. Yes, great WCW choice. I’ve seen GWTW and The Little Colonel. The Showboat version sounds interesting; I learned about Paul Robeson courtesy TCM a few months ago (better late than never?). Hattie McDaniel sounds pretty amazing; to be a fly on the wall of one of her parties!

    Interesting bit about Clark Gable; good on him on that, although what kind of a movie did he think he was making? It certainly wasn’t one that was challenging segregation or white supremacy. (Of course Gable is also complicated by the posthumous recounting by Loretta Young’s daughter-in-law that, many years after the event, Young said he’d date raped her.)

  12. The photo from The Little Colonel is magical. And I like that Shirley Temple’s costume picks up the stripes. Just beautiful.

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