World Courant
Actress Hattie McDaniel turned the primary African American to win an Academy Award on this present day in historical past, February 29, 1940.
McDaniel gained the Academy Award for Greatest Supporting Actress for her position as Mammy within the movie ‘Gone With The Wind’.
In her acceptance speech, McDaniel stated it was “one of many happiest moments of my life.”
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“I want to thank each one among you who performed an element in deciding on me for one of many awards to your kindness. It has made me really feel very, very humbled, and I’ll at all times maintain it as a beacon for all that I can do sooner or later,” she stated.
McDaniel continued, “I sincerely hope that I’ll at all times be an asset to my race and to the movie trade. My coronary heart is just too full to let you know how I really feel. And should I thanks and God bless you.’
Actress Hattie Mc Daniel gained the Academy Award for Greatest Supporting Actress on the twelfth Academy Awards on February 29, 1940. (Getty Photographs)
McDaniel was additionally an expert singer-songwriter, comic, stage actress, radio performer and TV star.
Though McDaniel’s victory was a historic first for the Academy, she was virtually unable to attend the ceremony.
The 1940 Academy Awards had been held on the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub on the Ambassador Resort in Los Angeles.
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On the time, the resort was segregated and black company weren’t allowed.
Producer David O. Selznick needed to ask the resort for a favor so McDaniel might attend the occasion.
Nonetheless, she needed to sit behind the room, away from her co-stars, who, in keeping with many sources, had been seated within the entrance.
McDaniel gained the Oscar for Greatest Supporting Actress in 1940 for her portrayal of Mammy in “Gone with the Wind.” She could be seen right here with Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara. McDaniel was the primary black American to win an Academy Award. The youngest of 13 kids, McDaniel was born to former slaves. (Silver Display Assortment/Getty Photographs)
Along with McDaniel’s win for Greatest Supporting Actress, “Gone With the Wind” additionally gained Academy Awards for Greatest Image, Greatest Actress, Artwork Route, Colour Cinematography, Directing, Movie Modifying and Writing – Screenplay.
After McDaniel’s loss of life from breast most cancers on October 26, 1952, she left her Oscar plaque on the theater division of Howard College in Washington, DC, in keeping with the Related Press.
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(The winners for Greatest Supporting Actor and Greatest Supporting Actress didn’t obtain statuettes till 1943, however got plaques as a substitute, the publication stated.)
What follows, nonetheless, is a thriller: someday within the late Sixties or Nineteen Seventies, her award disappeared.
The placement of the unique award stays unknown to this present day.
The Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum of Movement Footage introduced a substitute award, pictured right here, after McDaniel’s authentic went lacking someday within the Sixties or Nineteen Seventies. (Eric Lee for The Washington Publish by way of Getty Photographs)
On October 1, 2023, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum of Movement Footage changed the award in a ceremony known as “Hattie’s Come House.”
“The ceremony will have a good time McDaniel’s life and legacy, her historic Academy Award win, and reunite her Academy Award with Howard College as she initially meant,” stated a press launch from The Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences forward of the occasion.
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The Academy Award plaque is now saved at Howard College’s Chadwick A. Boseman School of Wonderful Arts.
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for movies at 1719 Vine Road, relying on the long-lasting location.
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In 1975, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Corridor of Fame. In 2006, she turned the primary black Oscar winner to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp.
McDaniel was born on June 10, 1895 in Wichita, Kansas, the son of former slaves. She grew up in Denver, Colorado, the youngest of 13 kids.
This 12 months’s Oscars — the 96th Academy Awards – takes place on Sunday, March 10.
For extra life-style articles, go to www.foxnews.com/life-style.
Christine Rousselle is a life-style reporter at Fox Information Digital.
