The ‘mammy’ roles, played by actresses like Hattie McDaniels, Louise Beaver, and Ethel Waters, put a happy face on Black women’s lowly position in society, helping to set at ease the hearts of White audiences.
(Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
“Mammies were so happy to serve Whites that they were shown giving up their pay and even their freedom for the chance to continue serving “their White family.”
These images are mixed with news footage of the civil rights movement to show that this was not the case in the real world.
Hattie McDaniel Bathing Jean Parker and Marion Davies (Getty Images)
“McDaniel bathed actresses Jean Parker and Marion Davies in the movie, Operator 13. Throughout her career, McDaniel was often confined to the role of a maid or servant because of her race.”
1934
“It was Bing Crosby, a good friend of Hattie’s brother Sam (the only African-American ever to appear on I Love Lucy), who suggested that Selznick cast “that Queenie from [1936’s] Show Boat” for her defining role. Selznick, married to the daughter of the most powerful man in Hollywood — MGM head Louis B. Mayer — had paid a staggering $50,000 for the rights to Margaret Mitchell‘s 1936 novel. The NAACP made no secret of its disdain for the book’s frequent utterance of the N-word (by then banned by the Hays Code), its sympathetic Ku Klux Klan portrayal, and its depiction of slaves as participants in their subjugation.
“Elizabeth McDuffie, the White House cook, tested for producer David O. Selznick for the role of Mammy in his upcoming epic, GONE WITH THE WIND. Selznick, who never shied away from publicity of any kind, tested McDuffie after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt suggested the talented member of her staff. A more serious consideration was Louise Beavers, one of the leading African-American movie actresses of her day. Ultimately, HATTIE McDANIEL (shown here taking a break from filming) was chosen to play the role and was awarded an Oscar for her efforts.”
A shrewd Hollywood player, Selznick used his status as a Jewish-American bearing witness to the Nazis’ rise when he wrote to Walter White, NAACP executive secretary: “I hasten to assure you that as a member of a race that is suffering very keenly from persecution these days, I am most sensitive to the feelings of minority peoples.” Selznick pledged to omit offending material, though he fought to keep the N-word in the script for historic accuracy. The word, which would have been spoken by Mammy, never appears in the movie, leading some historians to theorize that McDaniel refused to utter it.
Butterfly McQueen as Prissy, Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, and Oscar Polk as Pork
McDaniel — who later wrote in the Sept. 29, 1947, edition of The Hollywood Reporter, “I have never apologized for the roles I play” — coveted the part but suspected she’d lose it to Louise Beavers of 1934’s Imitation of Life. As Selznick mounted his “nationwide search,” the hunt for Mammy reached a fever pitch. Even first lady Eleanor Roosevelt suggested her own maid. On Jan. 27, 1939, with Selznick having secured the final funding from his father-in-law, McDaniel got the call she’d been waiting for. Her contract paid $450 a week for 15 weeks of shooting. Mammy was hers. And so, too, would be the Oscar.”
The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-first-black-winner-accepted-774335/
