Hattie McDaniel (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 2)

In 1940 Hattie McDaniel became the first black performer to be nominated for and win an Oscar, for her role in Gone with the Wind.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

Song of the South co-stars Hattie McDaniel, the first black performer to win an Oscar, for her supporting role as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind. By the time Song of the South was released, McDaniel was the subject of much criticism in the black community for propagating outdated stereotypes in her roles. But McDaniel actually began her career subverting those same stereotypes, first in black minstrel shows and then in Hollywood movies.

Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind (1939)

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Sources for the whole season:

Walt Disney by Neal Gabler

Disney's Most Notorious Film: Race, Convergence, and the Hidden Histories of Song of the South By Jason Sperb

Birth of an Industry by Nicholas Sammond

Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

White Screens/Black Images by James Snead

Slow Fade to Black by Thomas Cripps

Making Movies Black by Thomas Cripps

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood by Donald Bogle

Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films by Donald Bogle

Joel Chandler Harris: A Biography and Critical Study by Bruce R. Bickley Jr.

Sources specific to this episode:

Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood by Jill Watts

Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel by Carlton Jackson

Music:

The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. The outro song this week is “Boo Hoo Blues” sung by Hattie McDaniel.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

Manuel Galvin, Jean-Jacques Marcel, Maurice Milteau - Memphis Mistrels

Manuel Galvin - No More Baby Please

Paul Martin Pritchard - Gumshoe Blues

Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne - Stripper

Manuel Galvin - Cotton Flower

Manuel Galvin - Keep The Blues On

Johnny Pearson - Disney Land

Daniel Horacio Diaz - Fancy Footwork

John Denis Hawksworth - The Depression Years

Jahzzar - Railroad's Whiskey Co

Eric John LaBrosse, Jason Michael Carter, Joshua Phillip Cass,Matthew Robert Danbeck, Adam Patrick Tremel - Ain't No Money In The Blues

Jules Ruben - Early Morning Blues

Didier Francois Dani Goret - Eyes Only For You

Hattie McDaniel - Boo Hoo Blues 

Credits:

This episode was written, narrated and produced by Karina Longworth.

Editor: Jared O'Connell.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

MGM Stories Part Fourteen: Elizabeth Taylor from Michael Wilding to Eddie Fisher

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Elizabeth Taylor grew up on the MGM lot, spending 18 years as what she referred to as “MGM chattel.” The last four years of that 18 year sentence were arguably the most interesting. From 1956-1960, she made a run of really interesting films including Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butterfield 8, and she met the “love of her life”, Mike Todd, and turned him into her third husband. When Todd died a year later Liz sought comfort in the arms of Todd’s friend - and Debbie Reynolds’ husband — Eddie Fisher. Taylor capped off the decade by almost dying, winning her first Oscar, and breaking free from MGM to become the highest paid actress up to that time.

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This episode was edited by Henry Molofsky.

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