Academy Replaces Hattie McDaniel’s Historic Oscar, After Being Lost For Over 50 Years
In 1940 Hattie McDaniel achieved an unprecedented feat as she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first ever Black actor to win or to be nominated for an Academy Award. However, her historic Oscar has since gone missing, and hasn’t been seen in over 50 years. The Academy only recently announced that it would be replacing Hattie’s missing award, an act which seems long overdue.
Hattie McDaniel received the Oscar for her role in the 1939 Civil War era film “Gone With the Wind,” where she played an enslaved woman named Mammy. Though Hattie won the award, she and her guests were made to sit in a segregated section of the room, and she had to be escorted to and from her seat when she went on stage to accept her Oscar.
Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn’t I’d be making $7 a week being one.”
Hattie McDaniel
McDaniel often faced criticism for her role in “Gone With the Wind,” and her tendency to play stereotype-perpetuating roles, even though these were some of the only parts being offered to Black actors in Hollywood at the time. In defense over the roles she played, she once said, “why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn’t I’d be making $7 a week being one.” Hattie persevered through countless obstacles during her career, which overlapped with some of the worst decades of segregation in America.
Shortly before Hattie passed away from breast cancer in 1952, she wished for her Oscar to be donated to Howard University. The plaque (Oscars awarded to supporting actors were plaques instead of statuettes prior to 1944) had been on display in the university’s drama department until its disappearance, but for some reason the school has no physical record of its initial receipt. On Oct. 1, the university accepted the replacement for the missing Oscar presented by the Academy, with a ceremony titled “Hattie’s Come Home.”
Over the years there have been countless theories surrounding the mysterious case of Hattie’s missing Oscar, and its whereabouts have remained obscure. Some have speculated that the plaque may simply be misplaced somewhere in the university, and others have theorized that it was taken during student protests in the late 60s. One person claimed to have thrown it into the Potomac River as a way of denouncing the racist portrayal of Black Southerners in “Gone With the Wind.”
The replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar is long belated, and replacing it now almost seems performative. Still, it represents a pivotal moment in the history of the American film industry, and can be viewed as a testament to Hattie’s acting career, as well as her trailblazing achievement which contributed to solidifying a space for Black actors in Hollywood.
What do you think about the replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar, or about the mysterious history of its disappearance?
Let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts or theories of your own about Hattie’s missing Oscar.
