Week 9
February 26 - March 4
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1939 – First Black Oscar Winner
California Eagle, Feb. 29, 1940
While Black America mourned the death of Robert Abbott, it was able to take pride in the announcement that Hattie McDaniel had become its first Oscar winner for her role in the classic movie “Gone With The Wind.”
History was made Friday at the Coconut Grove in the Ambassador hotel when Hattie McDaniel became the first Negro actress to receive the coveted award for giving the best supporting performance of any actress in Hollywood for 1939.
The winning of this award was no small feat when one considers the actresses in the running. Olivia DeHavilland, who has starred for several years; Geraldine Fitzgerald, Edna Mae Oliver, and the grandest actress of the Russian stage, Madame Maria Ouspenskaya, who heads a very exclusive school of drama in Hollywood, were all considered for the award.
As Hattie McDaniel ascended the stairway, decorated by ropes of gardenias, the 1170 top flight actors, actresses, directors, executives and technicians broke into a thunderous applause. Metropolitan paper reviewers who covered the event say that her entrance was the big moment of the evening. Becomingly gowned in aqua blue, her wrap was ermine. She carried a rhinestone bag and wore a gardenia corsage and gardenias in her hair. She and her escort F. P. Yober, were guests of the David O. Selznicks.
-- California Eagle, Feb. 29, 1940
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