Movie Academy to Exchange Hattie McDaniel’s Lengthy-Lacking ‘Gone with the Wind’ Oscar

The primary aggressive Oscar ever awarded to a Black particular person, the very best supporting actress Oscar that Hattie McDaniel gained for her efficiency in Gone with the Wind in 1940, went lacking from Howard College, to which McDaniel bequeathed it after her dying in 1952, someday within the late Nineteen Sixties. That is acknowledged on the Academy Museum of Movement Photos in Hollywood, the place a row of Oscars on mortgage to the establishment are on show, with one empty show case within the center, for McDaniel’s.

However on Tuesday, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences introduced that will probably be rectifying this case by gifting Howard College’s Chadwick A. Boseman School of Tremendous Arts with a substitute Oscar. The one which McDaniel acquired in 1940 was not a statuette, however a plaque, as all supporting appearing winners acquired from 1936 to 1942. However the substitute shall be a correct Oscar, and shall be offered at a celebration of McDaniel’s life and legacy at Howard’s Ira Aldridge Theater on Oct. 1, entitled “Hattie’s Come Dwelling.”

The occasion will embody opening remarks by Phylicia Rashad, Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman School of Tremendous Arts at Howard College; the efficiency of a medley of songs from present college students and college of the School; and an excerpt of Boulevard of Daring Desires, a play by LaDarrion Williams. Representatives of the Academy and the Academy Museum shall be on the ceremony, together with Jacqueline Stewart, Ph.D., director and president of the Academy Museum, and Teni Melidonian, EVP Oscars Technique.

Stewart will even host a moderated dialog about McDaniel’s profession with Greg Carr, Ph.D., Howard College Affiliate Professor of Africana Research and Chair of the Division of Afro-American Research; Rhea Combs, Ph.D., Director of Curatorial Affairs on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Portrait Gallery; Kevin John Goff, filmmaker, actor and Hattie McDaniel’s great-grandnephew; Khalid Lengthy, Ph.D., Howard College Affiliate Professor of Theatre Arts, creator, director and dramaturg; and Rashad. 

“Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who modified the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who adopted her,” Stewart and Academy CEO Invoice Kramer mentioned in a press release. “We’re thrilled to current a substitute of Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award to Howard College. This momentous event will have a good time Hattie McDaniel’s exceptional craft and historic win.”

“After I was a scholar within the School of Tremendous Arts at Howard College, in what was then referred to as the Division of Drama, I’d usually sit and gaze in marvel on the Academy Award that had been offered to Ms. Hattie McDaniel, which she had gifted to the School of Tremendous Arts,” mentioned Rashad. “I’m overjoyed that this Academy Award is returning to what’s now the Chadwick A. Boseman School of Tremendous Arts at Howard College. This immense piece of historical past shall be again within the School of Tremendous Arts for our college students to attract inspiration from. Ms. Hattie is coming dwelling!”

On the twelfth Academy Awards, held on the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, McDaniel was seated behind the room, close to the kitchen. When her identify was referred to as, she delivered the next emotional acceptance speech, which was captured by newsreel cameras: “Academy of Movement Image Arts and Science[s], fellow members of the movement image trade and honored company. This is likely one of the happiest moments of my life, and I wish to thank every one in every of you who had a component in choosing me for one of many awards in your kindness. It has made me really feel very, very humble and I shall at all times maintain it as a beacon for something I could possibly do sooner or later. I sincerely hope I shall at all times be a credit score to my race and to the movement image trade. My coronary heart is just too full to inform you simply how I really feel. And will I say thanks and God bless you.”