Hattie McDaniel: or A Credit to the Motion Picture Industry

2004

6min

“I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry,” McDaniel said as she accepted the 1st Academy Award given to an African-American for her performance in the film Gone with the Wind. “Analysis” of a continuity error in a clip from a film of the 1939 Oscars ceremony suggests that the “documentary” footage and McDaniel’s speech were re-staged.