Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel. The Television Documentary

BEYOND TARA: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF HATTIE MCDANIEL

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Hattie McDaniel.

Trailblazer. Pioneer. Groundbreaker. These qualities are usually held in high regard. Sometimes, though, such terms are damning with faint praise. Such appears to be the case with Hattie McDaniel. She was the first black person, male or female, to be nominated for and win an Academy Award. That recognition, however, came at a very heavy personal price. Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel looks at her life and career to show a person who chipped away at the racism African Americans faced while being condemned for it.

Beyond Tara is hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. It is fitting that Goldberg narrate our journey through McDaniel's life and career. She is the second black woman to win Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Ghost. It was surprising to read that it took fifty years for another black woman to achieve what McDaniel had done. McDaniel's bit of Academy history, however, was hard-fought.

We learn in Beyond Tara that Hattie McDaniel was a respected theater and film veteran by the time she was cast as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. Opportunities for black performers of both genders, regardless of talent, were very limited. McDaniel has been working on the vaudeville circuit for years with her family. After vaudeville declined, she set out to break into the burgeoning film industry. Here, the roles that black women could get were as maids or slaves. To make ends meet, McDaniel had to work as a real-life domestic for a time.

However, her desire and determination to work in film started paying dividends. While she was relegated to these parts, McDaniel managed to defy the stereotypes by playing against them. She was able to play the roles as more outspoken, even brash. McDaniel's maids were able to show up and sometimes talk back to her employers. One particularly wonderful performance from McDaniel was in Alice Adams. Here, she stole the scene from people like Katharine Hepburn with her blend of physical comedy and apparently clumsy manner. Unlike the airs and graces that Hepburn's title character was attempting, McDaniel's Melina had a blend of silly and wise. She had a great schtick of forever struggling to keep her maid's cap from falling. She also warned the family that the planned meal was wrong for the weather, and she was proven right.

Then came Gone with the Wind; this would be an epic film, and despite the rather bucolic look at the antebellum South, McDaniel saw an opportunity to be in a major production. She had supporters in the industry. Both Bing Crosby and her eventual Gone with the Wind costar Clark Gable recommended her to the film's producer. Once David O. Selznick saw her audition, he said, "I can almost smell the magnolias". McDaniel fought hard for the role, knowing that every black actress would want a crack at the grand production. 

That grand production, however, did not sit well with many in the black press. They were still displeased with the limitations placed on black actors. They also disliked the almost genteel portrayal of the peculiar institution. The black press, however, might not have known that McDaniel had enough pull, limited as it may have been, to get some concessions from Selznick. No use of the n-word whatsoever was a key win for her.

McDaniel's turn as Mammy gave her a character with depth that overcame the limitations of the times. Her Mammy was a woman of quiet strength who was able to show a deeper figure than usually seen. She was even able, to use current terms, throw shade at the main character of Scarlett O'Hara. Her performance defied the negative connotations of these roles. Her performance won her the respect of her peers.

At the Academy Awards, we saw the dichotomy of McDaniel's situation. She received a standing ovation when she entered the ceremony. She was also forced to sit in the back, separate from her fellow actors. She had also hoped that winning the Oscar would get her better parts. Sadly, her long-term contract at MGM kept her well within the confines of Mammy-type roles. McDaniel saw that, like many actors with or without Oscars, she was typecast. Except for a more sympathetic role of the mother of an accused hit-and-run driver in the film In This Our Life, McDaniel could not shift away from those maids and slaves.

That was bad enough. Making things worse were the attacks by NAACP head Walter White (yes, that was his real name). White had an animus towards the roles that black actors were playing. His preference was for the glamourous Lena Horne. His antagonism towards the other black actors seemed to become fixated on Hattie McDaniel. White was "disgusted at the sheer selfishness of actors like Hattie, who just wanted to save their jobs without regard to the future of Negroes* as a whole". 

McDaniel, already struggling to eke out a living as an actress, sneered at White's complaints. She pointed out that White was only 1/8th black. Not pointed out in Beyond Tara is that White was "white passing", with blonde hair and blue eyes. McDaniel's efforts in racial integration, such as her successful fight against housing discrimination in Los Angeles, apparently cut no ice with White.

Nevertheless, McDaniel persisted. When film roles dried up, she did what many other actors did: turn to radio. The Beulah Show, which centered around an African American maid, was originally voiced by a white male actor. McDaniel became the first black woman to have her own radio show at $2,000 a week. She was an instant hit, receiving thousands of fan letters. She may have played yet another maid, but a job's a job. She was also set to do the television version of The Beulah Show. Unfortunately, she became ill with what would be breast cancer and could not complete the season.

Beyond Tara has actors like Nell Carter, who followed in McDaniel's footsteps, speak about her importance as that trailblazer. Other figures, like cultural historian Gerald Early give us background into the times when McDaniel worked.  One interviewee, entertainer Bobby Short, knew Hattie McDaniel and recalled that she had racial pride. He adds that she was "an elegant lady". 

One finishes Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel, with deep respect and admiration for the actress. She did take the blows so that others following her would not. Mo'Nique, who would follow in McDaniel's footsteps in winning Best Supporting Actress for Precious, wore gardenias in her hair as tribute to McDaniel, who wore those flowers when she broke that barrier on her own Best Supporting Actress win. The documentary does end on a somewhat somber note. We learn that McDaniel had donated her Oscar plaque** to Howard University, a Historic Black University. In the tumult of the Civil Rights era, the Oscar disappeared. Whether it was stolen for profit during the chaos or potentially destroyed as a symbolic protest of McDaniel's Mammy role, no one knows. In some ways, that lost Oscar represents something of Hattie McDaniel's lost legacy. 

However, Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel, is a good primer to give this talented performer her due. Hopefully, Hattie McDaniel's genuine groundbreaking work will be seen separate from however one sees her most famous character. 

Finally, as a side note, Beyond Tara was part of the American Movie Classics' Hollywood Lives & Legends series. At the time, AMC had a variety of film-related programming. There was Hollywood Lives & Legends. There was Backstory, which gave behind-the-scenes on classic films. Cinema Secrets chronicled technical aspects of filmmaking. Director's Showcase featured films and television productions from legendary filmmakers. There was a kids-centered program, Little Rascals 2.0 hosted by Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz. AMC even had an original program, The Lot, about a fictional studio during the so-called Golden Age of Filmmaking. Now, it would surprise people if they knew what "AMC" stood for, both literally and figuratively. 

Once, the network chronicled a battle between Hattie McDaniel and Walter White. Now, the network's great claim to fame is another altogether different Walter White.

8/10

*Negro was the terminology of the time.

** Best Supporting Actor and Actress winners were presented with plaques rather than full Oscar statues for the first seven years of the category. As such, McDaniel received a plaque just like Stagecoach's Thomas Mitchell, that year's Best Supporting Actor winner.