You think you know the worst thing that ever happened at the Academy Awards Ceremony. You think you saw it, last Sunday, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, twice, for making a tacky joke about his wife.
Well you’re wrong.
More than eighty years ago, now, “Gone With The Wind” was up for a number of academy awards. The book had been a best seller. The movie was hyped, and hyped some more. David O. Selznick wanted Vivian Leigh to play Scarlett, right from the start. But he sent agents through the south “auditioning” young women for the role, claiming he wanted an unknown.
It can’t have been nice for the girls. But it was wonderful publicity, and it took the heat of Selznick, when he cast an English actress as Scarlett.
The hype paid off. The movie was a hit. It was up for best picture, and Hattie McDaniel, who played Scarlett’s mammy, (In the movie she’s called Mammy. Her character doesn’t actually have a name.) was up for Best Actress In A Supporting Role.
She was the first Black actor to be nominated for an Oscar, and that was the problem.
The awards ceremony would be held in a segregated hotel. (Yes, they had segregation in California too.) Under normal circumstances Hattie McDaniel would only be welcome there if she’d come to change the sheets.
However, as a favor to Selznick, the hotel allowed her to come that night. Of course she had to come in through the back door. No red carpet for Hattie.
Once in the hotel, she had to sit at a table, by herself, at the back of the room. She could not sit with the rest of the cast.
If any of the cast found this objectionable, they didn’t say so where anyone could hear.
McDaniel made a meek little speech, where she told the audience she hoped to be a credit to her race, then retired to her solitary table.
The lady was an actress not an activist.
She had a long and successful career, playing a succession of loyal and devoted servants. The NAACP objected to the roles she took, and she explained that she would rather play a maid for seventy five dollars a week, than be a maid for seven.
(She also played Paul Robeson’s wife, in a movie called “Tails of Manhattan”. They must have had some interesting conversations between takes.)
Will Smith got to sit at a table near the front, with his family. He is, after all, a star.He walked the red carpet. He slapped Chris Rock, and wasn’t forcibly ejected from the building.
I am inclined to wonder if the whole slapping incident wasn’t fake.
It looked fake. It looked like an actor, trained in stage combat, smacking another actor, also trained in stage combat.
I wonder if the whole thing wasn’t set up to make the Oscars less of a snooze than they usually are.
Even if the incident was real, worse things have happened at the Academy Awards. Consider Hattie McDaniel.