Spike is a 2008 horror-romance^[3] directed by Robert Beaucage, produced by String And A Can Productions, and starring Edward Gusts, Sarah Livingston Evans, Anna-Marie Wayne, Nancy P. Corbo, and Jared Edwards.^[4]

Plot[link]

Described as "Angela Carter rewriting La Belle et la Bête as an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer",^[5] the story follows, through a tapestry of dreamlike images, a girl (Sarah Livingston Evans) and her three friends—the characters' names are never revealed—as they find themselves stranded in a dark and surreal forest by someone—or something (Edward Gusts)—who has obsessively loved, watched, and waited for the girl ever since childhood.

Cast[link]

• Sarah Livingston Evans as The Girl
• Jared Edwards as Her Boyfriend
• Anna-Marie Wayne as His Sister
• Nancy P. Corbo as Her Girlfriend
• Edward Gusts as Spike

Production[link]

The film was produced by String And A Can Productions, with Erik Rodgers and Devin DiGonno serving as the principal producers on the project.^[6]

Filming[link]

Filming for Spike took place just off the Angeles Crest Highway, high in the mountains of the Angeles National Forest, entirely at night in the spring of 2007^[7] (in locations that burned down two years later in the Station Fire).^[8] Treacherous terrain and temperatures dropping below 15 °F, well below freezing, made filming difficult, and delays were caused by rain, snow, and even hail.^[9] Robert Beaucage directed the film from a screenplay he was inspired to write by the stories of "Cupid and Psyche, Hades and Persephone... Beauty and the Beast, as well as horror classics such as Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". He chose to shoot on 16 mm film rather than a digital format, despite the production's tight schedule and low budget, in order to give the film a different "feel" from the typical contemporary indie movie,^[10] the overwhelming majority of which are shot digitally.^[11]

Design[link]

Seeking a more natural, rather than CGI, look for the film's FX, Beaucage chose veteran concept artist and sculptor Jordu Schell to create the unique design of Spike's title character,^[12] which Schell worked into his schedule even while concurrently shaping the design of the Na'vi with James Cameron for Avatar.^[13]

Reception[link]

Release[link]

Announced in Variety as "a horror fairy tale from U.S. director Robert Beaucage, whom [festival director Hannah] McGill had never heard of before he wowed her with an unsolicited DVD",^[14] Spike had its world premiere^[15] at the 62nd Edinburgh International Film Festival on 20 June 2008^[2], the festival's first year in its new June slot after having, in previous years, taken place in autumn.^[16] The film subsequently played the North American film festival circuit at such festivals as the Berkshire International Film Festival^[17] and Shriekfest.^[18]

Spike was released in North America on DVD in the summer of 2010 by Maverick Entertainment^[1].

Critical analysis[link]

When first released, Spike was referred to by The List as a film that "overturns genre conventions to explore the darker side of fairytale mythology",^[19] and the All Movie Guide called it a "dark fairy tale that's not for the faint of heart".^[20] Calum Waddell, a film critic for magazines such as Dreamwatch and Fangoria, called Spike "assured and stylish... a promising debut" and praised its "mix of David Lynch, The Brothers Grimm, and Shakespeare", while adding a reservation that the film "does not seem to know what it wants to be".^[21] Others were more positive, such as the North Adams Transcript which wrote about the film's "artful" exploration of "both the tenderness and madness of monsters, as well as the many faces of love—most importantly, the destructive ones"^[22] and Moviestar magazine which, in its coverage of the EIFF, referred to Spike as "an original take on the genre" and said that it "delivered both thrills and chills".^[23]

Awards[link]

Spike was chosen as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival's Best of the Fest in 2008^[24] and won Best Fantasy Feature Film at Los Angeles's Shriekfest in 2009.^[25][26]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Spike at the Internet Movie Database
• Spike at AllRovi

Lona Andre (March 2, 1915 – September 18, 1992) was an American film actress.

Born Launa Anderson in Nashville, Tennessee, Andre attracted attention with her first films in Hollywood and was named as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1932. After winning the Paramount Panther Woman Contest, she was signed to a movie contract by Paramount Pictures. When Paramount did not renew her option, Andre worked as a freelance artist

During the 1930s she appeared frequently in films, usually as the lead in "B" pictures, and by the end of the decade had starred in more than fifty films.

In 1934 Andre was part of the cast of School For Girls along with Toby Wing, Lois Wilson, Sidney Fox, and Dorothy Lee.

In June 1935, Andre eloped to Santa Barbara, California to marry MGM actor Edward Norris. Andre filed for an annulment action four days after her marriage in Tijuana, Mexico. She was later married to salesman, James T. Bolling, and was divorced from him in March 1947.

In 1938 Andre set a world's golfing record for women by shooting 156 holes of golf in 11 hours and 56 minutes on the Lake Norconian, California course. Her best round was 91 for 18 holes and her worst was 115.^[1]

Her acting career was greatly diminished during the 1940s, and she made her last film appearance in 1949 in Two Knights From Brooklyn. After her film career ended she became a successful businesswoman and never returned to acting.

She was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

References[link]

• Los Angeles Times, "Change Of Mind Balks Marriage", November 2, 1933, Page 17.
• Los Angeles Times, "Musical Picture Tops Program On Pantages Screen", October 18, 1934, Page 19.
• Los Angeles Times, "Daughter Trio Elope; Cupid Snares Mother", June 7, 1935, Page A1.
• Los Angeles Times, "Lona Andre's Marriage Ends With Annulment", October 19, 1935, Page A3.
• Ogden, Utah Standard-Examiner, "Going Hollywood", October 28, 1938, Page 9.
• Syracuse Herald-Journal, "Big Phone Bill Wins Divorce", March 23, 1947, Page 104.

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Lona Andre at the Internet Movie Database
• Lona Andre at AllRovi
• Lona Andre at Find a Grave

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel in 1941
Born	(1895-06-10)June 10, 1895 Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
Died	October 26, 1952(1952-10-26) (aged 57) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1932–1949
Spouse	Larry Williams (1949-1950) (divorced) James Lloyd Crawford (1941-1945) (divorced) Howard Hickman (1938-1938) (divorced) George Langford (1922-1922) (his death)

Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1895 – October 26, 1952) was an American actress. McDaniel was the first black person to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).

In addition to having acted in many films, McDaniel was a professional singer-songwriter, comedian, stage actress, radio performer, and television star; she was the first black woman to sing on the radio in America.^[1][2] Over the course of her career, McDaniel appeared in over 300 films, although she received screen credits for only about 80. She gained the respect of the African American show business community with her generosity, elegance, great beauty, and charm.

McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street. In 1975, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in 2006 became the first black Oscar winner honored with a US postage stamp.^[3]

Background and early acting career[link]

Hattie McDaniel was born June 10, 1895, in Wichita, Kansas, to former slaves. She was the youngest of 13 children. Her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd USCT and her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of religious music.^[4] In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie graduated from Denver East High School. Her brother, Sam McDaniel (1886–1962), played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges’ short film Heavenly Daze. Another acting sibling of Hattie and Sam was actress Etta McDaniel.

In addition to performing, Hattie was also a songwriter, a skill she honed while working with her brother's minstrel show. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and it wasn't until 1920 that Hattie received another big opportunity. During 1920–25, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a touring black ensemble, and in the mid-1920s she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver.^[5] In 1926–1929 she also recorded many of her songs on Okeh Records^[6] and Paramount Records^[7] in Chicago. In total, McDaniel recorded 7 sessions; 1 in summer of 1926 for the rare Kansas City label Meritt, 4 sessions in Chicago for OKeh (late 1926-late 1927) - of the 10 sides, only 4 were issued, and 2 sessions in Chicago for Paramount (both in March, 1929).

In McDaniel's time, America was segregated in virtually every respect in terms of race.^[8] In the South, blacks were barred by law from attending school with whites and subjected to segregation in all other public places.^[9] Even outside the South, many restaurants and hotels refused to accept black customers. Job opportunities were limited. Custom or restrictive covenants kept blacks from living in "white" neighborhoods.^[10] Marriage between blacks and whites was illegal in most states of the United States.^[11] The United States military required blacks to serve in all-black regiments.^[12] Black Americans also faced the terrorism of lynch mobs without the assurance of federal or state protection. Indeed, in 2005, the U.S. Congress issued an apology for the federal government's failure to enact lynching legislation to protect blacks in that era.^[13]

The field of entertainment emerged as a profession in which blacks were allowed to reach white and black customers. Still, however, the success of black entertainers and their ability to rise into ownership and management was limited by racial restrictions. Often, many of the same places that allowed blacks to be on stage, did not allow them to sit in the audience as patrons.^[14] State laws allowing discrimination and requiring segregation assured that black entertainers were not allowed the same benefits and opportunities as white ones.^[15] Black actors were cast repeatedly in menial roles and were consistently required to speak in contrived stereotypical "Negro dialects." If black actors did not know how to speak that way, they had to learn to in order to succeed in Hollywood. Movie houses often hired white dialect coaches to teach the so-called "Negro dialect." ^[16]

When the stock market crashed in 1929, the only work McDaniel could find was as a washroom attendant and waitress at Club Madrid in Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, McDaniel was eventually allowed to take the stage and became a regular.

In 1931, McDaniel made her way to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam^[17] and sisters Etta^[18] and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on KNX radio program called The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and he was able to get his sister a spot. She appeared on radio as Hi-Hat Hattie, a bossy maid who often "forgets her place." Her show became extremely popular, but her salary was so low that she had to continue working as a maid.

Her first film appearance was in The Golden West (1932), as a maid; her second was in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), as one of the plump black maids West camped it up with backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses.

In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She began to attract attention and finally landed larger film roles that began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.

Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming.

In 1935 McDaniel had prominent roles with her performance as a slovenly maid in RKO Pictures' Alice Adams, a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid/traveling companion in MGM's China Seas, the latter her first film with Clark Gable, and as Isabella the maid in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She also appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady starring by James Stewart and Ginger Rogers

She had a featured role as Queenie in Universal Pictures' 1936 version of Show Boat starring Irene Dunne, and sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and the African-American chorus. Later in the film she and Robeson sang I Still Suits Me, a song written especially by Kern and Hammerstein for the film.

After Show Boat she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, The Shopworn Angel (1938) with Margaret Sullavan, and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a very minor role in the Carole Lombard/Frederic March vehicle Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she appeared as the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.

McDaniel had befriended several of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland and Clark Gable, with the last two of whom she would star in Gone with the Wind.

It was around this time that she began to be criticized by members of the black community for roles she was choosing to take and her decision to aggressively pursue the roles and not to rock the Hollywood boat. For example, The Little Colonel (1935) depicted black servants longing for a return to the Old South. Ironically, McDaniel's portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures' Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences. She managed to steal several scenes away from the film's star, Katharine Hepburn. She would become best known for the role of the sassy and opinionated maid.

[edit] Gone with the Wind

The competition to play Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939) had been almost as stiff as that for Scarlett O'Hara. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part.^[19] McDaniel did not think she would be chosen, because she was known for being a comic actress. One source claims that Clark Gable recommended the role go to McDaniel; when she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform, she won the part.^[20]

Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the NAACP fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the film (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara and the Ku Klux Klan, which had a long history of practicing racial terrorism on black communities, is presented as the savior.^[21] Throughout the south, black men were being lynched based on baseless allegations that they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered and some offensive language was changed. However, another epithet, "darkey," remained in the film and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's script also referred to poor whites as "white trash," and it ascribed these words to black and white characters ^[22]

The Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, was selected as the theater for the premiere of Gone with the Wind, Friday, December 15, 1939. When the date of the Atlanta premiere approached, all the black actors were barred from attending and excluded from being in the souvenir program as well as southern advertising for the film. David Selznick had attempted to bring Hattie McDaniel, but MGM advised him not to because of Georgia's segregationist laws. Clark Gable angrily threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel was allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.^[23]

Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed.^[24][25] While the Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. This time, upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was featured prominently in the program.^[26]

It was her role as the house slave who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), that won McDaniel the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first black American to win an Oscar. She was also the first black American ever to be nominated. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara."^[27] Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the Southern audience; there were complaints that in the film she had been too familiar with her white owners.^[28] However, one author has observed that McDaniel's character is not far off from the persona of Mammy that Margaret Mitchell created in the book, that in both the film and the book the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in a way that would be unacceptable for a Southern teen of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film make any hint to Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive) or her desires to have anything other than her life at Tara serving on a slave plantation.^[29] Moreover, while she scolds the younger Scarlett, Mammy never crosses the senior white female in that household: Mrs. O'Hara.^[29] Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but in her press comments actively affirmed Hollywood's stereotypical practices as appropriate, providing fuel for critics of those who fought for black civil rights.^[29] Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.^[30]

While many blacks were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They saw Gone With the Wind as a book that celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it.^[31] For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic racial stereotypes would find work and success there.^[31]

1940 Academy Awards[link]

The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:

"Hattie McDaniel earned that gold Oscar, by her fine performance of "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind. If you had seen her face when she walked up to the platform and took the gold trophy, you would have had the choke in your voice that all of us had when Hattie, hair trimmed with gardenias, face alight, and dress up to the queen's taste, accepted the honor in one of the finest speeches ever given on the Academy floor. ...^[32]

The Oscar McDaniel took home was not the well-known tall Oscar. Instead, she received a plaque-style Oscar approximately 5 1/2 x 6 inches, the type of Oscar awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses in that time.^[35]

On the same night that McDaniel became the first African American to be honored by the motion picture industry, she was also reminded of how far the industry and the country had yet to go in overcoming racism. She and her escort were seated at a segregated table for two, apart from her Gone with the Wind colleagues and her colleagues in the motion picture industry.^[36]

Gone with the Wind was awarded ten Academy Awards, a record that stood for years, and has been named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time.^[37]

Later career[link]

In the 1942 Warner Bros. film In This Our Life, starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, she once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues as her law student son is wrongly accused of manslaughter.

The following year, McDaniel was in Warner Bros' Thank Your Lucky Stars, with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was one of the points of relief in an otherwise "grim study," saying, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie."^[38]

Hattie McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years, in Warner Bros' The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down.

She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949). She was still quite active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black American to star in her own radio show with her comedy series Beulah. She starred in the ABC television version, taking over for Ethel Waters after the first season. Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role. It was a hit, earning McDaniel $2,000 a week. But the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting The Beulah Show, in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to do their mission.^[39] After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.^[40]

Legal case: Victory on "Sugar Hill"[link]

Time magazine, December 17, 1945:

Spacious, well-kept West Adams Heights still had the complacent look of the days when most of Los Angeles' aristocracy lived there. In the Los Angeles courtroom of Superior Judge Thurmond Clarke last week some 250 of West Adams' residents stood at swords' points.

Their story was as old as it was ugly. In 1938, Negroes, willing and able to pay $15,000 and up for Heights property, had begun moving into the old eclectic mansions. Many were movie folk—Actresses Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, etc. They improved their holdings, kept their well-defined ways, quickly won more than tolerance from most of their white neighbors.

But some whites, refusing to be comforted, had referred to the original racial restriction covenant that came with the development of West Adams Heights back in 1902 which restricted "Non-caucasians" from owning property. For seven years they had tried to enforce it, but failed. Then they went to court ...

Superior Judge Thurmond Clarke decided to visit the disputed ground—popularly known as "Sugar Hill." ... Next morning, ... Judge Clarke threw the case out of court. His reason: "It is time that members of the Negro race are accorded, without reservations or evasions, the full rights guaranteed them under the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Judges have been avoiding the real issue too long."

Said Hattie McDaniel, of West Adams Heights: "Words cannot express my appreciation."^[41]

It was McDaniel, the most famous of the black homeowners, who helped to organize the black West Adams residents that saved their homes. Loren Miller, a local attorney and owner/publisher of the California Eagle newspaper represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case.^[42] In 1944, he had won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision for a black Pasadena, California, family that had bought a non-restricted lot but was sued by white neighbors anyway.

McDaniel had purchased her white two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, would be faithfully present at all of McDaniel's Movieland parties.^[43]

Controversy over roles[link]

McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community as her fame grew. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted blacks to servant roles and but often portrayed blacks as lazy, dim-witted, perfectly satisfied in lowly positions, or violent. In addition to speaking with studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more expansive roles and at least not to pander to stereotypes. They argued that the systemic portrayals were unfair and that, coupled with segregation and other discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all blacks, not just actors, to overcome racism and succeed.^[44] Some attacked McDaniel as being an "Uncle Tom," or a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions.^[45] McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. And she reportedly said,"Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."^[46] McDaniel may also have been criticicized because, unlike many other black entertainers, did not become publicly involved in civil rights battles and was largely absent from efforts to establish a base in independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild until 1947, very late in her career. The Guild was a benevolent organization that helped black entertainers in need and many major black stars and some white ones belonged to it.^[47] McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors in those days, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career.^[48] Evidence suggests that she made a tactical decision not to become openly involved in politics, even on the pressing issue of civil rights. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined in a letter, saying that she had made a decision to stay out of politics. Referencing her TV persona she stated, "Beulah is everybody's friend." ^[47] She claimed she was making an honest dollar and should not be criticized for taking the work that was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to play to stereotypes were not a neutral force, but rather were willing agents of black oppression.

McDaniel and other black actors feared that their roles would dry up if the NAACP and other critics of Hollywood stereotyping complained too loudly.^[49] McDaniel blamed these critics for negatively affecting her career and sought the aid of allies who some deemed questionable. After speaking with McDaniel, Hedda Hopper wrote a column claiming that McDaniel's career problems were not the fault of racism but were caused by McDaniel's "own people."^[50]

Community service[link]

McDaniel leading entertainers and hostesses to Minter Field for a performance and dance for World War II soldiers. She was Chair of the "Negro Division" of the Hollywood Victory Committee.

McDaniel was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of four African-American Greek letter sororities in the United States. During World War II. She was appointed the Chair of the "Negro Division" of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The military was segregated and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She asked her friend actor Leigh Whipper and other well known black entertainers to join her Negro Division Victory committee. She also put in numerous personal appearances to hospitals, threw parties, performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies, to raise funds to support the war, on behalf of the Victory Committee.^[51][52] Bette Davis also performed for black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by Hattie McDaniel, that also included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.^[53] She was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.^[54]

She joined actor Clarence Muse, one of the earliest black members of the Screen Actors Guild, for an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans, who had been displaced by devastating floods. She gained a reputation for generous giving, often feeding and lending money to friends and stranger alike.^[55]

Marriages[link]

While her career was advancing in the 1920s, her husband, George Langford, died soon after she married him in 1922, and her father died the same year. She married Howard Hickman in 1938 but divorced him later the same year. In 1941, she married James Lloyd Crawford, real estate salesman. According to the book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, by Donald Bogle, McDaniel happily informed gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and setting up a nursery. Her plans were shattered when the doctor informed her she had a false pregnancy; McDaniel fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. She said he was jealous of her career and once threatened to kill her.^[56]

In Yuma, Arizona, on June 11, 1949, she married Larry Williams, interior decorator. She divorced him in 1950, after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." Ms. McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to create dissension among the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't got over it yet", she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."^[57][58]

Death[link]

McDaniel died at age 57 from breast cancer, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, on October 26, 1952. She was childless and was divorced from her fourth husband. She was survived by her brother, Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to remember her life and accomplishments. In her will, McDaniel wrote: "I desire a white casket and a white shroud; white gardenias in my hair and in my hands, together with a white gardenia blanket and a pillow of red roses. I also wish to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery".^[59] The Hollywood Cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood was the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, and others. Hollywood Cemetery refused to allow her to be buried there, because it, too, practiced racial segregation. It did not accept the bodies of black people. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery, where she lies today.^[60]

In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery, who had renamed it Hollywood Forever Cemetery, wanted to right the wrong and offered to have McDaniel interred in the cemetery. Her family did not want to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Hollywood Forever Cemetery instead built a large cenotaph memorial on the lawn overlooking the lake in honor of McDaniel. It is one of the most popular sites for visitors.^[61]

McDaniel executed her last will and testament in December 1951. In it, she willed her Oscar to Howard University. McDaniel had been honored by the students of Howard University with a luncheon after winning her Oscar.^[62] At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options other than black institutions to place the Oscar. Very few white institutions in that day that preserved black history. Historically, black colleges often were the places in which such artifacts were placed for preservation.^[63] Despite evidence that she had made a good income as an actor, surprisingly, McDaniel's final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed that her estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors.^[64] Years later, the Oscar apparently showed up at the place McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University. According to many reports, McDaniel's Oscar was displayed in a glass case in the University's Drama Department.^[65]

Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar[link]

Today, a controversy exists over the whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar. In his 1990 biography of McDaniel, Carlton Jackson stated that Howard University was not able to find the Oscar. According to Jackson, some Howard officials had speculated that it disappeared during the Civil Rights student protests of the 1960s. In 1992, Jet Magazine ran a story repeating that Howard University could not find it and allegations that it disappeared in the 1960s during the protests.^[66] In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard.^[67] Subsequently, many other news organizations reported that the Oscar had been stolen or lost. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post reported that it was rumored that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry Civil Rights protesters in the 1960s. ^[68] That story too was repeated in various media outlets. The assertion appeared in the Huffington Post again under the same byline in 2009.

In 2010, attention focused on the McDaniel Oscar again. In her acceptance speech, Best Supporting Actress winner Mo'Nique gave tribute to McDaniel. Mo'Nique wore a blue dress, with gardenias in her hair, in homage to McDaniel, who reportedly wore a similar outfit to the award ceremony in 1940. In 2010, The Washington Post, reported the results of an investigation by its reporter J. Freedom duLac. Again, sources told duLac that the award disappeared during the '60s racial unrest. So too Gregory was quoted as repeating that his source said that the Oscar was tossed in the Potomac River by angry protesters.

In November, 2011, Prof. W. B. Carter of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year and a half investigation of the Oscar's fate. Professor Carter rejected the claims that students took the Oscar (and threw it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or pure fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes about blacks who fought for their civil rights as being simply violent and nonsensical. She raised questions about the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or possibly boxed up and stored in the Drama department in that same period. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation in black theater emerging out of that era. If neither the Oscar, nor any written trail of its ultimate destiny, can be found at Howard today, she suggested, the reason may be inadequate storage and/or recordkeeping in a time of financial restraints and national turbulence. Those pressures and the passing of older generations, replaced those who knew the Oscar's history and fate with a younger generation. She suggested as well that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize that the small 5 1/2" x 6" McDaniel plaque that did not look like the traditional tall Oscar, was in fact an Oscar.^[69]

Legacy and recognition[link]

Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard.

McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street.^[70] In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.^[71]

In 1994, actress and singer Karla Burns launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), which examines the life of McDaniel. She went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2002 including Off-Broadway in New York and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.^[72]

In 2002, the legacy of Hattie McDaniel was celebrated when American Movie Classics (AMC) portrayed her life in the film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life Of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy, Ph.D., and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The one-hour special showed the struggles and triumphs as McDaniel, in spite of racism and adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.^[73]

McDaniel was featured as the 29th inductee on the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. The 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006. This stamp features a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore when she accepted her Academy Award in 1940.^[74][75] The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members, as well as scripts and other documents.^[46]

August 16, 2011, was officially declared “Hattie McDaniel Day” on the Frank Decaro Show on Sirius OUTQ 108

Filmography[link]

Features[link]

Short subjects[link]

• Mickey's Rescue (1934)
• Fate's Fathead (1934)
• The Chases of Pimple Street (1934)
• Anniversary Trouble (1935)
• Okay Toots! (1935)
• Wig-Wag (1935)
• The Four Star Boarder (1935)
• Arbor Day (1936)
• Termites of 1938 (1938)

Radio[link]

Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)

See also[link]

• List of African American firsts
• List of black Academy Award winners and nominees

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• The Life and Struggles of Hattie McDaniel (author Jill Watts audio interview), hear the voice of Hattie McDaniel
• Carter, W. B., Finding the Oscar, 55 Howard Law Journal 107 (Nov., 2011), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1980721.
• Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
• Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990. ISBN 1-56833-004-9
• Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
• Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
• Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-051490-6
• Young, Al. "I’d Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
• Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: ‘(I’d). . . rather play a maid.’" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
• Access Newspaper Archive - search for "Hattie McDaniel"

External links[link]

• Hattie McDaniel at the Internet Movie Database

D-Nice
D-Nice in June 2005
Background information
Born	(1971-06-19) June 19, 1971 (age 41)
Origin	Bronx, New York
Genres	Hip-hop, soul
Occupations	Rapper, Beatboxer, Photographer, Singer
Labels	Roc Nation/Jive/Violator
Website	d-nice.com

D-Nice (born Derrick Jones on June 19, 1971) is the stage name of discjockey, beatboxer, rapper, producer and photographer who began his career in the mid-1980s with the hip hop group Boogie Down Productions.^[1]

Career[link]

D-Nice currently works as a freelance photographer for many individuals and labels, including Diddy, Cassie and Bad Boy Records.^[2]

Personal life[link]

D-Nice with Malinda Williams.

He has a daughter Ashli Jones ^[3] with an ex-girlfriend.

In August 2008 he married actress Malinda Williams.^[4][5] In October 2009 the couple separated. In February 2010 the couple filed for divorce.^[6]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: D-Nice

• Official website
• Allmusic^{[dead link]}

This biographical article related to hip hop music in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Morris E. Day (born December 13, 1957) is an American musician, composer and actor. He is best known as the lead singer of The Time.

Musical career[link]

1970s and 1980s[link]

In high school, Day was in a band with Prince and André Cymone and the trio formed an early band managed by Day's mother called "Grand Central," later renamed "Champagne." Later, Prince embarked on a solo career but retained Cymone for his backing band. The two began to plan a side-group that would focus more on R&B, while Prince would continue to explore various musical styles. The Time was composed of 4 members from an earlier funk group called "Flyte Tyme," but the lead singer had not been chosen. Charles Cobb was considered but he turned it down. Sue Ann Carwell was auditioned; and Alexander O'Neal nearly became The Time's lead singer, but dropped out due to payment negotiations. Day, who was now in a band called "Enterprise", allowed Prince to have a song called "Partyup" for his Dirty Mind album, and Prince would soon return the favor by giving Day the job of lead singer. Day would suggest guitarist Jesse Johnson, who completed the band's ensemble.

The Time's most prolific and visible period came in 1984, when Day played the antagonist to Prince in his feature films Purple Rain and Graffiti Bridge, which helped establish Day's playboy stage presence. Typically escorted by his valet, "Jerome" (Jerome Benton), Day won fans with his exaggerated vanity ("Jerome bring me my mirror!") and strutting bravado ("Ain't nobody bad like me!"), acting as a comic foil to Prince's romantic, sensitive lead. This persona was further exploited for comic effect on The Time's records, on songs such as "Chili Sauce" and "If the Kid Can't Make You Come" from the album Ice Cream Castle.

That album, the group's most popular, is best remembered for the infectious singles "Jungle Love" and the Rufus Thomas influenced, "The Bird." With their palpable pop energy and catchy choruses, both songs were hits on both urban and pop radio.

In 1984, Day appeared on a duet with singer Vanity on "Mechanical Emotion" from her debut album Wild Animal. With the breakup of The Time that same year, Day began his solo career. The low sales of his solo albums such as 1987's Daydreaming (which spawned the single "Fishnet") and his most commercially viable solo album, Guaranteed were a blow to his career.

In 1986 Morris Day married Judith Day. They were married for 22 years—until 2008. They had three children together.

1990s[link]

It wasn't until 1990 that The Time scored a #1 R&B hit with "Jerk Out," a Dance-funk cut from their reunited fourth album, Pandemonium. This album also featured the original members of the band. The same year, Day formed his own girl band (not unlike Prince's Vanity 6/Apollonia 6) called The Day Zs. The group's first and only album release was produced by Day and he sang on one of the tracks called "Green Acres."

From that high point, Day's success began to wane. The general decline of Prince's popularity soon after did not help and Day's public visibility, and his creative output waned considerably.

2000 to present[link]

Day came out of his self-imposed retirement because of his fans' support. Day has remained a popular concert draw since the late 1990s, fronting a revamped lineup of The Time, including originals Jellybean Johnson on drums and Monte Moir on keyboards. The band was invited to perform on Prince's direct to video concert film, "Rave Un2 The Year 2000", in December 1999.

Day has also appeared regularly in local television commercials for a Toyota dealership in the Atlanta area.

As of 2007, Day is band leader on the TV One program Baisden After Dark.

He reunited with the original members of The Time after 18 years for a performance with Rihanna at the 50th Grammy Awards show.

Morris Day and The Time performed at the 2008 HR Florida State Conference.

Acting career[link]

Day continued to act in films from time to time in small parts (including a brief but memorable turn in Richard Pryor's Moving, and the Andrew Dice Clay (1990 film) The Adventures of Ford Fairlane). Day's presence on the screen decreased until, in 2001, he returned to film in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, performing "Jungle Love" with The Time and dancing with the movie's stars in the film's coda, and being introduced emphatically by Jason Mewes' character as "Morris Day and The motherfuckin' Time!".

Day also appeared on the small screen in 1990 when he portrayed the character Lamarr on ABC's short-lived sitcom New Attitude. He guest-starred on the sitcom Eve as a pimp who wanted Eve's fashion boutique to design a flamboyant suit to match his witty personality, and appeared as himself in an episode on the series Moesha, attempting to file a lawsuit against Moesha's ex-boyfriend Q, who used a sample from "The Oak Tree" without permission. He also appeared on 227 in the 80's.

He appeared opposite James Avery and Matthew Stewart in a pilot called Heart & Soul.

Appearances in popular culture[link]

In the 1980s and 1990s, WWF wrestler "Birdman" Koko B. Ware used "The Bird" as his entrance theme.

He appeared with The Time at the end of the movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and was referred to as the main characters' favorite band.

In 1994, Day was featured on and provided the chorus and accompanying vocals for rapper K-Dee's song "Gigolos Get Lonely Too" from the Ass, Gas, or Cash (No One Rides for Free) album. This song was essentially a direct sampling of a similarly named "Gigolos Get Lonely Too", recorded by The Time in the 80's.

A song called "Morris Day" appears on the album Felt, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet by the hip-hop group Felt.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

The Time[link]

• The Time (Warner Bros., 1981)
• What Time Is It? (Warner Bros., 1982)
• Ice Cream Castle (Warner Bros., 1984)
• Pandemonium (Paisley Park Records, 1990) #18 US
• Condensate (as The Original 7ven)( Saguaro Road Records 2011)

Solo[link]

• Color of Success (Warner Bros., 1985)
• Daydreaming (Warner Bros., 1987)
• Guaranteed (Reprise, 1992)
• It's About Time (Hollywood, 2004)

Singles[link]

Solo[link]

The Time[link]

Filmography[link]

With Prince[link]

• Graffiti Bridge
• Purple Rain

Other appearances[link]

• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Moesha
• Moving
• The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
• Eve

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Morris Day at the Internet Movie Database