Hattie McDaniel was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1895. Throughout her life, this daughter of a Baptist preacher and a gospel singer broke barriers. As a child, McDaniel was one of only two African Americans in her school. When she died, she became the first African American to be buried in Los Angeles’ Rosedale Cemetery. Her career began as a vocalist with Denver native George Morrison and his Jazz Orchestra. Morrison’s jazz band was founded in 1911, making it one of the nation’s earliest jazz ensembles. Morrison and the band, including McDaniel, traveled throughout the West and beyond. For a number of years, this group of trumpeters, singers, and saxophone players was the headlining band for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Frontier Days rodeo. Later, as a vocalist, McDaniel became one of the first African American women to sing on network radio in the United States.

By the 1930s McDaniel had been on the road with Morrison and other acts for many years. In 1932 she made her debut on film as an actress in the screen adaptation of Zane Grey’s western The Golden West. In 1940 she became the first African American to win an Academy Award when she won the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With the Wind. McDaniel appeared in more than seventy movies. In forty of these films she played the role of a servant or a cook. Groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested against McDaniel’s work, arguing that she helped stereotype blacks by playing the same role of the domestic helper again and again. Still, McDaniel continued to take the work she could get. In 1947, she became the first African American to star in a radio program aimed at a general audience when she agreed to play the role of a maid on The Beulah Show. She died in 1952 after filming several episodes of Beulah for television.

1. McDaniel landed her first major acting role in John Ford's film Judge Priest in 1934. In the movie McDaniel plays the jovial servant of a widowed, small town judge played by Will Rogers. Research the life of Will Rogers and answer this question: why might it be ironic that Rogers played the role of a white Southern patriarch? Look in your newspaper’s movie advertisements for actors who seem particularly suited, or not suited, for the roles they play. Why are particular actors type-cast in certain roles?

2. In recent years the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo and western heritage celebration has headlined nationally recognized country and western musical acts like Sawyer Brown and Brooks and Dunn. The Frontier Days organization claims that the festival is America’s “premier celebration of the West” with roots that are “100% pure high-octane rodeo” and an entertainment schedule that “features unforgettable concerts by the biggest names in country music.” With the knowledge that George Morrison’s jazz band played the festival in its earlier days, how might we reimagine what Frontier Days celebrates as traditionally western?