Free Republic

Now that we’re in the book-burning stage of the revolution, Black Lives Matter has managed to cancel one of the most historically significant films in American history. And in doing so, they have all but erased the film career of the first black Oscar winner. Nice going, idiots! What’s your next trick going to be? Burning down all the grocery stores in black neighborhoods? Oh, wait… During the ongoing streaming wars that have been happening under the radar, entertainment companies are gobbling up the rights to classic films. Each company hopes that its exclusive content will be enough reason for...

Gone With The Wind is to be restored to the HBO Max streaming platform after it was abruptly pulled from the service last week after coming under criticism for romanticizing slavery, amid a nationwide re-evaluation of cultural values. But when the film finally returns, it will be accompanied by an introduction from Jacqueline Stewart, a professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, who will explain the “historical context” of the 1939 Civil War epic. The film starring Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, is based on a novel...

  Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar for her role in ‘Gone with the Wind’, was requested to sit at a segregated table during the award ceremony Jan 29, 2017 Stefan A. Hattie McDaniel was the youngest of 13 children in a family of former slaves. Born in Kansas, she moved with her family to Colorado in 1900, where she finished high school. During her early days, Hattie took on many different jobs.When she worked on minstrel shows, side by side with one of her brothers, she honed her songwriting skills. During the 1920’s, she toured...

upcoming Academy Awards telecast may be caught between Chris Rock and a hard place. The comic actor is facing pressure to bow out as host of the 88th annual Oscars — with less than six weeks to go before the Feb. 28 telecast — over the mounting calls for boycotting the awards in response to the lack of diversity among the Oscar nominees. On Monday’s holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., both Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith announced they would not be attending the Academy Awards to protest a second straight year without a black actor receiving a single...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Walt Disney Co.'s 1946 film "Song of the South" was historic. It was Disney's first big live-action picture and produced one of the company's most famous songs _ the Oscar-winning "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." It also carries the story line of the Splash Mountain rides at its theme parks. But the movie remains hidden in the Disney archives _ never released on video in the United States and criticized as racist for its depiction of Southern plantation blacks. The film's 60th anniversary passed last year without a whisper of official rerelease, which is unusual for Disney, but President and CEO...

'Song of the South' pits art vs. cultural sensitivity http://www.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=localnews&tableId=136791&pubDate=3/31/2007 http://tinyurl.com/2w5vty BY RON MENCHACA The Post and Courier Talk of a possible re-release of the 1946 Walt Disney film 'Song of the South,' which is criticized for its plantation-era depictions of blacks as the happy servants of wealthy whites, already is sparking a debate. The film was reshown in theaters as recently as 1986, but it never was released on video in the United States. Its cultural and cinematic significance have been the subject of scholarly debate for decades, and bootlegged copies of the film are popular on the black...

'GWTW's' Mammy was first black actress to win Oscar BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) -- Hattie McDaniel, the first black actress to win an Academy Award, was honored Wednesday with a U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp. McDaniel is the 29th person honored in the Postal Service's long-running Black Heritage stamp series. The 39-cent stamp depicts the plump-faced McDaniel in a 1941 photograph in the blue dress she wore when she received the Oscar for best supporting actress in "Gone with the Wind" in February 1940. McDaniel played Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 movie about the Civil War. "She was a...