Academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s missing Oscar for ‘Gone With the Wind’

The award will be presented to Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts next month.

Sep 27, 2023

Sixty years after Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar went missing, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will replace it next month.

The academy will present the replacement Oscar for McDaniel, who made history with her win for “Gone With the Wind,” to Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts in an upcoming ceremony. Titled “Hattie’s Come Home,” the event will take place on Oct. 1 in Washington, per Variety.

Hattie McDaniel holds the Academy Award she received for best supporting actress for her role in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind.” The statue went missing and will be replaced next month in a Howard University ceremony (Photo by John Kisch/Getty Images)

The event will take place at the Ira Aldridge Theater, with opening remarks from the dean of the College of Fine Arts, Phylicia Rashad. Some of the event highlights include students performing a medley of songs and an excerpt from “Boulevard of Bold Dreams,” a play by LaDarrion Williams about McDaniel’s win.

McDaniel became the first Black performer nominated for an Academy Award before winning for best supporting actress in 1939 for “Gone with the Wind,” as theGrio previously reported. Before she passed in 1952, the actress made clear that she wanted her Oscar to be donated to Howard University. As Variety reported, the award went missing, however, and for years speculation has swirled as to what happened to the statue.

Jacqueline Stewart, president of the Academy Museum, and Bill Kramer, the academy’s CEO, said in a statement in the Variety report that “Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who followed her. We are thrilled to present a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award to Howard University. This momentous occasion will celebrate Hattie McDaniel’s remarkable craft and historic win.”

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Stewart will present the award at the “Hattie’s Come Home” event alongside Teni Melidonian, executive vice president of Oscars strategy.

As theGrio previously reported, McDaniel’s acceptance speech is still seen as one of the most iconic moments in the award ceremony’s history. She says in her speech, “This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of the awards for your kindness.”

Her full speech is a part of the Academy Museum’s Academy Awards History Gallery.

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