DS, 22 pages, 8.25 x 11, December 30, 1939. Contract between McDaniel and Selznick International Pictures, signed fifteen days after the premiere of Gone With the Wind. In part: "Producer employs Artist to render her services exclusively to Producer as an actress, performer, or entertainer in motion picture photoplays, television, and to make radiobroadcasts and personal appearances when, where and as requested by Producer. Term: From: January 1, 1940 (20 week guarantee) To: June 30, 1940. Compensation: $500.00 per week (20 week guarantee)." Eight options after the principal six month period ends are listed, raising McDaniel's salary to $550 per week to the end of 1940 with consecutive annual raises which would reach $1500 per week if she worked for Selznick through 1946. McDaniel also agrees to work for Selznick exclusively in "all future developments of the motion picture industry, including (but not limited to) television, black and white, color, silent, sound and talking motion pictures and their accompanying devices which reproduce words, music and/or other sound in synchronism with, in accompaniment of, or supplementary to, photography." Signed at the conclusion in fountain pen by Hattie McDaniel and countersigned by producer Daniel T. O'Shea. Stapled into its original. legal folder. In fine condition, with creasing only to the paper covers. Accompanied by an unsigned three-page summary of the contract, and a two-page autobiographical statement by McDaniel about the filming of Gone With the Wind.
Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952) was the first Black actress to win an Academy Award, capturing the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1939 for her role of Mammy in Gone With the Wind. McDaniel had a strong film resume even before Gone With the Wind, especially in light of the limited opportunities for black actors in that era, beginning with small roles in films like Mae West's I'm No Angel (1934) and Shirley Temple's The Little Colonel (1935), working up to major roles in Saratoga (1937) and The Shopworn Angel (1938). She was also the first Black woman to sing on American radio, and after many performances on such radio programs as Amos 'n Andy and the Eddie Cantor Show, she starred in the title role of Beulah on the radio. Because of other commitments, she appeared in only six 1952 episodes of the television version, which ran from 1950-1953.
Lawyer Daniel T. O'Shea was Selznick's top executive officer and right hand man. He was a key figure in various Selznick enterprises in the 1930s and 1940s, and rose to prominence in the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. This contract became null and void when Selznick International Pictures was dissolved in 1940.
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