7 random things that happened on this day, January 11th, in showbiz history
Hattie McDaniel in her younger years. Not sure what year in this photo, though.
1911 Hattie McDaniel, then just 17 years-old, marries her first husband. She was already a performer, and worked in carnivals, minstrel shows, and radio before hitting the movies in the early 1930s. She famously became the first African-American to be nominated for or to win an Oscar. There is, finally, a biopic happening and it will star Raven Goodwin (The Station Agent, Being Mary Jane).
1927 The creation of AMPAS came (arguably) on this day at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles...
Louis B Mayer (head of MGM), Harry and Jack Warner (of Warner Bros), producer Irving Thalberg, silent film stars Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Harold Lloyd, famous directors like Cecil B DeMille and Henry King, and 27 others dined and discussed a proposal about an organization to benefit the indusry. They were all designated "founders" of the Academy though it took several more meetings of course until it was all official. Douglas Fairbanks was named the first Academy President and the first awards ceremony was held two years later.
1935 The imperialist adventure film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer starring Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone opens in theaters. The popular film receives 7 Oscar nominations including Best Picture winning for the shortlived category "Best Assistant Director" which was discontinued after 1937. (In a bizarre and unflattering footnote: this was one of Adolph Hitler's favourite films.)
1991 Sally Field's controversial Not Without My Daughter (about an American woman tricked into living in Iran) and Jean Claude Van Damme's action film Lionheart both open in theaters.
2009 At the 66th Annual Golden Globes Kate Winslet pulled a double win, taking Best Actress Drama (Revolutionary Road) and Supporting Actress (a fraudulent campaign for her leading work in The Reader). The Academy would go on to ignore the categorization and award her the leading Oscar for The Reader. (She's since won two more Globes bringing her total to 4)
2013 Gangster Squad opens, the second and least successful of three pairings of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to date (the others being romcom Crazy Stupid Love and the blockbuster musical La La Land). Will we get a fourth?
Emma at the 72nd annual Golden Globes (reacting to a "Big Eyes" joke)
2015 At the 72nd Annual Golden Globes Julianne Moore (Still Alice) and Eddie Redmayne (Theory of Everything) who played mother and son in the risque indie Savage Grace several years earlier win the Lead acting in a Drama prizes. They'll repeat this double at the Oscars. Neither of the Best Picture winners that night (Boyhood and Grand Budapest Hotel) will repeat their win at the Oscars, as they both lose to Birdman.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 50th birthday today to two-time Oscar nominee Mary J Blige (Mudbound).
Next up for Blige, cinematically, is playing Dinah Washington in the Jennifer Hudson / Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, due this August.
Other showbiz types with birthdays today: Odessa Young (Assassination Nation, The Stand), Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus, Saving Private Ryan), Amanda Peet (Please Give, Something Gotta Give, ), Aja Naomi King (Birth of a Nation, Sylvie's Love), Derek Riddell (Industry, Gentleman Jack), Marc Blucas (Buffy, Underground), Devin Ratray (Hustlers, RIPD), Rod Taylor (The Time Machine, The Birds), Son Ye-Jin (Crash Landing on You, The Last Princess), Kim Coles (Living Single, Frasier), Mitchell Ryan (Grosse Point Blank, Liar Liar), Denmark's Ghita Nørby (Hamsun, Memories of Marriage), Teo Briones (Wind River), Director Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip), singer Naomi Judd, and Oscar winning Costume Designer Dorothy Jeakins (The Sound of Music, The Night of the Iguana, Samson & Delilah, Joan of Arc, The Dead)