"Gone With the Wind" wins a record 8 Academy Awards 1940

Gone With the Wind, Victor Fleming's epic and now iconic WWII film, set several records at the 12th Academy Awards ceremony February 27, 1940.  Some of the records have been broken but at the time, they were significant.  

Gone With the Wind was nominated for 13 awards and won 8 of them. The biggest win was Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy.  She is the first African American actor to receive an Oscar, beating the likes of Olivia de Havilland and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Gone With the Wind won Outstanding Production (Best Picture) and Best Director for Victor Fleming.  Vivien Leigh won Best Actress, beating Bette Davis, Great Garbo, and Greer Garson.  Sidney Howard was posthumously awarded Best Screenplay.  Lyle R. Wheeler won Best Art Direction.  Best Film Editing went to Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom. Best Cinematography, Color went to Ernest Haller and Rennahan. It was the first year the cinematography category had been split into Color and Black and White.

The film was nominated for Best Actor for Clark Gable.  Olivia de Havilland was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.  Max Steiner was nominated for Best Original Score.  This was the first year an award for Best Special Effects was given, and Gone With the Wind was nominated for that Category but lost to The Rains Came.

William Cameron Menzies was given an honorary award for his outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone With the Wind.

The Wizard of Oz came up with 6 nominations and took home only two.  Herbert Stothart won for Best Original Score.  Over the Rainbow, written by Yip Harburg and music by Harold Arlen, won Best Song.

It was nominated for Outstanding Production, Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. Judy Garland was given the Academy Juvenile Award.  

Celebrating Black History Month: Hattie McDaniel, first African-American to win an Oscar

Actress Hattie McDaniel, born June 10, 1893 in Wichita, Kansa, busted race barriers in Hollywood when she won an Oscar, becoming the first African-American to win an Academy Award.  She received the honor for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Mammy in Gone With The Wind.

She was not allowed to sit in the main room where the awards were being handed out because black people were not permitted.  She was also not allowed to attend the premiere in Atlanta, Georgia.  Clark Gable, a good friend of hers, threatened to boycott the premiere but Hattie convinced him to attend.

She passed away in October 1952 from breast cancer.  

Celebrating Black History Month: Ethel Waters, first African-American lead in a television show

Ethel Waters, born October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania, was the first African-American to star as the lead in television series.  She appeared in Beulah from 1950-1951, when she quit.  She played a housekeeper/cook for the Henderson family.  The show ran for three seasons and Hattie McDaniel stepped in but appeared in only six episodes before she had to quit due to health reasons.  

She was the second African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first African-American to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.  Three of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  

She passed away in 1977.

"Gone with the Wind" released 1940

Although Atlanta, New York City and Los Angeles got to see it in December 1939, the rest of the US saw the Civil War era pic Gone With the Wind in theaters January 17, 1940.  It won 8 (or 10, depending upon who you believe) Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Victor Fleming) and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Vivien Leigh.

Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to be nominated for and win an Academy Award, Best Supporting Actress.

Adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind is the highest-grossing movie of all time.  It is in the top 100 movies on about 8 different lists by American Film Institute. In 1989, Gone With the Wind was chosen for preservation by the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".