Hidden History: Clark Gable was half Black
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Clark Gable
Clark Gable never wished to hide the fact he had black and Native American heritage, but it was never widely publicized about the actor either. However, Gable was never one to dismiss someone because of their race. When his Gone with the Wind co-star, Hattie was forbidden to attend the premiere of their film in Atlanta, Georgia, he threated to boycott the whole thing. Even on set, if he saw “colored” and “white” bathrooms, he would refuse to continue working until everyone was treated the same.
Clark Gable never wished to hide the fact he had black and Native American heritage, but it was never widely publicized about the actor either. However, Gable was never one to dismiss someone because of their race. When his Gone with the Wind co-star, Hattie was forbidden to attend the premiere of their film in Atlanta, Georgia, he threated to boycott the whole thing. Even on set, if he saw “colored” and “white” bathrooms, he would refuse to continue working until everyone was treated the same.
Clark Gable Desegregated 'Gone With the Wind' Movie Set
Updated on December 29, 2017
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Ronald E Franklin more
Ron is a student of African American history. His writing highlights the stories of people who overcame prejudice to achieve great things.
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Clark Gable
Clark Gable | Source
When Clark Gable arrived on the set of “Gone With The Wind” in 1938, he was already one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Lennie Bluett was an 18-year-old extra who wouldn’t even receive screen credit. But what they did together reflects lasting credit on both.
A Young Extra On “Gone With The Wind”
Bluett was a young African American man who lived in Culver City, California and who was just starting a career in which he would make a good living as a movie extra. He had attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, where he claimed Jack Webb of future “Dragnet” fame as a personal friend. He was not shy with movie celebrities -- his father drove a bus for the great silent movie comedian, Buster Keaton, and his mother was Humphrey Bogart’s cook.
A talented singer, dancer and piano player, Bluett’s friendship with Bogart got him an audition for the role of Sam in “Casablanca.” The way Bluett tells it, he was “too young, too tall and too good-looking" to get the part. He was able to land small roles in about 40 films, including "Stormy Weather" and "Cabin in the Sky," acting alongside such luminaries as the Marx Brothers, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn.
In 1938 Lennie Bluett was hired as an extra on “Gone With The Wind,” which was expected to be a blockbuster when it was released the next year. Bluett was one of hundreds who would be on the lot to film the burning of Atlanta scene.
The Movie Lot’s Toilets Cause Outrage
When he arrived that morning, Bluett immediately noticed something that to him was quite startling. There were dozens of portable toilets set up to accommodate the large numbers who would be on the lot that day. But what startled, then enraged young Bluett was the fact that above each toilet door was a sign. On some the sign read “White.” On others, “Colored."
Source
Because of characterizations of blacks in Margaret Mitchell's book, black organizations, including the NAACP and major African American newspapers across the nation, had been concerned about the movie version of “Gone With The Wind” from the beginning. But the focus had been on the possibility of blacks being portrayed in a demeaning manner on screen. Producer David O. Selznick had given these groups many assurances (which he came well short of fulfilling) of his sensitivity to black concerns on that score. But no one ever anticipated that segregation would rear its ugly head during the making of the picture.
Certainly not Lennie Bluett. Bluett had grown up in Culver City, where the movie was being shot, in a thoroughly integrated environment. When he discovered that separate toilet facilities had been set up on the movie lot, it was his first exposure to the kind of humiliation that segregation in public accommodations inherently involves.
Lennie Bluett tells his story
Audio: National Public Radio
As Bluett recalls in the Turner Classic Movies featurette, “Lenny Bluett on Clark Gable,” he immediately went to some of the older black actors to try to organize some sort of protest against what to him was an outrage. But the older cast members were concerned that if they raised any kind of a ruckus, they would simply be replaced. They had families to feed.
Bluett, noting that you couldn’t shoot “Gone With The Wind” without black actors, persisted. He finally got the older performers’ acquiescence that he and two others of the young extras could try to do something about the situation.
Clark Gable Is Outraged
What Bluett did was startling. He went straight to the dressing room of the movie’s star, Clark Gable, something extras just didn’t do.
He recalls in the TCM featurette that when he was admitted (that in itself was an indication of Gable’s graciousness), he explained that he and the other black actors had a big problem, and asked for a few seconds of Gable’s time to show him what it was.
Bluett then led Gable to where the toilets were set up, and showed him the offensive signs. As Bluett recalls it, Gable was outraged. He immediately got on the phone to the movie’s director, Victor Fleming, and told him that if those signs didn’t come down, “you don't have a Rhett Butler!"
The signs came down, and segregation on the set of “Gone With The Wind” was ended.
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler | Source
Black Stars Not Welcome At The Premiere Of The Film
That wasn’t, however, the film’s last brush with the evils of segregation.
According to Leonard J. Leff in an article in “The Atlantic,” producer David O. Selznick had wanted to showcase all the film’s stars, white and black, at the premiere in Atlanta.
The event was to be held at the Loew’s Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street. That theatre, however, like everything else in Atlanta at the time, was strictly segregated. The black stars of the movie, including Butterfly McQueen, who played Prissy, and Hattie McDaniel, who would win an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy, could appear on stage, but they would not be allowed to sit in the audience with whites, nor attend the grand social functions planned for the white members of the cast.
Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in 1939
Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in 1939 | Source
As Leff explains, “Since the Grand was a whites-only theater, McDaniel and the other black ‘guests’ would have no proper dressing rooms backstage, no proper places to enter and exit the theater, and no proper places to go to the bathroom.”
So, David O. Selznick made the decision to simply leave his black stars at home. They would not be allowed to attend the premiere of the film.
One African American who was there
Although Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel and the other black cast members were not allowed to attend the premiere, there was, ironically, another African American of note who did participate in the festivities. It was 10-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., who sang at the whites-only Junior League Ball as part of the "Negro boys choir" from his father's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Gable Again Outraged By Segregation
When Clark Gable found out that Hattie McDaniel and the other black stars of the film would not be allowed to go to Atlanta along with the white members of the cast, he hit the ceiling.
Gable was already good friends with McDaniel prior to making the movie, and he angrily threatened to boycott the premiere unless she was allowed to attend. It was McDaniel herself who talked him into going.
Clark Gable was a big enough star to undo segregation on a Hollywood movie lot, but segregation in the heart of Dixie was too much even for him.
Updated on December 29, 2017
RonElFran profile image
Ronald E Franklin more
Ron is a student of African American history. His writing highlights the stories of people who overcame prejudice to achieve great things.
Contact Author
Clark Gable
When Clark Gable arrived on the set of “Gone With The Wind” in 1938, he was already one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Lennie Bluett was an 18-year-old extra who wouldn’t even receive screen credit. But what they did together reflects lasting credit on both.
A Young Extra On “Gone With The Wind”
Bluett was a young African American man who lived in Culver City, California and who was just starting a career in which he would make a good living as a movie extra. He had attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, where he claimed Jack Webb of future “Dragnet” fame as a personal friend. He was not shy with movie celebrities -- his father drove a bus for the great silent movie comedian, Buster Keaton, and his mother was Humphrey Bogart’s cook.
A talented singer, dancer and piano player, Bluett’s friendship with Bogart got him an audition for the role of Sam in “Casablanca.” The way Bluett tells it, he was “too young, too tall and too good-looking" to get the part. He was able to land small roles in about 40 films, including "Stormy Weather" and "Cabin in the Sky," acting alongside such luminaries as the Marx Brothers, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn.
In 1938 Lennie Bluett was hired as an extra on “Gone With The Wind,” which was expected to be a blockbuster when it was released the next year. Bluett was one of hundreds who would be on the lot to film the burning of Atlanta scene.
The Movie Lot’s Toilets Cause Outrage
When he arrived that morning, Bluett immediately noticed something that to him was quite startling. There were dozens of portable toilets set up to accommodate the large numbers who would be on the lot that day. But what startled, then enraged young Bluett was the fact that above each toilet door was a sign. On some the sign read “White.” On others, “Colored."
Because of characterizations of blacks in Margaret Mitchell's book, black organizations, including the NAACP and major African American newspapers across the nation, had been concerned about the movie version of “Gone With The Wind” from the beginning. But the focus had been on the possibility of blacks being portrayed in a demeaning manner on screen. Producer David O. Selznick had given these groups many assurances (which he came well short of fulfilling) of his sensitivity to black concerns on that score. But no one ever anticipated that segregation would rear its ugly head during the making of the picture.
Certainly not Lennie Bluett. Bluett had grown up in Culver City, where the movie was being shot, in a thoroughly integrated environment. When he discovered that separate toilet facilities had been set up on the movie lot, it was his first exposure to the kind of humiliation that segregation in public accommodations inherently involves.
Lennie Bluett tells his story
Audio: National Public Radio
As Bluett recalls in the Turner Classic Movies featurette, “Lenny Bluett on Clark Gable,” he immediately went to some of the older black actors to try to organize some sort of protest against what to him was an outrage. But the older cast members were concerned that if they raised any kind of a ruckus, they would simply be replaced. They had families to feed.
Bluett, noting that you couldn’t shoot “Gone With The Wind” without black actors, persisted. He finally got the older performers’ acquiescence that he and two others of the young extras could try to do something about the situation.
Clark Gable Is Outraged
What Bluett did was startling. He went straight to the dressing room of the movie’s star, Clark Gable, something extras just didn’t do.
He recalls in the TCM featurette that when he was admitted (that in itself was an indication of Gable’s graciousness), he explained that he and the other black actors had a big problem, and asked for a few seconds of Gable’s time to show him what it was.
Bluett then led Gable to where the toilets were set up, and showed him the offensive signs. As Bluett recalls it, Gable was outraged. He immediately got on the phone to the movie’s director, Victor Fleming, and told him that if those signs didn’t come down, “you don't have a Rhett Butler!"
The signs came down, and segregation on the set of “Gone With The Wind” was ended.
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
Black Stars Not Welcome At The Premiere Of The Film
That wasn’t, however, the film’s last brush with the evils of segregation.
According to Leonard J. Leff in an article in “The Atlantic,” producer David O. Selznick had wanted to showcase all the film’s stars, white and black, at the premiere in Atlanta.
The event was to be held at the Loew’s Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street. That theatre, however, like everything else in Atlanta at the time, was strictly segregated. The black stars of the movie, including Butterfly McQueen, who played Prissy, and Hattie McDaniel, who would win an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy, could appear on stage, but they would not be allowed to sit in the audience with whites, nor attend the grand social functions planned for the white members of the cast.
Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in 1939
As Leff explains, “Since the Grand was a whites-only theater, McDaniel and the other black ‘guests’ would have no proper dressing rooms backstage, no proper places to enter and exit the theater, and no proper places to go to the bathroom.”
So, David O. Selznick made the decision to simply leave his black stars at home. They would not be allowed to attend the premiere of the film.
One African American who was there
Although Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel and the other black cast members were not allowed to attend the premiere, there was, ironically, another African American of note who did participate in the festivities. It was 10-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., who sang at the whites-only Junior League Ball as part of the "Negro boys choir" from his father's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Gable Again Outraged By Segregation
When Clark Gable found out that Hattie McDaniel and the other black stars of the film would not be allowed to go to Atlanta along with the white members of the cast, he hit the ceiling.
Gable was already good friends with McDaniel prior to making the movie, and he angrily threatened to boycott the premiere unless she was allowed to attend. It was McDaniel herself who talked him into going.
Clark Gable was a big enough star to undo segregation on a Hollywood movie lot, but segregation in the heart of Dixie was too much even for him.
messed me up till I THOUGHT about it and looked closer at his pics and speech patterns.
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you might start an ongoing thread on this...
many hollywood actors and even musicians were passing for white -
eg Carol Channing
and Joan Crawford was rumored to have a black mother
even up to today
eg: Tom Sizemore
my man
Hidden History: Famous Figures You Probably Thought Were White
Historical Figures You Probably Thought Were White By Sienna Forde - October 1, 2019 From presidents to royalty, and celebrities to legendary icons, there are many historical figures which a lot of people never realized had black ancestry. While many may have been open about their heritage...
www.bgol.us
Well damn.
merle oberon was half asian (indian) i heard.
she rejected her roots, however.
that's why i hate her.
she rejected her roots, however.
that's why i hate her.
You can't be serious. You hating on a 1930s actress who died decades ago? Why the hate over something you claimed you "heard?"
Clark Gable Desegregated 'Gone With the Wind' Movie Set
Updated on December 29, 2017
RonElFran profile image
Ronald E Franklin more
Ron is a student of African American history. His writing highlights the stories of people who overcame prejudice to achieve great things.
Contact Author
Clark Gable
Clark Gable | Source
When Clark Gable arrived on the set of “Gone With The Wind” in 1938, he was already one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Lennie Bluett was an 18-year-old extra who wouldn’t even receive screen credit. But what they did together reflects lasting credit on both.
A Young Extra On “Gone With The Wind”
Bluett was a young African American man who lived in Culver City, California and who was just starting a career in which he would make a good living as a movie extra. He had attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, where he claimed Jack Webb of future “Dragnet” fame as a personal friend. He was not shy with movie celebrities -- his father drove a bus for the great silent movie comedian, Buster Keaton, and his mother was Humphrey Bogart’s cook.
A talented singer, dancer and piano player, Bluett’s friendship with Bogart got him an audition for the role of Sam in “Casablanca.” The way Bluett tells it, he was “too young, too tall and too good-looking" to get the part. He was able to land small roles in about 40 films, including "Stormy Weather" and "Cabin in the Sky," acting alongside such luminaries as the Marx Brothers, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn.
In 1938 Lennie Bluett was hired as an extra on “Gone With The Wind,” which was expected to be a blockbuster when it was released the next year. Bluett was one of hundreds who would be on the lot to film the burning of Atlanta scene.
The Movie Lot’s Toilets Cause Outrage
When he arrived that morning, Bluett immediately noticed something that to him was quite startling. There were dozens of portable toilets set up to accommodate the large numbers who would be on the lot that day. But what startled, then enraged young Bluett was the fact that above each toilet door was a sign. On some the sign read “White.” On others, “Colored."
Source
Because of characterizations of blacks in Margaret Mitchell's book, black organizations, including the NAACP and major African American newspapers across the nation, had been concerned about the movie version of “Gone With The Wind” from the beginning. But the focus had been on the possibility of blacks being portrayed in a demeaning manner on screen. Producer David O. Selznick had given these groups many assurances (which he came well short of fulfilling) of his sensitivity to black concerns on that score. But no one ever anticipated that segregation would rear its ugly head during the making of the picture.
Certainly not Lennie Bluett. Bluett had grown up in Culver City, where the movie was being shot, in a thoroughly integrated environment. When he discovered that separate toilet facilities had been set up on the movie lot, it was his first exposure to the kind of humiliation that segregation in public accommodations inherently involves.
Lennie Bluett tells his story
Audio: National Public Radio
As Bluett recalls in the Turner Classic Movies featurette, “Lenny Bluett on Clark Gable,” he immediately went to some of the older black actors to try to organize some sort of protest against what to him was an outrage. But the older cast members were concerned that if they raised any kind of a ruckus, they would simply be replaced. They had families to feed.
Bluett, noting that you couldn’t shoot “Gone With The Wind” without black actors, persisted. He finally got the older performers’ acquiescence that he and two others of the young extras could try to do something about the situation.
Clark Gable Is Outraged
What Bluett did was startling. He went straight to the dressing room of the movie’s star, Clark Gable, something extras just didn’t do.
He recalls in the TCM featurette that when he was admitted (that in itself was an indication of Gable’s graciousness), he explained that he and the other black actors had a big problem, and asked for a few seconds of Gable’s time to show him what it was.
Bluett then led Gable to where the toilets were set up, and showed him the offensive signs. As Bluett recalls it, Gable was outraged. He immediately got on the phone to the movie’s director, Victor Fleming, and told him that if those signs didn’t come down, “you don't have a Rhett Butler!"
The signs came down, and segregation on the set of “Gone With The Wind” was ended.
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler | Source
Black Stars Not Welcome At The Premiere Of The Film
That wasn’t, however, the film’s last brush with the evils of segregation.
According to Leonard J. Leff in an article in “The Atlantic,” producer David O. Selznick had wanted to showcase all the film’s stars, white and black, at the premiere in Atlanta.
The event was to be held at the Loew’s Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street. That theatre, however, like everything else in Atlanta at the time, was strictly segregated. The black stars of the movie, including Butterfly McQueen, who played Prissy, and Hattie McDaniel, who would win an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy, could appear on stage, but they would not be allowed to sit in the audience with whites, nor attend the grand social functions planned for the white members of the cast.
Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in 1939
Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in 1939 | Source
As Leff explains, “Since the Grand was a whites-only theater, McDaniel and the other black ‘guests’ would have no proper dressing rooms backstage, no proper places to enter and exit the theater, and no proper places to go to the bathroom.”
So, David O. Selznick made the decision to simply leave his black stars at home. They would not be allowed to attend the premiere of the film.
One African American who was there
Although Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel and the other black cast members were not allowed to attend the premiere, there was, ironically, another African American of note who did participate in the festivities. It was 10-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., who sang at the whites-only Junior League Ball as part of the "Negro boys choir" from his father's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Gable Again Outraged By Segregation
When Clark Gable found out that Hattie McDaniel and the other black stars of the film would not be allowed to go to Atlanta along with the white members of the cast, he hit the ceiling.
Gable was already good friends with McDaniel prior to making the movie, and he angrily threatened to boycott the premiere unless she was allowed to attend. It was McDaniel herself who talked him into going.
Clark Gable was a big enough star to undo segregation on a Hollywood movie lot, but segregation in the heart of Dixie was too much even for him.
Great info.
Merle tanned dark as fuck ... I don't know how she passed as White aside from her facial features.
I can believe it. El Debarge looks like him
Yeah.
Uh,huh. Sure.
Just like this shit is true:
Sadly, this just more proof that some mofo's are ready believe EVERYTHING posted online and present it as facts elsewhere.
Next "theory":
John Wayne actually WAS Asian when he portrayed Gengis Khan in "The Conquerer"....
See...?
Can't you see he's mixed Oriental and White....?
That's why he hated Asian people. It's because his mother had an affair with an Asian businessman back in 1901....
Uh,huh. Sure.
Just like this shit is true:
Sadly, this just more proof that some mofo's are ready believe EVERYTHING posted online and present it as facts elsewhere.
Next "theory":
John Wayne actually WAS Asian when he portrayed Gengis Khan in "The Conquerer"....
See...?
Can't you see he's mixed Oriental and White....?
That's why he hated Asian people. It's because his mother had an affair with an Asian businessman back in 1901....
Last edited:
Yeah.
Uh,huh. Sure.
Just like this shit is true:
Sadly, this just more proof that some mofo's are ready believe EVERYTHING posted online and present it as facts elsewhere.
Next "theory":
John Wayne actually WAS Asian when he portrayed Gengis Khan in "The Conquerer"....
See...?
Can't you see he's mixed Oriental and White....?
That's why he hated Asian people. It's because his mother had an affair with an Asian businessman back in 1901....
Why you mad dudes were half black lol?
Mad about a person's ethnicity?
- Never.
The point of my post is to say that anyone on the internet can post an outrageous "theory" from an unknown, unverified crackpot and present it as "factual".
Post actual proof.
Not someone's half baked
It's common sense, bro....
Mad about a person's ethnicity?
- Never.
The point of my post is to say that anyone on the internet can post an outrageous "theory" from an unknown, unverified crackpot and present it as "factual".
Post actual proof.
Not someone's half bakedthesisideas.
It's common sense, bro....
Yea
But also it was way more prevalent than anyone wants to admit
BOOM
Back then people hid info like that for dear life...
and now STILL hide it.
But will drop it ASAP if it can save they ass from a situation
Dude is a feckless turd - nevermind the stink he makes
Shit stain actually said "outrageous" as if that shit was not par for the course for octaroons (I say that as a fair skinned someone with many light skinned and mixed race family that can easily slip the devils' note)
@ViCiouS @largebillsonlyplease
Intersting Gable was in this movie too...
A girl who was the daughter of a slave and an owner was raised thinking she was white. Her mom died at birth and she was sent to live at boarding school. Then her dad dies and as part of his estate she was auctioned off to Clark Gable. During slavery in the US the law was you were a slave if your mom was a slave. Rare but it did happen that white women had babies by slaves and the child was free. Sometimes the child would be murdered but there were times the child was given to other free black people to raise.
www.tcm.com
Band Of Angels (1957)
Intersting Gable was in this movie too...
A girl who was the daughter of a slave and an owner was raised thinking she was white. Her mom died at birth and she was sent to live at boarding school. Then her dad dies and as part of his estate she was auctioned off to Clark Gable. During slavery in the US the law was you were a slave if your mom was a slave. Rare but it did happen that white women had babies by slaves and the child was free. Sometimes the child would be murdered but there were times the child was given to other free black people to raise.
Band Of Angels (1957) -- (Movie Clip) She's A Bargain At Five Thousand
Former Kentucky society girl Amantha (Yvonne De Carlo), who learned her mother was a slave, immediately after her father died bankrupt, is being sold as a slave at a New Orleans auction when Hamish Bond (Clark Gable, his first scene) strides in with an offer, Larry Blake the auctioneer, Robert...
Band Of Angels (1957)
A lot of these discussions on here are based on what people were taught and read some where. Actual proof is never presented, that's why dudes be having so many debates. Pointless
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