Frankly, My Darling, We DO Still Give a Damn

In 1940, at the 12th Oscars, the winner for Best Supporting Actress was Hattie McDaniel, for her superlative performance as Mammy in Gone With The Wind — the film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning book of the same name. McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar, although she was not allowed to sit with the rest of the cast at the ceremony because of her race. That contradiction is one of the more obvious ones that continues to dog this great film that released on this day in 1939, to rapturous audiences in the USA. The film continues to be voted ‘best film ever' in poll after internet poll; and remains to this day the most successful film ever made (after adjusting box-office collections for inflation).