When The Hollywood Lights Goes Dim: Butterfly McQueen (1911-1995)
- jacquelinehamilton6
- Mar 16, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: May 12, 2021
She had dreams of becoming a nurse but her defiant and distinct voice, Butterfly McQueen Hollywood's light dim when the actress did not want to play stereotypical roles like her most memorable role as Prissy 1939 film Gone With The Wind. Butterfly McQueen is an unsung hero to Hollywood because she took a stand when most Black actresses needed jobs, and most of those jobs came with stereotypical roles. Butterfly McQueen was born on January 7, 1911, in Tampa, Florida; she had dreams of becoming a nurse, but Hollywood, was calling her name. According to the YouTube video provided by Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Butterfly McQueen: What a Character! Butterfly McQueen was born Thelma McQueen in 1911; she earned her nickname butterfly after doing a butterfly ballet off a Broadway production of A Midsummer Night's Dream 1935. The 1939 movie Gone With The Wind has received backlash about the racial stereotypes throughout the film. Still, Butterfly McQueen's character Prissy made history with her most memorable line to Vivien Leigh's character Scarlett O' Hara. " Oh, Ms. Scarlett, I Don't know nothin’ bout birthin no babies." As time went on, Butterfly McQueen felt that her role as Prissy was demeaning; she stood up for herself when she did not allow Vivien Leigh to deliver a real slap to her face. McQueen played maids in movies like The Women (1939), Affectionately Yours (1941), Cabin In The Sky (1943), Mildred Pierce (1945), and I Dood It (1943), and due to lack of meaningful roles, she left Hollywood for good. Butterfly McQueen stated, “ I didn’t mind playing a maid the first time because I thought that was how you got into the business. But after I did the same thing over and over, I didn’t like being stupid.” After 12 film appearances and several credits, McQueen worked odd jobs and earned herself a degree from City College in New York City. Not only was she an actress she was also a community leader with getting into social work projects in her Harlem community. To understand Butterfly McQueen’s life after Hollywood, I viewed another YouTube video titled “The Life and Sad ending of Butterfly McQueen''. She was also a part of George Abbott’s play What A Life in 1938, but after she left Hollywood by 1947, Butterfly McQueen knew her job as an icon was not over. At the age of 64, she earned herself a Bachelor's degree in 1975, McQueen is an example that stars may leave Hollywood, but there is life after the lights go dim. Like most stars, McQueen faced her setbacks as a former star in Hollywood in July of 1983; according to the video, she was awarded $60,00 in her lawsuit against Greyhound bus. Two security officers used excessive force when they accused the former Hollywood starlet of being a pickpocket. Let us not forget that in 1979, McQueen won a Daytime Emmy for her role in the ABC Afterschool Special '' Seven Wishes Of A Rich Kid. Tragedy came in 1995 when Butterfly McQueen died after suffering burns from a heater that she was trying to light and the heater explored; being who she was, McQueen had her body donated to science. Lynn Yaeger’s Vogue article “Saluting Butterfly McQueen, Who Paved the Way'' celebrated McQueen’s life and career on what would have been her 106 birthday on January 7, 2017. Yaeger voiced, “Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen, who was born 106 years ago today in Tampa, Florida (she passed away in 1995), is best known for her first movie role—as the addlebrained, squeaky-voiced Prissy in Gone With the Wind who declared, “I don't know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies.''This one line embodied the kinds of stereotypes that dogged black actors for decades. Servant, butler, bellhop, bootblack, cook, nursemaid—these were the roles assigned to talented African-American performers during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood. But what choice did they have? As Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Academy Award—for playing a servant in the same film in which McQueen debuted—once said, “I’d rather play a maid than be one.” Many Black actors and actresses did not choose when it came to determining their roles because those were the only roles they could play, which led to stereotypical roles provided for African-American actors and actresses. These roles put African-Americans at a disadvantage because many people who played these roles had to survive on the money they were making from these critical roles. After all, Black actors and actresses knew that they might have acted in their last movie role if they did not take these roles. Also, to add insult to injury, Yaeger uttered, “ Three-hundred-thousand residents and visitors of Atlanta poured into the streets to celebrate Gone With the Wind’s premiere in 1939. McDaniel and McQueen did not attend the opening. Loew’s Grand Theatre, where the event was held, was segregated.Looking back, she observed, “Now I am happy I did Gone With the Wind. I wasn’t when I was 28, but it’s part of black history. You have no idea how hard it is for black actors, but things change, things blossom in time.” Yes, they do! Wouldn’t McQueen be proud to know that this year so many female black actors are likely Oscar nominees—Ruth Negga! Taraji P. Henson! Viola Davis! And to think that a woman playing a teenaged maid helped pave the way.” The movie Gone With The Wind broke the box office records. The actresses that were a part of the top movie could not attend the film’s opening because the theatre was segregated; black actors and actresses had to deal with racial segregation even though they were Hollywood stars. I remember a documentary about another Hollywood starlet, Dorothy Dandridge would be the biggest star of her time could not even walk through the front door of restaurants; she had to walk through the back. When she was a headliner somewhere, Dorothy Dandridge wanted to go into the pool at the hotel she was staying at, but the owner told her that she could not go swimming because she was Black. Dandridge ended up defining the hotel owner by sticking her toe in the pool that night; when she returned, the hotel owner had drained the pool. Black actors and actresses changed Hollywood’s course, but while the flashing lights shined in their eyes, they could not escape racial barriers that hinder them from being seen as human beings. Butterfly McQueen paved the way for many African- American actresses to not play maids in movies. Black starlets of Hollywood are also creating their firsts and winning awards that during McQueen’s day came once in a while. Butterfly McQueen became the voice for Black actresses to find themselves when it came to acting, not being afraid to disagree with a role that they should not play and standing up for what is right. Robert Townsend’s 1987 film Hollywood Shuffle explored the racial stereotypes that African-Americans like McQueen had to play in her day through film and television; the film also voiced Townsend’s experience actor turned down from roles for not being “black enough.” Butterfly McQueen created the path for young actors and actresses not to feed into the racial stereotypes. The roles of stereotypes are not a representation of us as the people, most importantly as Black people.
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