MAID IN HOLLYWOOD - Brief and Anonymous

Film careers for a woman of color in the mid-20th century were often brief and anonymous.  For a pretty young woman like Anita Turner, it may be that her film career ended when she entered what was then considered a woman's "real" career - marriage.  In any case, she was only in three movies, and we see her here as Esther in the Technicolor logging melodrama, River Woman (1948). 

In the late 1940s and into the '50s a sassy maid was rare, but like many maids Esther is slightly subversive, an encourager of forbidden romance, and sometimes bearer of startling news.

The name of the tall, slim young woman who played Ellen, the maid in The Moth (1934), is unknown.  The protagonist Diane, played by Sally O'Neil, is rebellious and unconventional, and she treats Ellen more as a friend and confidante than a servant, and even gives her money to help Ellen's needy family members.

It should be noted that, while white people sometimes touch a maid in a friendly or affectionate manner, a maid rarely, if ever, forgets her station. She touches white persons only when dressing or assisting them. 

MAID IN HOLLYWOOD - Katherine Jackson

 Katherine Jackson was only in two movies, and she played Glory Bell the maid in the nautical adventure Mutiny Ahead (1935). Here she is looking skeptically upon the advances of Sassafrass the cook, played by Ray Cook with his distinctively toothy grin.

 Glory Bell is a sassy maid, and Miss Jackson has a bright personality that adds a lot to the proceedings.  The film treats both of them pretty well with Sass cleaning out the entire crew with his extensive knowledge of those rolling bones, and Glory Bell getting the last word with everyone.

MAID IN HOLLYWOOD - Etta McDaniel

Meet Etta McDaniel, sister of renowned character actress Hattie.  She was in 61 movies from 1933 to 1946, mostly in maid or mammy roles.  Her first film role was as a native in King Kong, and she appeared in such films as Stella Dallas and Son of Dracula, but never anything really top of the line, where I assume her better known sibling would take precedence.  Here she is in False Faces (1943), a run of the mill Republic Studios murder mystery, with a few extra twists to the script courtesy of writer Curt Siodmak.  Paired with slow and querulous Nick (Nicodemus) Stewart as an apartment building maid, her main function is to discover the body.  She also answers the phone and is interrogated by police.

 She adds a jarring note of what I must assume was intended as comedy relief when, upon finding the body, she runs around shrieking and waving her hands in the air for what seems like a very long time.  I am somewhat inured to the depiction of The Negro in American film, but this distressed even me.  I feel it was very unfortunate that she had to do that to get a paycheck, because that sort of thing doesn't help anyone.

I hesitated for a couple of weeks before writing this, just because it made me feel so bad, but I could not in good conscience leave this example out, because the whole point of this series is to show the type of social constraints which are created for people solely because of their appearance.

MAID IN HOLLYWOOD - Daisy Bufford

Meet Daisy Bufford.  She was in 28 movies from 1927 to 1944, including Gone With the Wind and Cabin in the Sky, and played eleven maids.  Here she is in Naughty But Nice (1939), with Ann Sheridan. 

 

 Her main function in the story is to bring heavily spiked drinks to Dick Powell, and express astonishment when he sucks them down like lemonade, which is what he thinks they are.

Extreme astonishment.  To be fair, she is not the only person in the film who displays, through facial expression, extreme astonishment at that character's drinking habits.

Here she is in a non-maid role in Nobody's Baby (1937) a B comedy starring Patsy Kelly.  She is informing Robert Armstrong that she is not the woman in a taxicab that he is looking for.  The fact that she is black was meant to add comic effect to the mistaken identity.

MAID IN HOLLYWOOD - Libby Taylor

For decades if there was a woman of color in a Hollywood movie, there was only one, and she was the maid.  It was a common and necessary role but often required the actresses to play dumb, and be confused or frightened, for comic effect.  The actresses who played maids rarely had a chance at a decent role, and I think they deserve a bit more recognition for what little they were allowed to contribute.

Meet Elizabeth A. "Libby" Taylor. Libby Taylor appeared in 60 movies, features and shorts, from 1932 to 1953. She played 35 maids, and was rarely credited onscreen. Here she is in Hollywood Hotel (1937).

Conspiring with Allyn Joslyn.

Her function in the story is mainly to take a couple of telephone calls.

"He can't come up here, we ain't home!"

Here she is with Bette Davis in the closing scenes of  Satan Met A Lady (1936), uncredited even in the Internet Movie Database, although she has a couple of lines.