Background
Watts, Jill Marie was born on May 28, 1958 in Pomona, California, United States. Daughter of Thomas H. and Doris Ruth (Hohlfeld) Watts.
( Hattie McDaniel is best known for her performance as M...)
Hattie McDaniel is best known for her performance as Mammy, the sassy foil to Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. Though the role called for yet another wide–grinned, subservient black domestic, McDaniel transformed her character into one who was loyal yet subversive, devoted yet bossy. Her powerful performance would win her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and catapult the hopes of Black Hollywood that the entertainment industry ––after decades of stereotypical characters–– was finally ready to write more multidimensional, fully realized roles for blacks. But racism was so entrenched in Hollywood that despite pleas by organizations such as the NAACP and SAG ––and the very examples that Black service men were setting as they fought against Hitler in WWII–– roles for blacks continued to denigrate the African American experience. So rather than see her stature increase in Hollywood, as did other Oscar–winning actresses, Hattie McDaniel, continued to play servants. And rather than see her popularity increase, her audience turned against her as an increasingly politicized black community criticized her and her peers for accepting degrading roles. "I'd rather play a maid then be a maid," Hattie McDaniel answered her critics but her flip response belied a woman who was herself emotionally conflicted about the roles she accepted but who tried to imbue each Mammy character with dignity and nuance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060514914/?tag=2022091-20
("Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae West inv...)
"Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae West invited and promptly captured the imagination of generations. Even today, years after her death, the actress and author is still regarded as the pop archetype of sexual wantonness and ribald humor. But who was this saucy starlet, a woman who was controversial enough to be jailed, pursued by film censors and banned from the airwaves for the revolutionary content of her work, and yet would ascend to the status of film legend? Sifting through previously untapped sources, author Jill Watts unravels the enigmatic life of Mae West, tracing her early years spent in the Brooklyn subculture of boxers and underworld figures, and follows her journey through burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and, finally, Hollywood, where she quickly became one of the big screen's most popular--and colorful--stars. Exploring West's penchant for contradiction and her carefully perpetuated paradoxes, Watts convincingly argues that Mae West borrowed heavily from African American culture, music, dance and humor, creating a subversive voice for herself by which she artfully challenged society and its assumptions regarding race, class and gender. Viewing West as a trickster, Watts demonstrates that by appropriating for her character the black tradition of double-speak and "signifying," West also may have hinted at her own African-American ancestry and the phenomenon of a black woman passing for white. This absolutely fascinating study is the first comprehensive, interpretive account of Mae West's life and work. It reveals a beloved icon as a radically subversive artist consciously creating her own complex image.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195105478/?tag=2022091-20
Watts, Jill Marie was born on May 28, 1958 in Pomona, California, United States. Daughter of Thomas H. and Doris Ruth (Hohlfeld) Watts.
Bachelor in History, University California, San Diego, 1981. Master of Arts in History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1983. Doctor of Philisophy in History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1989.
Assistant professor, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah., 1989-1991; assistant professor, California State University, San Marcos, 1991-1994; associate professor, California State University, San Marcos, since 1994; director history program, California State University, San Marcos, 1994-1996.
( Hattie McDaniel is best known for her performance as M...)
("Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae West inv...)
(Reprint)
Member American History Association, Organization American Historians, American Studies Association, Western Association Women Historians, Oral History Association, Popular Culture Association, American Culture Association.