A Year of Unprecedented Competition
Imagine a year where “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and “Stagecoach” all competed for Best Picture. That was the reality for the 1939 film year, celebrated at the Oscars in February 1940. The sheer quality on display
was staggering, creating a pressure-cooker environment. “Gone with the Wind” was the colossus, a Technicolor epic that had captivated the nation. It was expected to dominate, and it did, taking home a then-record eight competitive Oscars. Yet beneath its sweep lay a series of results that revealed the peculiar, and often political, nature of the early Academy. This wasn't just a celebration of art; it was a reflection of a studio system at the zenith of its power, where voting was anything but simple.
The Upset Nobody Saw Coming
The night's biggest shock was in the Best Actor category. Clark Gable, the undisputed King of Hollywood, was the presumptive winner for his iconic role as Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind.” It was considered the performance of his career in the biggest movie ever made. But the Oscar went to Robert Donat for “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” The win stunned the room. Donat, a British actor who famously disliked Hollywood, gave a deeply affecting performance, aging from a young teacher to an old man. Insiders point to a few factors. Donat’s transformative role was classic Oscar bait. Furthermore, with Britain just entering World War II, there was a palpable pro-British sentiment in Hollywood that may have swayed some voters. It was a victory for a subtle, heartfelt performance over a larger-than-life movie star turn, proving that not even the King of Hollywood was a sure thing.
How the Game Was Played
To understand the 1939 Oscars, you have to understand how voting worked. The Academy was originally conceived by studio bosses like Louis B. Mayer partly as a tool to manage labor and control their talent. In the late 1930s, the studios still held immense sway, aggressively campaigning for their films among Academy members. But the voting pool itself was a wild card. It wasn't just actors, directors, and writers. For a period, thousands of members of the Screen Extras Guild also had votes, adding a massive and unpredictable bloc to the electorate. This diluted the power of the more established branches and could lead to populist choices or strange outcomes. Furthermore, the winners were known ahead of time; the Academy gave the list to newspapers under embargo, but the Los Angeles Times broke it in 1940, publishing the results before the ceremony ended. This gaffe led to the sealed-envelope tradition that exists today.
A Historic Win in a Segregated Room
One of the night's most significant and enduring stories is Hattie McDaniel's win for Best Supporting Actress for playing Mammy in “Gone with the Wind.” She became the first African American to win an Academy Award, a monumental achievement. Her acceptance speech was humble and moving, stating her hope to be a "credit to my race and to the motion picture industry." But the victory was shadowed by the humiliating reality of segregation. The ceremony was held at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove, which had a strict no-Blacks policy. Producer David O. Selznick had to call in a special favor just to get her in the door. Even then, she was not allowed to sit with her co-stars at the “Gone with the Wind” table. Instead, she was seated at a small, separate table at the back of the room. This moment captured a painful contradiction: Hollywood was willing to award Black talent, but not to grant it equal dignity.
