#ThrowbackThursday – 29 February
It’s 29 February, and that means it’s time for another edition of Throwback Thursday! Today, we’re taking a look back at three prominent events that went down on this day in history:
1692 – The “Witchery” of Salem
The Salem witch trials in Boston, Massachusetts was a notorious affair in which women (and some men, too) were accused of carrying out witchcraft.
It began on 29 February 1692 when complaints were officially lodged against three women – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and a slave named Tituba – for inflicting “enchantments” on two young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams (the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, respectively).
Parris and Williams began having fits that were deemed too extraordinary to be considered an effect of a medical malady. When other young girls in Salem Village began to experience the same fits, accusations of witchcraft were laid at the feet of Good and Osborne – two women who were of lower social standing – and Tituba, a slave owned by Reverend Parris himself.
A day after the complaints were made, the three women were arrested and put in jail. For the next several months, more and more people – including the likes of respected, upstanding members of the Salem Village community including Rebecca Nurse – were accused of witchcraft and put on trial. Out of the reported 140-200 people accused, 19 were executed by hanging.
Today, the witch trials are considered a dark stain on the history of Salem, with the victims of the trials exonerated by modern lawmakers.
1940 – Hattie McDaniel Bags an Oscar
On this day, actress Hattie McDaniel made history by becoming the first African American woman to win an Academy Award.
For her role as the domestic servant Mammy in the 1939 classic, “Gone with the Wind”, McDaniel won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the 12th Academy Awards, which were held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California on 29 February 1940.
Despite this achievement, McDaniel was still discriminated against due to the colour of her skin. In fact, she was seated separately from her co-stars at the Oscars.
Nevertheless, she gave a stirring acceptance speech: “This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of their awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble, and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you.”
Unfortunately, the rest of McDaniel’s filmography saw her being typecast as a domestic servant, which earned her ire from the African American community, who were unhappy about the way their ilk were pushed into stereotypical roles across all media types.
Nevertheless, McDaniel soldiered on. She even organised entertainment events for soldiers during World War II, and was a member/supporter of various organisations and causes such as the Hollywood Victory Committee, the American Women’s Voluntary Services and the Red Cross.
1960 – Welcome to the Playboy Club
What do bunnies, corsets and sirloin steaks have in common? That’s right – on this day, the first Playboy Club opened its doors on 29 February 1960!
Located at 116 E. Walton Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, the club was founded by Hugh Hefner, the owner of “Playboy” magazine.
“The original motivation for the Chicago Playboy Club was to have a place to hang out with friends,” Hefner wrote in a 2016 email to a Chicago newspaper. “My initial concern was how to recreate for club members the fantasy that was reflected in the pages of the magazine. As it turned out, we put it all together and they brought the fantasy with them.”
The “fantasy” mainly played out in the form of good-looking waitresses – AKA “Bunnies” – donning tight satin corsets, heels, and bunny-themed ears and tails, serving good food and alcoholic beverages in abundance.
“We were known for the sirloin steaks,” Richard Rosenzweig, an executive at Playboy Enterprises, told another Chicao outlet in 2018. “And people loved that the Bunnies were serving them.”
Pretty soon, the Playboy Club became a hotspot for high-end clientele and ordinary people looking for a good time. As Rosenweig put it, the club “was very warm, contemporary and a place to be seen and have a great deal of fun.” Pretty soon, other club branches were opened in and around major US cities.
In 1980, the original club relocated to Clark and Armitage in Lincoln Park. Six years later, however, it closed for good due to dwindling business. Other clubs followed suit until all of them had shut their doors in 1991.
