Hattie McDaniel
I developed and now manage the website for the late award winning actress, Hattie McDaniel on behalf of her estate. Hattie had so many talents as an actress, signer, songwriter and comedian, who was the first African-American performer to win an Academy Award.
It was a joy to develop the website for Hattie. I read her biography, “Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood” and was fascinated by her life which included much more than her famous roles in movies. She was a trailblazer and I admire her greatly.
The styling included black and white colors, along with a blue highlight to honor the blue dress she wore when she won her academy award and an icon of a flower to represent the Gardenia she wore.
One of the best legacies of Hattie were her quotes, which I highlighted on the home page and created a page full of them. I would highly recommend you read them when you need inspiration and a chuckle.
Her estate wanted to list her touchstone movies as well as write stories about her role in that film, so I built a custom post type to provide that feature (discussed below).
For Hattie McDaniel’s website, I created custom posts for her filmography. WordPress custom post types add extra data allowing for the organization of any information needed for a website.
Her estate wanted to write background information about some of Hattie’s movies, so I created a custom post for her filmography.
Below is an example of a Film custom post type. It shows a post for Gone with the Wind with the following extra information:
- Film Release Date
- Hattie’s Role
- A link to the IMDB page for the film
When the film is edited, it looks like a standard post, with two exceptions. The first one is the featured image, it has been renamed to Film Cover Art to make it clear where to update that image.
Down at the bottom, we can see the extra data that can be updated. The Year the movie was released, the Role Hattie played and the More Link for more information, such as an IMDB link.
Custom Post types are a powerful tool in WordPress custom theme development. I can build a tailored website, prominently displaying your work, with whatever information is needed, just like Hattie McDaniel’s films.