When the Missouri History Museum’s lecture “Hollywood Versus History” took place on April 23, the top-rated Netflix limited series “Self Made: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker” had been streaming for a month.
But When Annie Malone historian Linda Nance and Madam CJ Walker biographer and descendent A’Lelia Bundles came together on Zoom to unpack the series inspired by Walker’s life, it was clear early on that both still felt a type of way.
“I would have loved for the mini-series to have portrayed the good things that happened between these women,” Nance said. “It would have been wonderful to come away with that, with all those eyes looking at this material about these two entrepreneurial African American women.”
The limited series starring Octavia Spencer, Blair Underwood, Tiffany Haddish and Carmen Ejogo faced instant backlash – especially in St. Louis because of the fictionalized adversarial relationship between Walker and “Addie Munroe.” Colorism and toxic competitiveness were worked into the film that featured the two women sharing the hair care turf in St. Louis in the early 20th century. Many perceived the story angle as a tarnish on the life and legacy of local icon Annie Malone.
“I was being personally targeted like ‘How could you let this happen?’ when I wrote about Annie Malone and I tried to talk about the facts about her in my book,” Bundles said. “I did research that others have not done in the late 1990s, and I have always – whenever I have written about her or talked about her – given her due as a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. I was as bothered as you by the misportrayal.”
Even before she introduced herself and gave an overview of the life and contributions of her great-great grandmother, Bundles felt the need to point out that the series contradicted the intentions she set out with when she began the decades’ long battle to get her book “On Her Own Ground:” brought to the screen.
“Many of you have seen ‘Self-Made’ and Linda Nance and I know that there is a lot about that series that is not true,” said Bundles. “That’s part of the reason we are here tonight to help set the record straight and tell you the real history of these two amazing women – Madame CJ Walker and Annie Malone.”
Bundles’ 2001 book “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker” provided the basis for the research for the film series. After 20 years of working to get the story adapted for cinema, Bundles candidly expressed she was none too pleased with the cinematic effort her writing inspired.
Efforts to bring the life of the beauty industry pioneer, who the Guinness Book of World Records gives the distinction of the first self-made female millionaire, had been nearly 40 years in the making.
“There had been options as early as 1982 when Alex Haley was interested in it,” Bundles said. “Once it was optioned this time, it was assigned to a writer and showrunners for day-to-day production and the head writer had a very different view of what the story should be than I did.”
When Bundles talked with series co-creator and head writer Nicole Asher three years ago, she said Asher told her that her vision was to have a competition and rivalry between Madam Walker and Annie Malone.
“I told her, ‘I don’t think that was the centerpiece of either of those women’s lives. She did not like what I said and therefore left me out of the conversation,” Bundles said. “By the time I had seen the scripts, because I had script review, that had been approved by the studio as the centerpiece.”
Bundles felt that Spencer, who was also among the producers of “Self-Made” was fantastic in terms of embodying the courage of Madam Walker, her tenacity and what it takes to build a business. But the direction of the series undermined the life of Walker and the woman who introduced Walker to the hair care industry.
“I think that it is unfortunate that the scriptwriter decided that there would be this catfight between two women,” Bundles said. “She changed the name to Addie Munroe, but I don’t think anyone was fooled – and the character was nothing like the real Annie Malone.”
Nance, who founded the Annie Malone Historical Society, agreed.
“I am glad that we are seeing something about African Americans building businesses, but there were many, many other ways to tell the story of this triumphant pioneer of the modern hair care industry, philanthropist and political activist,” Nance said. “She was a very positive woman, a very spiritual woman – very much unlike the character in the miniseries. She was a very kind woman. If anything, I would want people to know that she focused on that until the day she died.”
Walker and Malone’s lives had many parallels. Both were among the first generation of African Americans to be born after the abolition of slavery. Both were orphaned as children and rose from poverty to build hair care empires that still influence the industry today. And both worked relentlessly through their business interests to empower African American women.
“They were both very active in National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and they lived the motto in my opinion – which was lifting as we climb,” Nance said. “They were very successful at pulling women up all over the world to help them accomplish their dreams. That was a relationship that was far beyond what you saw in that miniseries. Not capturing that was a disservice to both women in my opinion.”
Nance then went on to say that she felt that Bundles has attempted to erase the legacy of Malone – and said that without Malone there probably wouldn’t have been a Madam CJ Walker.
“I could have left her out of that book, and nobody would have known,” Bundles clapped back. “But I intentionally included material that I found about her. And there are Malone scholars who credit the work that I’ve done.”
Nance isn’t one of them.
“There are many, many statements made in portions of your book that don’t really credit Annie Malone,” Nance said. “Of course, we both feel differently – because I guess we have a bit of rivalry going on of our own.”
Bundles pivoted back to the series.
“We can all agree that there was a lot about the miniseries that really did not tell the story,” Bundles said. “That’s something that Hollywood made a decision about that I really disagree with and I raised that during the scripting process. I will tell you that it was toned down from what it could have been. I objected to this from the very beginning.
“This has been a learning experience for the people who were involved because they probably thought they could do that, and nobody would complain.”
