"Self Made, the story of Madame CJWalker"

Although the series got mixed reviews (for reasons I agree with), I still recommend watching this four-part series about America’s first female millionaire (when a million was a lot of money). Octavia Spenser does a great job of playing the daughter of slaves rising to a position of wealth through her hair products. It’s advertised as “based on” which means that the story details aren’t entirely true. Much of the dramatic tension is built by creating a fellow hair entrepreneur ( the very beautiful, light skinned Addie) as cruel and determined to destroy Walker’s business. She is depicted as desperate and eventually broke. The truth be known, the character Addie is in real life someone named Annie Malone who actually also became a millionaire through her hair products. I would have liked more development of Walker’s actual rise and business methods and less about what may or may not be soap operatic events of her personal life.