85 Years Ago In Atlanta…

Today marks the 85th anniversary of the Atlanta premiere of “Gone with the Wind,” produced by David O. Selznick. Starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, it is a tale of survival, growth, and loss, filmed in glorious Technicolor. The art shown above and below are by Wilbur Kurtz and were used in the trailer for the film.



Below is a 1939 storyboard of Tara, Scarlett O’Hara’s home, by Dorothea Holt & Mac Johnson which I was able to see at the Margaret Mitchell Museum in Atlanta:



The production team faithfully recreated the art for the movie, as seen by these shots from the opening scenes of the film:



Leigh with Thomas Mitchell, who played her blustering land-loving father, Gerald O’Hara:



Storyboard art for the Atlanta Bazaar sequence, where Scarlett scandalously broke with the conventions of widowhood by dancing with Rhett Butler.



When Scarlett flirts with Rhett saying that she is dancing her reputation away, he replies: “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.”



At the Atlanta History Center, a photo of the premiere accompanies a first edition of the book, with dust jacket cover art by George Carlson. Author Margaret Mitchell felt that the cover should convey a “Southern sensibility”; Carlson was from New England his mother had once served as a housekeeper for northern Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. Oops.



In the film’s dramatic final shot, we see Scarlett silhouetted against a burning sunset sky:



Here’s what her costume looked like:



See more “Gone with the Wind” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: The GWTW Connection

While Shirley Temple was not part of the “Gone with the Wind” (1939) cast, she did work with a significant number of the actors from the Oscar winning David O. Selznick production, starting with Clark Gable. Who toured Shirley around the MGM lot in 1941 during her brief stint at the Tiffany of film studios? Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, and Judy Garland. Not a bad group of guides! 



Shirley also participated in the Greek War Relief Benefit at Grauman’s on February 8, 1941, which  included Gable. In the photo below you can see Frank Morgan (aka “The Wizard of Oz”), Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Dick Powell, and Reginald Owen in the back row. Seated in front: Madeleine Carroll, Samuel Goldwyn, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Shirley, and Myrna Loy. What a lineup!



Hattie McDaniel (shown below with Olivia DeHavilland and Vivien Leigh) won an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in “Gone with the Wind.”



Shirley worked with McDaniel a number of times, beginning with “The Little Colonel” (1935):



…and in another Selznick production, “Since You Went Away” (1944). Below is a still from a deleted scene:



Victor Jory (at left) played Jonas Wilkerson, the disgraced overseer at Tara who was fired for his illicit doings with “the white trash Slattery girl” (Isabel Jewell at right):



Jory (at left) costarred with Shirley in “Susannah of the Mounties” as yet another character with compromised morality:



When Scarlett’s famous drapery dress fails to get the money she needs from Rhett to save Tara, she focuses her attentions on her sister’s beau, Frank Kennedy (Carroll Nye, at left):



In the 1938 film, “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” Shirley feigns laryngitis to get out of a radio gig with her conniving stepfather:



Carroll Nye played the station radio announcer in that film:



Laura Hope Crews portrayed the scatter-brained Aunt Pittypat, hostess to Scarlett while she stayed in Atlanta.



In “The Blue Bird” (1940), Crews played the snooty Mrs. Luxury.



Harry Davenport was Dr. Meade, who left Scarlett to her own devices when it came to helping Melanie give birth. Apparently he was a doctor who did not make house calls!



In Shirley’s 1947 comedy, “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,” he played her great uncle, Judge Thaddeus Turner.



Leona Roberts was Mrs. Meade (the doctor’s wife) in “Wind.” As you can see by her withering look, she was not a fan of Scarlett’s!



In “The Blue Bird,” Roberts’ character warmed up to Shirley when she brought her daughter the gift of the blue bird.



Jane Darwell was the town gossip, Dolly Merriwether, in “Wind”:



Darwell had prominent roles in five Shirley movies: “Bright Eyes” (1934), “Curly Top” (1935), “Poor Little Rich Girl” (1936), “Captain January” (1936, pictured below), and “Little Miss Broadway” (1938).



Ward Bond was the gruff Yankee Captain Tom who kept his friend Rhett out of trouble:



He and Shirley worked together in John Ford’s “Fort Apache” (1948):



Irving Bacon was one of Rhett’s guards when he is detained in “jail”:



In “Young People” (1940), Bacon over-serves Shirley at the soda fountain. Bacon also had minor parts in “Since You Went Away” and “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer”



When Rhett and Scarlett have to evacuate Atlanta, they are surrounded by wounded Confederate soldiers doing the same.



Junior Coghlan had an uncredited part as a collapsing soldier.



Six years earlier, he played Shirley’s older brother in the Frolics of Youth short, “Merrily Yours” (1934).



UPDATE: I just realized that actor Paul Hurst is another Shirley/GWTW connection! In “Gone with the Wind,” Paul plays the Union deserter who attempts to rob a destitute Scarlett of the few items she has left from the already pillaged Tara.



Bad choice on his part, as his efforts yielded a bullet in the forehead from Scarlett.



In “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938), Paul plays a grumpy stage-father (below center) who is attempting to get his daughter (Mary McCarty) discovered on a radio show which Rebecca (Shirley) eventually gets instead. In real life, the actor took his own life on February 27, 1953 as a result of ill health.



Wow! That’s a lot of “Wind” connections. According to legend, Shirley was briefly considered for the part of Scarlett’s sisters, Careen. A role that minor for Shirley in 1939 would have been out of the question, especially for a loanout.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Vintage Pool Days

While the rest of the country is thinking of Fall, Southern Californians are sweating their #$%es off in record temperature heat. How about a dip in the pool to counter that? These first two images show starlets Mari Blanchard and Lori Wilson at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel pool, circa 1953.



The shot below shows the El Mirador Hotel pool. From the vintage caption (sorry, part of it is missing, so there are a few missing words):

PLAY TIME…For Betty Furness and Isabell Jewell, both Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer featured players…on the diving board at the swimming pool at the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs. Miss Furness having completed her movie, “The Kid From College” is enjoying a …December 13, 1934



The two actresses starred together in “Shadow of a Doubt,” released February 15, 1935, and yes, it was an MGM production. I could find nothing on “The Kid From College.” Jewell had a small but memorable part in “Gone with the Wind” as Emmy, the “poor white trash Slattery girl.” Shown below at right with Victor Jory and Vivien Leigh.



Just make sure you don’t stay in the pool too long, or you could end up like William Holden in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950).



See more photos at my main website.

Monday at The Dump

Although I had read that the Margaret Mitchell House was still closed, I hoped against hope that somehow things would work out that I could get inside once more. My last visit inside was in 2007 with my crappy little digital camera. It was time for some better photos! Unfortunately, it is still “under renovation.” Or something like that. Located at the corner of Peachtree and Tenth Streets, it was in a then-fashionable section of town. From the historic marker in front:

Completed in 1899 by Cornelius J. Sheehan, the Margaret Mitchell House was originally a single-family, Tudor Revival residence. In 1913, the house was relocated to the rear of the property and converted into a ten-unit apartment building, know as the Crescent Apartments, in 1919. In 1935, Margaret Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, moved into Apartment No. 1 where Mitchell wrote the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel Gone with the Wind. Today, the Margaret Mitchell House is a designated city landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a popular tourist destination, and home to the award-winning Literary Center at the Margaret Mitchell House.



The exterior now looks neat and tidy, but when she lived there, Mitchell referred to the place as “The Dump.” From the City of Atlanta website:

The Marsh's marriage started with them deeply in debt from John Marsh's prior illness but they were determined, in Margaret's words, "to live poor as hell and get out of this jam." Thus, they decided to take the small basement apartment that consisted of two rooms plus a kitchen, a bath and a porch. She called it "The Dump," probably more in response to the privilege of her own upbringing than to the actual condition of the building itself.



I was able to get up close and personal with the back of the house:






Peering in, I was able to get this shot:



What it looked like in 2007 when I was able to go inside:



It didn’t look like much was going on inside; it looked like the cleaning crew had gone in a hurry, leaving their equipment behind. Mitchell’s book has come under fire over the last few decades because of its portrayal of the Civil War and slavery. From the Atlanta History Center website:

Both the book and the movie depict a rosy myth of the Old South, casting the institution of slavery in a benevolent light. African Americans characters are also characterized as simple-minded and beholden to the white characters, most of whom are slaveholders.

What I remember from reading the book was that Mammy was one of the few people with integrity and smarts. I should probably read it again with fresh eyes and see how it fares in today’s world. Regardless, it would probably be a safe bet to say that the house has stayed closed longer than what was promised because of the controversy surrounding the author, her book, and the movie that followed.

See more Margaret Mitchell house in Atlanta photos at my main website.