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.

Windy Wednesday: Scarlett Makes Her Entrance!

Audiences waited three years to see the Margaret Mitchell novel, Gone with the Wind, hit the big screen. A dramatic opening tracking shot increased the anticipation by initially hiding the book’s main character, Scarlett O’Hara, from view. As Brent Tarleton, Fred Crane blocked Vivien until he stepped aside revealing the youthful face of the girl who had “the smallest waist in three counties.”



Producer David O’Selznick labored over the opening scene. In order to give audiences just the right touch, the scene was filmed five times. The first was tackled on January 26, 1939. According to the book Scarlett Fever by William Pratt, the first day of filming (under the guidance of director George Cukor) did not yield anything that was usable.

The curly hairdos of the Tarletons photographed bright orange. Four days later the scenes were repeated, with the actors’ hair styles modified to eliminate their curls and heavily darkened as well (photo below).

In the book, the Tarleton brothers (Brent & Stuart) were twins. Fred Crane and George Reeves were obviously not lookalikes. For the film adaptation, the “twins” were simply referred to as The Tarletons. You’ll also note that Miss Leigh was wearing an entirely different outfit than what is seen in the finished film. In the book, Scarlett wears this green sprig muslin dress and does so again the next day at the Wilkes’ barbecue because she knows that the Tarletons are fond of it.



On March 1, under Victor Fleming’s direction (Cukor had been let go from the film), a third attempt at the opening scene was shot. According to Pratt:

The two young actors were quite inexperienced and one things was soon evident: it wouldn’t be the last time this unlucky first scene was to be attempted.



For the next scene where Scarlett greets her father, played by Thomas Mitchell, Leigh was still wearing the green muslin dress.



However, by June 14th, Selznick had decided that Scarlett should be wearing this white frilly concoction seen below instead, thus making all of the footage shot beforehand worthless.



In the film, Leigh utters the line “I wore this old dress just because I thought you liked it” at the Wilkes’ barbecue to the Tarletons, which is a reference to the fact that that she had originally worn it in the opening scene. Oops.



On Monday, June 26, 1939 and the following day, Leigh, Crane, and Reeves tried the opening scene a fourth time. Tired from the previous months of around-the-clock shooting, Leigh did not look anything like a vivacious sixteen year old. Even the dimwitted Tarleton brothers weren’t fooled!



Finally, on October 12th, Selznick was happy with the fifth and final attempt at this scene and that’s the one we see today. While you might think it ridiculous that it took five separate times to get one sequence just right, it was Selznick’s attention to detail that made “Gone with the Wind” such a blockbuster hit.



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