The Making of Gone With The Wind

Front Cover
University of Texas Press, Sep 1, 2014 - Performing Arts - 352 pages

Gone With The Wind is one of the most popular movies of all time. To commemorate its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2014, The Making of Gone With The Wind presents more than 600 items from the archives of David O. Selznick, the film's producer, and his business partner John Hay "Jock" Whitney, which are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. These rarely seen materials, which are also being featured in a major 2014 exhibition at the Ransom Center, offer fans and film historians alike a must-have behind-the-camera view of the production of this classic.

Before a single frame of film was shot, Gone With The Wind was embroiled in controversy. There were serious concerns about how the film would depict race and violence in the Old South during the Civil War and Reconstruction. While Clark Gable was almost everyone's choice to play Rhett Butler, there was no clear favorite for Scarlett O'Hara. And then there was the huge challenge of turning Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize–winning epic into a manageable screenplay and producing it at a reasonable cost. The Making of Gone With The Wind tells these and other surprising stories with fascinating items from the Selznick archive, including on-set photographs, storyboards, correspondence and fan mail, production records, audition footage, gowns worn by Vivien Leigh as Scarlett, and Selznick's own notoriously detailed memos.

This inside view of the decisions and creative choices that shaped the production reaffirm that Gone With The Wind is perhaps the quintessential film of Hollywood's Golden Age and illustrate why it remains influential and controversial decades after it was released.

 

Selected pages

Contents

SPRING 1936
1
WINTER 19361937
14
SPRING 1937
22
SUMMER 1937
29
WINTER 19371938
40
SUMMER 1938
55
Next Picture
61
FEBRUARY 1939
111
Sam Wood Steps In
173
The Yankee Deserter
180
The PullBack Shot
188
Feeding Soldiers
199
Bonnies Death Ride
227
SUMMER 1939
234
FALL 1939
244
WINTER 1939
251

The Childbirth Scene
120
MARCH 1939
128
Flemings Version
149
APRIL 1939
159
The Hospital
165
SPRING 1940
273
APPENDIX DOCUMENT
281
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
325
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

9336 Washington Boulevard actors actress African American arrived Ashley Atlanta Bazaar scene auditions began Belle Birdwell Bonnie’s Boulevard Culver City California INTER-OFFICE COMMUNICATION camera cast characters Clark Gable close-ups color complete Concept painting contract costumes crew Culver City David deal delete dialogue director dress eliminate extras feel George Cukor girls going Hattie McDaniel Hollywood intermissions Jock Whitney John Kay Brown Klan Klune Kurtz LEFT Leslie Howard letter lunch Makeup Mammy Margaret Mitchell Melanie Melanie’s memo Mitchell’s morning motion picture Negro novel Olivia de Havilland play Scarlett Plunkett possible premiere rehearsed Rhett Butler RIGHT Scarlett Scarlett O’Hara screen test screenplay script Selznick International Pictures sequence Shearer shooting shot Sidney Howard star story studio suggest Susan Myrick Tara Tarleton Twins Technicolor theater tion Twelve Oaks Victor Fleming Vivien Leigh waltz Washington Boulevard Culver weeks William Cameron Menzies Wind women York

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Making of Gone With The Wind
AuthorSteve Wilson
ContributorRobert Osborne
Editionillustrated
PublisherUniversity of Texas Press, 2014
ISBN0292761260, 9780292761261
Length352 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / United States / 20th Century
Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism
Photography / Subjects & Themes / General
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan