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 The film went on to became the biggest box officer earner in
U.S. movie history, according to figures adjusted for inflation
by Box Office Mojo.
The backstory of the movie will be put on display to commemorate
its 75th anniversary when the Harry Ransom Center at the
University of Texas opens an exhibit on Sept. 9 called "The
Making of Gone with the Wind" based on the massive collection of
material it houses from the movie's producer David O. Selznick.
The 300 items picked to go on display follow the three-year
journey in making the movie, relying on Selznick's document
collection, movie stills, storyboards and thousands of letters
from those who felt they had a personal stake in the movie that
redefined U.S. cinema.
Selznick was on a cruise when his company purchased the screen
rights to Margaret Mitchell's novel and was worried if he could
turn a movie on the Civil War into a hit about 75 years after
the fighting ended. The book quickly exceeded sales expectations
and became a runaway best seller, increasing expectations for
the movie.
"As time went on, Selznick starts to get this growing sense of
responsibility," said Steve Wilson, curator of film at the Harry
Ransom Center.
Within months of purchasing movie rights, Selznick's office was
inundated with letters from people making suggestions for
casting, seeking to audition for the role of Scarlett as well as
protests from those telling him not to make the movie because of
the racist overtones in Mitchell's novel.
For the racial issue, the exhibit documents how Selznick hears
from the NAACP, prominent black newspapers and the Ku Klux Klan.
Selznick decides he has "no desire to produce an anti-Negro
film," according to documents at the exhibit, and works to
ensure the most vitriolic racial epithets are removed from the
screenplay and that African-Americans do nothing illegal or
immoral in the movie.
Selznick, for the most part, skillfully steered his way through
the pressing racial issues of the day and Hattie McDaniel, who
played the maid Mammy in the movie, became the first
African-American to win an Academy Award.
But the movie has not aged well, many critics say, with
African-Americans portrayed as menial labor, beholden to the
slavery-era masters in roles that reinforced racial stereotypes.
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The controversies came quick and fast in the making of the movie,
which came under tight scrutiny from those enforcing the Motion
Picture Production Code.
Code officials waged one of their staunchest battles over the scene
where Melanie gives birth, firing off notes to have filmmakers
portray the experience as pleasant, and calling for the removal of
any depiction of the mother being in pain in a fly-infested room in
the Georgia heat.
As with the novel and movie, the exhibit pays a great deal of
attention to Scarlett and the nationwide casting to find the right
person for the role, eventually landed by Vivien Leigh.
Selznick received thousands of letters from those aspiring to play
the role. Many were from women who wrote that they identified with
Scarlett through their experiences of being poor, hungry and
desperate, according to Wilson.
"A lot of Scarlett’s concerns are concerns of the Depression,"
Wilson said.
The exhibit shows the tumultuous revisions to the screenplay, which
include a handwritten page from novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald that
did not make it to the final cut.
As one of the most elaborate and expensive productions neared its
end, Selznick sent his business partner a triumphant telegram.
"Sound the siren, Scarlett O'Hara completed her performance at noon
today," Selznick wrote, and rendered a line that could have been
used as Rhett's parting words.
"I am going on the boat... and you can all go to the devil."
(This story has been refiled to add missing word in last paragraph)
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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