Gone With the Wind wikipedia pages

Gone with the Wind(film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Gone with the Wind
A film poster showing a man and a woman in a passionate embrace.
Theatrical pre-release poster

Directed by
Victor Fleming
George Cukor(uncredited)
Sam Wood(uncredited)

Produced by
David O. Selznick
Screenplay by
Sidney Howard
Oliver H.P. Garrett (uncredited)
Ben Hecht(uncredited)
Barbara Keon (uncredited)
Jo Swerling(uncredited)

Based on
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Starring
Clark Gable
Vivien Leigh
Leslie Howard
Olivia de Havilland

Music by
Max Steiner
Cinematography
Ernest Haller
Lee Garmes(uncredited)

Editing by
Hal C. Kern
James E. Newcom

Studio
Selznick International Pictures
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by
Loew's, Inc.
Release dates
December 15, 1939(Atlantapremiere)

Running time
220 minutes
234–238 minutes (with overture, intermission, entr'acte, and exit music)

Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$3.85 million
Box office
$390 million
Gone with the Windis a 1939 American epichistoricalromancefilm adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 noveland produced by David O. Selznick, of Selznick International Pictures. Set in the 19th-century American South, the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivien Leigh, and her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes(Leslie Howard) who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton(Olivia de Havilland), and her marriage to Rhett Butler(Clark Gable). Set against the backdrop of the American Civil Warand Reconstruction era, the story is told from the perspective of white Southerners.
The production of the film was troubled from the start. Filming was delayed for two years due to David O. Selznick's determination to secure Clark Gable for the role of Rhett Butler, and the "search for Scarlett" led to 1,400 women being interviewed for the part. The original screenplay was written by Sidney Howard, but underwent many revisions by several writers in an attempt to get it down to a suitable length. The original director, George Cukor, was fired shortly after filming had begun and was replaced by Victor Fleming, who in turn was briefly replaced by Sam Wood.
The film received positive reviews upon its release in December 1939, although some reviewers found it dramatically lacking and bloated. The casting was widely praised and many reviewers found Vivien Leigh especially suited to her role as Scarlett. At the 12th Academy Awardsheld in 1940, it received ten Academy Awards(eight competitive, two honorary) from thirteen nominations, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Victor Fleming), Best Adapted Screenplay (posthumously awarded to Sidney Howard), Best Actress (Vivien Leigh) and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, becoming the first African-American to win an Academy Award). It set records for the total number of wins and nominations at the time. The film was immensely popular, becoming the highest-earning film made up to that point, and retained the record for over a quarter of a century. Adjusted for inflation, it is still the most successful film in box-office history.
The film has been criticized for its historical revisionism and glorification of slavery, but nevertheless it has been credited for triggering changes to the way African Americans are depicted on film. It was re-released periodically throughout the 20th century and became ingrained in popular culture. It has placed in the top ten of the American Film Institute's list of top 100 American filmssince the list's inception in 1998, and in 1989, Gone with the Windwas selected to be preserved by the National Film Registry.


Contents [hide]
1Plot
2Cast
3Production3.1Casting
3.2Screenplay
3.3Filming
3.4Music
4Release4.1Premiere and initial release
4.2Later releases
4.3Television and home video
5Reception5.1Critical response
5.2Accolades
5.3African-American reaction
5.4Box office
6Analysis6.1Critical re-evaluation
6.2Racial criticism
6.3Depiction of marital rape
7Legacy7.1In popular culture
7.2Sequel
7.3Recognition
8See also
9Notes
10References
11Further reading
12External links

Plot[edit]
Part 1
On the eve of the American Civil Warin 1861, Scarlett O'Haralives at Tara, her family's cotton plantationin Georgia, with her parents and two sisters. Scarlett learns that Ashley Wilkes—whom she secretly loves—is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and the engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks.
At the Twelve Oaks party, Scarlett notices that she is being admired by Rhett Butler, who has been disowned by his family. Rhett finds himself in further disfavor among the male guests when, during a discussion of the probability of war, he states that the South has no chance against the superior numbers and industrial might of the North. Scarlett secretly confesses to Ashley that she loves him, but he rebuffs her by responding that he and the sweet Melanie are more compatible. Afterwards, Rhett reveals to Scarlett he has overheard their conversation, but promises to keep her secret. The barbecue is disrupted by the declaration of war and the men rush to enlist. As Scarlett watches Ashley kiss Melanie goodbye from the upstairs window, Melanie's shy younger brother Charles asks for her hand in marriage before he goes. Though she does not love him, Scarlett consents, and they are married before he leaves to fight.
Scarlett is quickly widowed when Charles dies from a bout of pneumonia and measles while serving in the Confederate Army. Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlantato cheer her up, although the O'Haras' outspoken housemaid Mammy tells Scarlett she knows she is going there only to wait for Ashley's return. Scarlett, who should not attend a party while in deep mourning, attends a charity bazaar in Atlanta with Melanie. There, Scarlett is the object of shocked comments on the part of the elderly women who represent proper Atlanta society. Rhett, now a blockade runnerfor the Confederacy, makes a surprise appearance. To raise money for the Confederate war effort, gentlemen are invited to offer bids for ladies to dance with them. Rhett makes an inordinately large bid for Scarlett and, to the disapproval of the guests, Scarlett agrees to dance with him. As they dance, Rhett tells her he intends to win her, which she says will never happen.
The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburgin which many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. Scarlett makes another unsuccessful appeal to Ashley while he is visiting on Christmas furlough, although they do share a private and passionate kiss in the parlor on Christmas Day, just before he returns to war.
Eight months later, as the city is besieged by the Union Armyin the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie goes into premature and difficult labor. Keeping her promise to Ashley to take care of Melanie, Scarlett and her young house servant Prissy must deliver the child without medical assistance. Scarlett calls upon Rhett to bring her home to Tara immediately with Melanie, Prissy, and the baby. He appears with a horse and wagon and takes them out of the city through the burning depot and warehouse district. Instead of accompanying her all the way to Tara, he sends her on her way with a nearly dead horse, helplessly frail Melanie, her baby, and tearful Prissy, and with a passionate kiss as he goes off to fight. On her journey home, Scarlett finds Twelve Oaks burned, ruined and deserted. She is relieved to find Tara still standing but deserted by all except her parents, her sisters, and two servants: Mammy and Pork. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid feverand her father's mind has begun to fail under the strain. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself.
Part 2
Scarlett sets her family and servants to picking the cotton fields, facing many hardships along the way, including the killing of a Union deserter who attempts to rape her during a burglary. With the defeat of the Confederacy and war's end, Ashley returns, but finds he is of little help at Tara. When Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. Meanwhile, Scarlett's father dies after he is thrown from his horse in an attempt to chase away a scalawagfrom his property.
Scarlett realizes she cannot pay the rising taxes on Tara implemented by Reconstructionists, so pays a visit to Rhett in Atlanta. However, upon her visit, Rhett, now in jail, tells her his foreign bank accounts have been blocked, and that her attempt to get his money has been in vain. As Scarlett departs, she encounters her sister's fiancé, the middle-aged Frank Kennedy, who now owns a successful general store and lumber mill. Scarlett lies to Kennedy by saying Suellen got tired of waiting and married another beau, and after becoming Mrs. Frank Kennedy, Scarlett takes over his business and becomes wealthy. When Ashley is offered a job with a bank in the north, Scarlett uses emotional blackmail to persuade him to take over managing the mill.
Frank, Ashley, Rhett and several other accomplices make a night raid on a shanty townafter Scarlett narrowly escapes an attempted gang rapewhile driving through it alone, resulting in Frank's death. With Frank's funeral barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett and proposes marriage, and she accepts. They have a daughter whom Rhett names Bonnie Blue, but Scarlett, still pining for Ashley and chagrined at the perceived ruin of her figure, lets Rhett know that she wants no more children and that they will no longer share a bed.
When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett and Ashley are spied in an embrace by two gossips, including Ashley's sister India, who dislikes Scarlett. They eagerly spread the rumor, and Scarlett's reputation is again sullied. Later that evening, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett to attend a birthday party for Ashley. Incapable of believing anything bad of her beloved sister-in-law, Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false. After returning home from the party, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk, and they argue. The argument leads to marital rape, which causes Rhett to return the following day to apologize for his behavior and offer a divorce, which Scarlett rejects saying it would be a disgrace.
Rhett takes Bonnie on an extended trip to London, but cuts the trip short after Bonnie suffers a terrible nightmare. On their return Scarlett is delighted to see him, but he rebuffs her attempts at reconciliation. She informs him that she is pregnant, but an argument ensues, and an enraged Scarlett lunges at Rhett resulting in her falling down the stairs and suffering a miscarriage. As Scarlett is recovering, Bonnie dies while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Melanie visits their home to comfort them, but then collapses during a second pregnancy she was warned could kill her.
On her deathbed, Melanie asks Scarlett to look after Ashley for her, as Scarlett had looked after her for Ashley. With her dying breath, Melanie tells Scarlett to be kind to Rhett because he loves her. Outside, Ashley collapses in tears; while Scarlett consoles him, Rhett quickly leaves and goes home. Realizing that Ashley only ever truly loved Melanie, Scarlett dashes after Rhett to find him preparing to leave The Peachtree House for good. She pleads with him, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along, and that she never really loved Ashley. However, he refuses, saying that with Bonnie's death went any chance of reconciliation. As Rhett is about to walk out the door, Scarlett begs him to stay but to no avail, and he walks away into the early morning fog leaving Scarlett weeping on the staircase and vowing to one day win back his love.
Cast[edit]
Rather than ordered by conventional billing, the cast is broken down into three sections in the opening credits: the Tara plantation, Twelve Oaks, and Atlanta. The cast ordering for each group is by "in-universe" seniority; therefore Thomas Mitchell, who plays Gerald O'Hara, receives top-billing in the film credits as the head of O'Hara family, while Barbara O'Neil as his wife receives second billing and Vivien Leigh as the eldest daughter receives only third billing, despite having the most screen time. Similarly, Howard C. Hickman as John Wilkes receives billing over Leslie Howard who plays his son, and Clark Gable, who plays only a visitor at Twelve Oaks, receives relatively low billing in the cast list, despite being presented as the "star" of the film in all the promotional literature.[1]Following the death of Alicia Rhett in January, 2014, there are three surviving credited cast members from the film: Olivia de Havilland who played Melanie Wilkes; Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle Meriweather and Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes.[2]





Clark Gable



Vivien Leigh



Leslie Howard



Olivia de Havilland
Tara plantationThomas Mitchellas Gerald O'Hara
Barbara O'Neilas Ellen O'Hara (his wife)
Vivien Leighas Scarlett O'Hara(daughter)
Evelyn Keyesas Suellen O'Hara (daughter)
Ann Rutherfordas Carreen O'Hara (daughter)
George Reevesas Brent Tarleton (actually as Stuart)[nb 1]
Fred Craneas Stuart Tarleton (actually as Brent)[nb 1]
Hattie McDanielas Mammy (house servant)
Oscar Polkas Pork (house servant)
Butterfly McQueenas Prissy (house servant)
Victor Joryas Jonas Wilkerson (field overseer)
Everett Brownas Big Sam (field foreman)
At Twelve OaksHoward C. Hickmanas John Wilkes
Alicia Rhettas India Wilkes(his daughter)
Leslie Howardas Ashley Wilkes(his son)
Olivia de Havillandas Melanie Hamilton(Ashley's cousin)
Rand Brooksas Charles Hamilton(Melanie's brother)
Carroll Nyeas Frank Kennedy (the guest)
Clark Gableas Rhett Butler
In AtlantaLaura Hope Crewsas Aunt Pittypat Hamilton
Eddie Andersonas Uncle Peter (her coachman)
Harry Davenportas Doctor Meade
Leona Robertsas Mrs. Meade
Jane Darwellas Mrs. Merriwether
Ona Munsonas Belle Watling
Minor supporting rolesPaul Hurstas the Yankee deserter
Cammie King Conlonas Bonnie Blue Butler
J.M. Kerriganas Johnny Gallagher
Jackie Moranas Phil Meade
Lillian Kemble-Cooperas Bonnie's nurse in London
Marcella Martinas Cathleen Calvert
Mickey Kuhnas Beau Wilkes
Irving Baconas the Corporal
William Bakewellas the mounted officer
Isabel Jewellas Emmie Slattery
Eric Lindenas the amputation case
Ward Bondas Tom, the Yankee captain
Cliff Edwardsas the reminiscent soldier
Yakima Canuttas the renegade
Louis Jean Heydtas the hungry soldier holding Beau Wilkes
Olin Howlandas the carpetbagger businessman
Robert Elliottas the Yankee major
Mary Andersonas Maybelle Merriwether
Production[edit]
Before publication of the novel, several Hollywood executives and studios declined to create a film based on it, including Louis B. Mayerand Irving Thalbergat Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(MGM), Pandro Bermanat RKO Pictures, and David O. Selznickof Selznick International Pictures. Jack Warnerliked the story, but Warner Bros.'s biggest star Bette Daviswas uninterested, and Darryl Zanuckof 20th Century-Foxdid not offer enough money. Selznick changed his mind after his story editor Kay Brownand business partner John Hay Whitneyurged him to buy the film rights. In July 1936—a month after it was published—Selznick bought the rights for $50,000.[3][4][5]
Casting[edit]




Publicity photo of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh as Rhett and Scarlett
The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor. For the role of Rhett Butler, Selznick wanted Clark Gablefrom the start, but Gable was under contract to MGM, who never loaned him to other studios.[3]Gary Cooperwas Selznick's first choice, but Samuel Goldwyn—to whom Cooper was under contract—refused to loan him out.[6]Warner offered a package of Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havillandfor lead roles in return for the distribution rights.[7]By this time, Selznick was determined to get Gable and eventually struck a deal with MGM. Selznick's father-in-law, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer, offered in August 1938 to provide Gable and $1,250,000 for half of the film's budget but for a high price: Selznick would have to pay Gable's weekly salary, and half the profits would go to MGM while Loew's, Inc—MGM's parent company—would release the film.[3][6]
The arrangement to release through MGM meant delaying the start of production until the end of 1938, when Selznick's distribution deal with United Artistsconcluded.[6]Selznick used the delay to continue to revise the script and, more importantly, build publicity for the film by searching for the role of Scarlett. Selznick began a nationwide casting callthat interviewed 1,400 unknowns. The effort cost $100,000 and was useless for the film, but created "priceless" publicity.[3]Early frontrunners included Miriam Hopkinsand Tallulah Bankhead, who were regarded as possibilities by Selznick prior to the purchase of the film rights; Joan Crawford, who was signed to MGM, was also considered as a potential pairing with Gable. After a deal was struck with MGM, Selznick held discussions with Norma Shearer—who was MGM's top female star at the time—but she withdrew herself from consideration. Katharine Hepburnlobbied hard for the role with the support of her friend, George Cukor, who had been hired to direct, but she was vetoed by Selznick who felt she was not right for the part.[6][7][8]
Many famous—or soon-to-be-famous—actresses were considered, but only thirty-one women were actually screen-tested for Scarlett including Ardis Ankerson, Jean Arthur, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Barrymore, Joan Bennett, Nancy Coleman, Frances Dee, Ellen Drew(as Terry Ray), Paulette Goddard, Susan Hayward(under her real name of Edythe Marrenner), Vivien Leigh, Anita Louise, Haila Stoddard, Margaret Tallichet, Lana Turnerand Linda Watkins.[9]Although Margaret Mitchell refused to publicly name her choice, the actress who came closest to winning her approval was Miriam Hopkins, who Mitchell felt was just the right type of actress to play Scarlett as written in the book. However, Hopkins was in her mid-thirties at the time and was considered too old for the part.[6][7][8]Four actresses, including Jean Arthur and Joan Bennett, were still under consideration by December 1938; however, only two finalists, Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, were tested in Technicolor, both on December 20.[10]Goddard almost won the role, but controversy over her marriage with Charlie Chaplincaused Selznick to change his mind.[3]
Selznick had been quietly considering Vivien Leigh, a young English actress who was still little known in America, for the role of Scarlett since February 1938 when Selznick saw her in Fire Over Englandand A Yank at Oxford. Leigh's American agent was the London representative of the Myron Selznicktalent agency (headed by David Selznick's brother, one of the owners of Selznick International), and she had requested in February that her name be submitted for consideration as Scarlett. By the summer of 1938 the Selznicks were negotiating with Alexander Korda, to whom Leigh was under contract, for her services later that year.[11]Selznick's brother arranged for them to meet for the first time on the night of December 10, 1938, when the burning of Atlanta was filmed. In a letter to his wife two days later, Selznick admitted that Leigh was "the Scarlett dark horse", and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939.[12]Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and Irish."[13]
Screenplay[edit]
Of original screenplay writer Sidney Howard, film historian Joanne Yeck writes, "reducing the intricacies of Gone with the Wind's epic dimensions was a herculean task ... and Howard's first submission was far too long, and would have required at least six hours of film; ... [producer] Selznick wanted Howard to remain on the set to make revisions ... but Howard refused to leave New England [and] as a result, revisions were handled by a host of local writers".[14]Selznick dismissed director George Cukor three weeks into filming and sought out Victor Fleming, who was directing The Wizard of Ozat the time. Fleming was dissatisfied with the script, so Selznick brought in famed writer Ben Hechtto rewrite the entire screenplay within five days. Hecht returned to Howard's original draft and by the end of the week had succeeded in revising the entire first half of the script. Selznick undertook rewriting the second half himself but fell behind schedule, so Howard returned to work on the script for one week, reworking several key scenes in part two.[15]




David O. Selznick in 1940
"By the time of the film's release in 1939, there was some question as to who should receive screen credit," writes Yeck. "But despite the number of writers and changes, the final script was remarkably close to Howard's version. The fact that Howard's name alone appears on the credits may have been as much a gesture to his memory as to his writing, for in 1939 Sidney Howard died at age 48 in a farm-tractor accident, and before the movie's premiere."[14]Selznick, in a memo written in October 1939, discussed the film's writing credits: "[Y]ou can say frankly that of the comparatively small amount of material in the picture which is not from the book, most is my own personally, and the only original lines of dialog which are not my own are a few from Sidney Howard and a few from Ben Hecht and a couple more from John Van Druten. Offhand I doubt that there are ten original words of [Oliver] Garrett's in the whole script. As to construction, this is about eighty per cent my own, and the rest divided between Jo Swerlingand Sidney Howard, with Hecht having contributed materially to the construction of one sequence."[16]
According to Hecht biographer, William MacAdams, "At dawn on Sunday, February 20, 1939, David Selznick ... and director Victor Fleming shook Hecht awake to inform him he was on loan from MGM and must come with them immediately and go to work on Gone with the Wind, which Selznick had begun shooting five weeks before. It was costing Selznick $50,000 each day the film was on hold waiting for a final screenplay rewrite and time was of the essence. Hecht was in the middle of working on the film At the Circusfor the Marx Brothers. Recalling the episode in a letter to screenwriter friend Gene Fowler, he said he hadn't read the novel but Selznick and director Fleming could not wait for him to read it. They would act out scenes based on Sidney Howard's original script which needed to be rewritten in a hurry. Hecht wrote, "After each scene had been performed and discussed, I sat down at the typewriter and wrote it out. Selznick and Fleming, eager to continue with their acting, kept hurrying me. We worked in this fashion for seven days, putting in eighteen to twenty hours a day. Selznick refused to let us eat lunch, arguing that food would slow us up. He provided bananas and salted peanuts ... thus on the seventh day I had completed, unscathed, the first nine reels of the Civil War epic."
MacAdams writes, "It is impossible to determine exactly how much Hecht scripted ... In the official credits filed with the Screen Writers Guild, Sidney Howard was of course awarded the sole screen credit, but four other writers were appended ... Jo Swerling for contributing to the treatment, Oliver H. P. Garrett and Barbara Keon to screenplay construction, and Hecht, to dialogue ..."[17]
Filming[edit]
Principal photographybegan January 26, 1939, and ended on July 1, with post-production work continuing until November 11, 1939. Director George Cukor, with whom Selznick had a long working relationship, and who had spent almost two years in pre-production on Gone with the Wind, was replaced after less than three weeks of shooting.[7][nb 2]Selznick and Cukor had already disagreed over the pace of filming and the script,[7][18]but other explanations put Cukor's departure down to Gable's discomfort at working with him. Emanuel Levy, Cukor's biographer, claimed that Clark Gable had worked Hollywood's gay circuit as a hustlerand that Cukor knew of his past, so Gable used his influence to have him discharged.[20]Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland learned of Cukor's firing on the day the Atlanta bazaar scene was filmed, and the pair went to Selznick's office in full costume and implored him to change his mind. Victor Fleming, who was directing The Wizard of Oz, was called in from MGM to complete the picture, although Cukor continued privately to coach Leigh and De Havilland.[15]Another MGM director, Sam Wood, worked for two weeks in May when Fleming temporarily left the production due to exhaustion. Although some of Cukor's scenes were later reshot, Selznick estimated that "three solid reels" of his work remained in the picture. As of the end of principal photography, Cukor had undertaken eighteen days of filming, Fleming ninety-three, and Wood twenty-four.[7]


File:Burning of Atlanta.ogg


The "burning" of Atlanta from the film trailer
Cinematographer Lee Garmesbegan the production, but on March 11, 1939—after a month of shooting footage that Selznick and his associates regarded as "too dark"—was replaced with Ernest Haller, working with Technicolor cinematographer Ray Rennahan. Garmes completed the first third of the film—mostly everything prior to Melanie having the baby—but did not receive a credit.[21]Most of the filming was done on "the back forty" of Selznick International with all the location scenes being photographed in California, mostly in Los Angeles Countyor neighboring Ventura County.[22]Tara, the fictional Southern plantation house, existed only as a plywood and papier-mâché facade built on the "back forty" California studio lot.[23]For the burning of Atlanta, other false facades were built in front of the "back forty"'s many abandoned sets, and Selznick himself operated the controls for the explosives that burned them down.[3]Sources at the time put the estimated production costs at $3.85 million, making it the second most expensive film made up to that point, with only Ben-Hur(1925) having cost more.[24][nb 3]
Although legend persists that the Hays Officefined Selznick $5,000 for using the word "damn" in Butler's exit line, in fact the Motion Picture Associationboard passed an amendment to the Production Code on November 1, 1939, that forbade use of the words "hell" or "damn" except when their use "shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore ... or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste." With that amendment, the Production Code Administrationhad no further objection to Rhett's closing line.[26]
Music[edit]










"Tara's Theme" from the film trailer
To compose the score, Selznick chose Max Steiner, with whom he had worked at RKO Pictures in the early 1930s. Warner Bros.—who had contracted Steiner in 1936—agreed to lend him to Selznick. Steiner spent twelve weeks working on the score, the longest period that he had ever spent writing one, and at two hours and thirty-six minutes long it was also the longest that he had ever written. Five orchestrators were hired, including Hugo Friedhofer, Maurice de Packh, Bernard Kaun, Adolph Deutschand Reginald Bassett. The score is characterized by two love themes, one for Ashley's and Melanie's sweet love and another that evokes Scarlett's passion for Ashley, though notably there is no Scarlett and Rhett love theme. Steiner drew considerably on folk and patriotic music, which included Stephen Fostertunes such as "Louisiana Belle," "Dolly Day," "Ringo De Banjo," "Beautiful Dreamer," "Old Folks at Home," and "Katie Belle," which formed the basis of Scarlett's theme; other tunes that feature prominently are: "Marching through Georgia" by Henry Clay Work, "Dixie," "Garryowen" and "Bonnie Blue Flag." The theme that is most associated with the film today is the melody that accompanies Tara, the O'Hara plantation; in the early 1940s, "Tara's Theme" formed the musical basis of the song "My Own True Love" by Mack David. In all, there are ninety-nine separate pieces of music featured in the score. Due to the pressure of completing on time, Steiner received some assistance in composing from Friedhofer, Deutsch and Heinz Roemheld, and in addition, two short cues—by Franz Waxmanand William Axt—were taken from scores in the MGM library.[27]
Release[edit]
Premiere and initial release[edit]
On September 9, 1939, Selznick, his wife, Irene, investor John "Jock" Whitneyand film editor Hal Kern drove out to Riverside, Californiato preview it at the Fox Theatre. The film was still a rough cutat this stage, missing completed titles and lacking special optical effects. It ran for four hours and twenty-five minutes, but would later be cut down to under four hours for its proper release. A double billof Hawaiian Nightsand Beau Gestewas playing, and after the first feature it was announced that the theater would be screening a preview; the audience were informed they could leave but would not be readmitted once the film had begun, nor would phone calls be allowed once the theater had been sealed. When the title appeared on the screen the audience cheered, and after it had finished it received a standing ovation.[7][28]In his biography of Selznick, David Thomsonwrote that the audience's response before the film had even started "was the greatest moment of [Selznick's] life, the greatest victory and redemption of all his failings",[29]with Selznick describing the preview cards as "probably the most amazing any picture has ever had."[30]When Selznick was asked by the press in early September how he felt about the film, he said: "At noon I think it's divine, at midnight I think it's lousy. Sometimes I think it's the greatest picture ever made. But if it's only a great picture, I'll still be satisfied."[24]
One million people came to Atlanta for the film's premiere at the Loew's Grand Theatreon December 15, 1939. It was the climax of three days of festivities hosted by Mayor William B. Hartsfield, which included a parade of limousines featuring stars from the film, receptions, thousands of Confederate flags and a costume ball. Eurith D. Rivers, the governor of Georgia, declared December 15 a state holiday. An estimated three hundred thousand residents and visitors to Atlanta lined the streets for up to seven miles to watch a procession of limousines bring the stars from the airport. Only Leslie Howard and Victor Fleming chose not to attend: Howard had returned to England due to the outbreak of World War II, and Fleming had fallen out with Selznick and declined to attend any of the premieres.[24][30]Hattie McDaniel was also absent, as she and the other black actors from the film were prevented from attending the premiere due to Georgia's Jim Crowlaws, which would have kept them from sitting with the white members of the cast. Upon learning that McDaniel had been barred from the premiere, Clark Gable threatened to boycott the event, but McDaniel convinced him to attend.[31]President Jimmy Carterwould later recall it as "the biggest event to happen in the South in my lifetime."[32]Premieres in New York and Los Angeles followed, the latter attended by some of the actresses that had been considered for the part of Scarlett, among them Paulette Goddard, Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford.[30]
From December 1939 to July 1940, the film played only advance-ticket road showengagements at a limited number of theaters at prices upwards of $1—more than double the price of a regular first-run feature—with MGM collecting an unprecedented 70 percent of the box office receipts (as opposed to the typical 30–35 percent of the period). After reaching saturation as a roadshow, MGM revised its terms to a 50 percent cut and halved the prices, before it finally entered general release in 1941 at "popular" prices.[33]Along with its distribution and advertising costs, total expenditure on the film was as high as $7 million.[30][34]
Later releases[edit]




1967 re-release poster
In 1942, Selznick liquidated his company for tax reasons, and sold his share in Gone with the Windto his business partner, John Whitney, for $500,000. In turn, Whitney sold it on to MGM for $2.8 million, so that the studio more or less owned the film outright.[34]MGM first re-released the film in 1947, and again in 1954;[7]the 1954 reissue was the first time the film was shown in widescreen, compromising the original Academy ratioand cropping the top and bottom to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1. In doing so, a number of shots were optically re-framed and cut into the three-strip camera negatives, forever altering five shots in the film.[35]A 1961 release commemorated the centennialanniversary of the start of the Civil War, and included a gala "premiere" at the Loew's Grand Theater. It was attended by Selznick and many other stars of the film, including Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland;[36]Clark Gable had died the previous year.[37]For its 1967 re-release, it was blown up to 70mm,[7]and issued with updated poster artwork featuring Gable—with his white shirt ripped open—holding Leigh against a backdrop of orange flames.[36]There were further re-releases in 1971, 1974 and 1989; for the fiftieth anniversary reissue in 1989, it was given a complete audio and video restoration. It was released theatrically one more time in the United States, in 1998.[38][39]In 2013, a 4Kdigital restorationwas released in the United Kingdom to coincide with Vivien Leigh's centenary.[40]
Television and home video[edit]
The film received its world television premiere on the HBOcable network on June 11, 1976, and played on the channel for a total of fourteen times throughout the rest of the month. It made its network televisiondebut in November later that year: NBCpaid $5 million for a one-off airing, and it was broadcast in two parts on successive evenings. It became at that time the highest-rated television programever presented on a single network, watched by 47.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 65 percent of television viewers. In 1978, CBSsigned a deal worth $35 million to broadcast the film twenty times over as many years.[15][39]Turner Entertainmentacquired the MGM film library in 1986, but the deal did not include the television rights to Gone with the Wind, which were still held by CBS. A deal was struck in which the rights were returned to Turner Entertainment and CBS's broadcast rights to The Wizard of Ozwere extended.[15]It was used to launch two cable channels owned by Turner Broadcasting: TNT(1988) and Turner Classic Movies(1994).[41][42]It debuted on videocassettein March 1985, where it placed second in the sales charts,[15]and has since been released on DVDand Blu-ray Discformats.[36]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
Gone with the Windwas well received upon its release, with most consumer magazines and newspapers giving it generally excellent reviews.[7]However, while its production values, technical achievements and scale of ambition were universally recognized, some of the more notable reviewers of the time found the film to be dramatically lacking. Frank S. Nugentfor the The New York Timesbest summed up the general sentiment by acknowledging that while it was the most ambitious film production made up to that point, it probably was not the greatest film ever made, but nevertheless found it to be an "interesting story beautifully told".[43]Franz Hoellering of The Nationwas of the same opinion: "The result is a film which is a major event in the history of the industry but only a minor achievement in motion-picture art. There are moments when the two categories meet on good terms, but the long stretches between are filled with mere spectacular efficiency."[44]
“ The result is a film which is a major event in the history of the industry but only a minor achievement in motion-picture art. ”
—Franz Hoellering, reviewer for The Nation

While the film was praised for its fidelity to the novel,[43]this aspect was also singled out as the main factor in contributing to the bloated running time, which many critics felt was to the detriment of the overall dramatic impact.[45]John C. Flinn wrote for Varietythat Selznick had "left too much in", and that as entertainment, the film would have benefitted if repetitious scenes and dialog from the latter part of the story had been trimmed.[45]The Manchester Guardianfelt that the film's one serious drawback was that the story lacked the epic quality to justify the outlay of time, and found the second half which focuses on Scarlett's "irrelevant marriages" and "domestic squabbles" mostly superfluous, and the sole reason for their inclusion had been "simply because Margaret Mitchell wrote it that way". The Guardianbelieved that if "the story had been cut short and tidied up at the point marked by the interval, and if the personal drama had been made subservient to a cinematic treatment of the central theme—the collapse and devastation of the Old South—then Gone With the Windmight have been a really great film."[46]Likewise, Hoellering also found the second half of the film to be weaker than the first half: identifying the Civil War to be the driving force of the first part while the characters dominate in the second part, he concluded this is where the main fault of the picture lay, commenting that "the characters alone do not suffice". Despite many excellent scenes, he considered the drama to be unconvincing and that the "psychological development" had been neglected.[44]
Much of the praise was reserved for the impeccable casting, with Vivien Leigh in particular being singled out for her performance as Scarlett. Nugent described her as the "pivot of the picture" and believed her to be "so perfectly designed for the part by art and nature that any other actress in the role would be inconceivable".[43]Similarly, Hoellering found her "perfect" in "appearance and movements"; he felt her acting best when she was allowed to "accentuate the split personality she portrays", and thought she was particularly effective in such moments of characterization like the morning after the marital rape scene.[44]Flinn also found Leigh suited to the role physically, and felt she was best in the scenes where she displays courage and determination, such as the escape from Atlanta, and when Scarlett kills a Yankee deserter.[45]Of Clark Gable's performance as Rhett Butler, Flinn felt the characterization was "as close to Miss Mitchell's conception—and the audience's—as might be imagined",[45]a view which Nugent concurred with,[43]although Hoellering felt that Gable didn't quite convince in the closing scenes, as Rhett walks out on Scarlett in disgust.[44]Of the other principal cast members, both Hoellering and Flinn found Leslie Howard to be "convincing" as the weak-willed Ashley, with Flinn identifying Olivia de Havilland as a "standout" as Melanie;[44][45]Nugent was also especially taken with de Havilland's performance, describing it as a "gracious, dignified, tender gem of characterization".[43]Hattie McDaniel's performance as Mammy was singled out for praise by many critics: Nugent believed she gave the best performance in the film after Vivien Leigh,[43]with Flinn placing it third after Leigh's and Gable's performances.[45]
Accolades[edit]
At the 12th Academy Awardsheld in 1940, Gone with the Windset a record for Academy Awardwins and nominations, winning in eight of the competitive categories it was nominated in, from a total of thirteen nominations. It won for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Interior Decoration and Best Editing, and received two further honorary awards for its use of equipment and color (it also became the first color film to win Best Picture).[47][48]Its record of eight competitive wins stood until Gigi(1958) won nine, and its overall record of ten was broken by Ben-Hur(1959) which won eleven.[49]Gone with the Windalso held the record for most nominations until All About Eve(1950) secured fourteen.[8]It was the longest American sound film made up to that point, and may still hold the record of the longest Best Picture winner depending on how it is interpreted.[50]The running time for Gone with the Windis just under 221 minutes, while Lawrence of Arabia(1962) runs for just over 222 minutes; however, including the overture, intermission, entr'acte, and exit music, Gone with the Windlasts for 234 minutes (although some sources put its full length at 238 minutes) while Lawrence of Arabiacomes in slightly shorter at 232 minutes with its additional components.[51][52]
Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Academy Award—beating out her co-star Olivia de Havilland who was also nominated in the same category—but was racially segregatedfrom her co-stars at the awards ceremony at the Coconut Grove; she and her escort were made to sit at a separate table at the back of the room.[53]Meanwhile, screenwriter Sidney Howard became the first posthumousOscar winner, Selznick personally received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Awardfor his career achievements, and Vivien Leigh won the New York Film Critics Awardfor Best Actress.[8][47]
Academy Award wins and nominations

Award
Recipient(s)
Result

Best Picture
Selznick International Pictures Won
Best Director
Victor Fleming Won
Best Actor
Clark Gable
Winner was Robert Donatfor Goodbye, Mr. Chips Nominated
Best Actress
Vivien Leigh Won
Best Adapted Screenplay Sidney Howard Won
Best Supporting Actress
Hattie McDaniel Won
Best Supporting Actress
Olivia de Havilland Nominated
Best Cinematography, Color
Ernest Hallerand Ray Rennahan Won
Best Film Editing
Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom Won
Best Art Direction
Lyle Wheeler Won
Best Visual Effects
Jack Cosgrove, Fred Albinand Arthur Johns
Winners were Fred Sersenand E. H. Hansenfor The Rains Came Nominated
Best Music, Original Score
Max Steiner
Winner was Herbert Stothartfor The Wizard of Oz Nominated
Best Sound Recording
Thomas T. Moulton(Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department)
Winner was Bernard B. Brown (Universal Studio Sound Department) for When Tomorrow Comes Nominated
Special Award
William Cameron Menzies
For outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind. Honorary
Technical Achievement Award
Don Musgrave and Selznick International Pictures
For pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind. Honorary
African-American reaction[edit]




Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American Oscar winner
Black commentators criticised the film for its depiction of black people and its glorification of slavery. Carlton Moss, a black dramatist, complained in an open letter that whereas The Birth of a Nationwas a "frontal attack on American history and the Negro people", Gone with the Windwas a "rear attack on the same". He went on to dismiss it as a "nostalgic plea for sympathy for a still living cause of Southern reaction". Moss further criticized the stereotypical black characterizations, such as the "shiftless and dull-witted Pork", the "indolent and thoroughly irresponsible Prissy", Big Sam's "radiant acceptance of slavery", and Mammy with her "constant haranguing and doting on every wish of Scarlett".[54]Following Hattie McDaniel's Oscar win, Walter Francis White, leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, accused her of being an Uncle Tom. McDaniel responded that she would "rather make seven hundred dollars a week playing a maid than seven dollars being one"; she further questioned White's qualification to speak on behalf of blacks, since he was light-skinned and only one-eighth black.[53]
Opinion in the black community was generally divided upon release, with the film being called by some a "weapon of terror against black America" and an insult to black audiences, and demonstrations were held in various cities.[53]Even so, some sections of the black community recognized McDaniel's achievements to be representative of progression: some African-Americans crossed picket lines and praised McDaniel's warm and witty characterization, while others hoped that the industry's recognition of her work would lead to increased visibility on screen for other black actors. In its editorial congratulation to McDaniel on winning her Academy Award, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Lifeused the film as reminder of the "limit" put on black aspiration by old prejudices.[53][54]Malcolm Xwould later recall that "when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug".[55]
Box office[edit]
Upon its release, Gone with the Windbroke attendance records everywhere. At the Capitol Theatrein New York alone, it was averaging eleven thousand admissions per day in late December,[33]and within four years of its release had sold an estimated sixty million tickets across the United States—sales equivalent to just under half the population at the time.[56][57]It repeated its success overseas, and was a sensational hit during the Blitzin London, opening in April 1940 and playing for four years.[58]Its worldwide distribution returned a gross rental(the studio's share of the box office gross) of $32 million during its initial release, making it the most profitable film ever made up to that point.[8]
Even though it earned its investors roughly twice as much as the previous record-holder, The Birth of a Nation,[59][60]the box-officeperformances of the two films were likely much closer. The bulk of the earnings from Gone with the Windcame from its roadshow and first-run engagements, which represented 70 percent and 50 percent of the box-office gross respectively, before entering general release (which at the time typically saw the distributor's share set at 30–35 percent of the gross).[33]In the case of The Birth of a Nation, its distributor, Epoch, sold off many of its distribution territories on a "states rights" basis—which typically amounted to 10 percent of the box-office gross—and Epoch's accounts are only indicative of its own profits from the film, and not the local distributors. Carl E. Milliken, secretary of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, estimated that The Birth of a Nationhad been seen by fifty million people by 1930.[61][62]
When it was re-released in 1947, it earned an impressive $5 million rental in the United States and Canada, and was one of the top ten releases of the year.[34][59]Successful re-releases in 1954 and 1961 enabled it to retain its position as the industry's top earner, despite strong challenges from more recent films such as Ben-Hur,[63]but it was finally overtaken by The Sound of Musicin 1966.[64]The 1967 reissue was unusual in that MGM opted to roadshow it, a decision that turned it into the most successful re-release in the history of the industry. It generated a box-office gross of $68 million, making it MGM's most lucrative picture from the latter half of the decade.[65]MGM earned a rental of $41 million from the release,[66]with the U.S. and Canadian share amounting to over $30 million, placing it second only to The Graduatefor that year.[59][66]Including its $6.7 million rental from the 1961 reissue,[67]it was the fourth highest-earner of the decade in the North American market, with only The Sound of Music, The Graduateand Doctor Zhivagomaking more for their distributors.[59]A further re-release in 1971 allowed it to briefly recapture the record from The Sound of Music, bringing its total worldwide gross rental to about $116 million by the end of 1971—more than trebling its earnings from its initial release—before losing the record again the following year to The Godfather.[39][68]
Across all releases, it is estimated that Gone with the Windhas sold over 200 million tickets in the United States and Canada,[56]and 35 million tickets in the United Kingdom,[69]generating more theater admissions in those territories than any other film.[70][71]In total, Gone with the Windhas grossed over $390 million globally at the box office;[72]Turner Entertainment estimates the gross to be equivalent to approximately $3.3 billion when adjusted for inflationto current prices,[8]a figure that Guinness World Recordsalso arrived at in 2011, making it the most successful film in cinema history.[73]
Analysis[edit]
Critical re-evaluation[edit]




First Archivist of the United States R. D. W. Connor receiving the film Gone with the Windfrom Senator Walter F. George of Georgia (on the left) and Loew's Eastern Division Manager Carter Barron, 1941
In revisiting the film in the 1970s, Arthur Schlesingernoted that Hollywood films generally age well, revealing an unexpected depth or integrity, but in the case of Gone with the Windtime has not treated it kindly.[74]Richard Schickelposits that one measure of a film's quality is to ask what you can remember of it, and the film falls down in this regard: unforgettable imagery and dialogue is simply not present.[75]Stanley Kauffmann, likewise, also found the film to be a largely forgettable experience, claiming he could only remember two scenes vividly.[76]Both Schickel and Schlesinger put this down to it being "badly written", in turn describing the dialogue as "flowery" and possessing a "picture postcard" sensibility.[74][75]Schickel also believes the film fails as popular art, in that it has limited rewatch value—a sentiment that Kauffmann also concurs with, stating that having watched it twice he hopes "never to see it again: twice is twice as much as any lifetime needs".[75][76]Both Schickel and Andrew Sarrisidentify the film's main failing is in possessing a producer's sensibility rather than an artistic one: having gone through so many directors and writers the film does not carry a sense of being "created" or "directed", but rather having emerged "steaming from the crowded kitchen", where the main creative force was a producer's obsession in making the film as literally faithful to the novel as possible.[75][77]
Sarris concedes that despite its artistic failings, the film does hold a mandate around the world as the "single most beloved entertainment ever produced".[77]Judith Cristobserves that kitsch aside, the film is "undoubtedly still the best and most durable piece of popular entertainment to have come off the Hollywood assembly lines", the product of a showman with "taste and intelligence".[78]Schlesinger notes that the first half of the film does have a "sweep and vigor" that aspires to its epic theme, but—finding agreement with the film's contemporary criticisms—the personal lives take over in the second half, and it ends up losing its theme in unconvincing sentimentality.[74]Kauffmann also finds interesting parallels with The Godfather, which had just replaced Gone with the Windas the highest-grosser at the time: both were produced from "ultra-American" best-selling novels, both live within codes of honor that are romanticized, and both in essence offer cultural fabrication or revisionism.[76]
Racial criticism[edit]
Gone with the Windis arguably one of the most influential films ever made in perpetuating Civil War myths and black stereotypes.[79]David Reynoldswrites that "The white women are elegant, their menfolk noble or at least dashing. And, in the background, the black slaves are mostly dutiful and content, clearly incapable of an independent existence." Reynolds likened Gone with the Windto The Birth of a Nationand other re-imaginings of the South during the era of segregation, in which white Southerners are portrayed as defending traditional values and the issue of slavery is largely ignored.[55]The film has been described as a "regression" that promotes the myth of the black rapist and the honourable and defensive role of the Ku Klux Klanduring Reconstruction.[80]For decades it has shaped basic perceptions of black and white Americans, purporting to tell American history, but in reality is a "social propaganda" film offering a white supremacistversion of the past.[79]
Despite its factual inaccuracies and misrepresentation of the Reconstruction period, it nevertheless reflects contemporary interpretations common throughout the early twentieth century. One pervasive viewpoint argued by academics is reflected in a brief scene in which Mammy fends off a leering freedman: a government official can be heard offering bribes to the emancipated slaves for their votes. The clear inference is that freedmen are ignorant about politics and unprepared for freedom, unwittingly becoming the tools of corrupt Reconstruction officials. While perpetuating some Lost Causemyths, the film makes concessions in regards to others. After the attack on Scarlett in the shanty town, a group of men including Scarlett's husband Frank, Rhett Butler and Ashley raid the town; in the novel they belong to the Ku Klux Klan, representing the common trope of protecting the white woman's virtue, but the filmmakers consciously neutralize the presence of the Klan in the film by referring to it only as a "political meeting".[81]
Thomas Cripps has argued that the film in some respects undercuts racial stereotypes;[82]in particular, the film created greater engagement between Hollywood and black audiences,[82]with dozens of movies making small gestures in recognition of the emerging trend.[54]Only a few weeks after its initial run, a story editor at Warner wrote a memo to Walter Wangerabout Mississippi Belle, a script that contained the worst excesses of plantation films, suggesting that Gone with the Windhad made the film "unproducible". More than any film since The Birth of a Nation, it unleashed a variety of social forces that foreshadowed an alliance of white liberals and blacks who encouraged the expectation that blacks would one day achieve equality. According to Cripps, the film eventually became a template for measuring social change.[54]
Depiction of marital rape[edit]
One of the most notorious and widely condemned scenes in Gone with the Windis what the law today would define as "marital rape".[83][84]The scene begins with Scarlett and Rhett at the bottom of the staircase, where he begins to kiss her, refusing to be told 'no' by the struggling and frightened Scarlett;[85][86]Rhett overcomes her resistance and carries her up the stairs to the bedroom,[85][86]where the audience is left in no doubt that she will "get what's coming to her".[87]The next scene, the following morning, shows Scarlett glowing with barely suppressed sexual satisfaction;[85][86][87]Rhett apologizes for his behavior, blaming it on his drinking.[85]The scene combines romance and rape by making them indistinguishable from each other,[85]reinforcing one of the most pernicious myths about forced sex: that women secretly enjoy it, and it is an acceptable way for a man to treat his wife.[87]
Molly Haskellhas argued that nevertheless women are mostly uncritical of the scene, and that by and large it is consistent with what women have in mind when they fantasize about being raped. Their fantasies revolve around love and romance rather than forced sex; they assume that Scarlett was not an unwilling sexual partner and wanted Rhett to take the initiative and insist on having sexual intercourse.[88]
Legacy[edit]
In popular culture[edit]
Gone with the Windand its production have been explicitly referenced, satirized, dramatized and analyzed on numerous occasions across a range of media, from contemporary classic films such as Imitation of Life(1959) to current television shows, such as The Simpsons.[79][89]The Scarlett O'Hara War(a 1980 television dramatization of the casting of Scarlett),[90]Moonlight and Magnolias(a 2007 play by Ron Hutchinsonthat dramatizes Ben Hecht's five-day re-write of the script),[91]and "Went with the Wind" (a sketch on The Carol Burnett Showthat parodied the film in the aftermath of its television debut in 1976) are among the more noteworthy examples of its enduring presence in popular culture.[15]It was also the subject of a 1988 documentary, The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind, detailing the film's difficult production history.[92]In 1990, the United States Postal Serviceissued a stamp depicting Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh embracing in a scene from the film.[93]

AFI 100 Years... series

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies– #4
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions– #2
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and VillainsRhett Butler, Hero – Nominated
Scarlett O'Hara, Hero – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." – #1
"After all, tomorrow is another day!" – #31
"As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." – #59
"Fiddle-dee-dee." – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores– #2
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers– #43
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)– #6
AFI's 10 Top 10– #4 Epic film
American Film Institute[94]
Sequel[edit]
Following publication of her novel, Margaret Mitchell was inundated with requests for a sequel but claimed to not have a notion of what happened to Scarlett and Rhett, and that she had "left them to their ultimate fate". Mitchell continued to resist pressure from Selznick and MGM to write a sequel until her death in 1949. In 1975, her brother, Stephens Mitchell (who assumed control of her estate), authorized a sequel to be jointly produced by MGM and Universal Studioson a budget of $12 million. Anne Edwardswas commissioned to write the sequel as a novel which would then be adapted into a screenplay, and published in conjunction with the film's release. Edwards submitted a 775-page manuscript entitled Tara, The Continuation of Gone with the Wind, set between 1872 and 1882 focusing on Scarlett's divorce from Rhett; MGM was not satisfied with the story and the deal collapsed.[15]
The idea was revived in the 1990s, when a sequel was finally produced in 1994, in the form of a television miniseries. Scarlettwas based upon the novelby Alexandra Ripley, itself a sequel to Mitchell's book. British actors Joanne Whalleyand Timothy Daltonwere cast as Scarlett and Rhett, and the series follows Scarlett's relocation to Ireland after again becoming pregnant by Rhett.[95]
Recognition[edit]
In 1977, Gone with the Windwas voted the most popular film by the American Film Institute(AFI), in a poll of the organization's membership.[7]In 1998, the AFI ranked the film fourth on its "100 Greatest Movies" list,[96]with the film slipping down to sixth place in the tenth anniversary editionin 2007.[97]In 2012, Gone with the Windranked 235th in the prestigious Sight & Sounddecennialcritics poll.[98]The film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registryin 1989.[8]
See also[edit]
List of films considered the best
List of films featuring slavery
Notes[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: abThe credits at the start of the film contain an error: George Reeves is listed as Brent Tarleton, but plays Stuart, while Fred Crane is listed as Stuart Tarleton, but plays Brent.[1]
2.Jump up ^From a private letter from journalist and on-set technical advisor Susan Myrick to Margaret Mitchell in February 1939:George [Cukor] finally told me all about it. He hated [leaving the production] very much he said but he could not do otherwise. In effect he said he is an honest craftsman and he cannot do a job unless he knows it is a good job and he feels the present job is not right. For days, he told me he has looked at the rushes and felt he was failing... the thing did not click as it should. Gradually he became convinced that the script was the trouble... David [Selznick], himself, thinks HE is writing the script... And George has continually taken script from day to day, compared the [Oliver] Garrett-Selznick version with the [Sidney] Howard, groaned and tried to change some parts back to the Howard script. But he seldom could do much with the scene... So George just told David he would not work any longer if the script was not better and he wanted the Howard script back. David told George he was a director—not an author and he (David) was the producer and the judge of what is a good script... George said he was a director and a damn good one and he would not let his name go out over a lousy picture... And bull-headed David said "OK get out!"[18]Selznick had already been unhappy with Cukor ("a very expensive luxury") for not being more receptive to directing other Selznick assignments, even though Cukor had remained on salary since early 1937. In a confidential memo written in September 1938, Selznick flirted with the idea of replacing him with Victor Fleming.[16]Louis B. Mayerhad been trying to have Cukor replaced with an MGM director since negotiations between the two studios began in May 1938. In December 1938, Selznick wrote to his wife about a phone call he had with Mayer: "During the same conversation, your father made another stab at getting George off of Gone With the Wind."[19]
3.Jump up ^Timealso reports that Hell's Angels(1930)—directed by Howard Hughes—cost more, but this was later revealed to be a fallacy; the accounts for Hell's Angelsshow it cost $2.8 million, but Hughes publicized it as costing $4 million, selling it to the media as the most expensive film ever made up to that point.[25]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: ab"Gone With the Wind". The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures. American Film Institute. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
2.Jump up ^The Associated Press(January 3, 2014). "'Gone With the Wind' actress dies at 98". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
3.^ Jump up to: abcdefFriedrich, Otto (1986). City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 17–21. ISBN 978-0-520-20949-7.
4.Jump up ^"The Book Purchase". Gone With The Wind Online Exhibit. University of Texas at Austin: Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
5.Jump up ^"The Search for Scarlett: Chronology". Gone With The Wind Online Exhibit. University of Texas at Austin: Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
6.^ Jump up to: abcdeLambert, Gavin(February 1973). "The Making of Gone With The Wind, Part I". The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
7.^ Jump up to: abcdefghijk"Gone with the Wind (1939) – Notes". TCM database. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
8.^ Jump up to: abcdefgMiller, Frank; Stafford, Jeff. "Gone with the Wind (1939) – Articles". TCM database. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
9.Jump up ^"The Search for Scarlett: Girls Tested for the Role of Scarlett". Gone With The Wind Online Exhibit. University of Texas at Austin: Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
10.Jump up ^Haver, Ronald(1980). David O. Selznick's Hollywood. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-42595-5.
11.Jump up ^Pratt, William (1977). Scarlett Fever. New York: Macmillan Publishers. pp. 73–74, 81–83. ISBN 978-0-02-598560-5.
12.Jump up ^Walker, Marianne (2011). Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind. Peachtree Publishers. pp. 405–406. ISBN 978-1-56145-617-8.
13.Jump up ^Selznick, David O. (January 7, 1939). "The Search for Scarlett: Vivien Leigh – Letter from David O. Selznick to Ed Sullivan". Gone With The Wind Online Exhibit. University of Texas at Austin: Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
14.^ Jump up to: abYeck, Joanne (1984). Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Screenwriters. Gale.
15.^ Jump up to: abcdefgBartel, Pauline (1989). The Complete Gone with the Wind Trivia Book: The Movie and More. Taylor Trade Publishing. pp. 64–69& 161–172. ISBN 978-0-87833-619-7.
16.^ Jump up to: abSelznick, David O. (1938–1939). Behlmer, Rudy, ed. Memo from David O. Selznick: the creation of Gone with the wind and other motion picture classics, as revealed in the producer's private letters, telegrams, memorandums, and autobiographical remarks. New York: Modern Library(published 2000). pp. 179–180 & 224–225. ISBN 978-0-375-75531-6.
17.Jump up ^MacAdams, William (1990). Ben Hecht. New York: Barricade Books. pp. 199–201. ISBN 978-1-56980-028-7.
18.^ Jump up to: abMyrick, Susan (1982). White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the GWTW Sets. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-86554-044-6.
19.Jump up ^Eyman, Scott (2005). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Robson Books. pp. 258–259. ISBN 978-1-86105-892-8.
20.Jump up ^Capua, Michelangelo (2003). Vivien Leigh: A Biography. McFarland & Company. pp. 59–61. ISBN 978-0-7864-1497-0.
21.Jump up ^Turner, Adrian (1989). A celebration of Gone with the wind. Dragon's World. p. 114.
22.Jump up ^Molt, Cynthia Marylee (1990). Gone with the Wind on Film: A Complete Reference. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. pp. 272–281. ISBN 978-0-89950-439-1.
23.Jump up ^Bridges, Herb (1998). The Filming of Gone with the Wind. Mercer University Press. PT4. ISBN 978-0-86554-621-9.
24.^ Jump up to: abc"Cinema: G With the W". Time. 25 December 1939. pp. 1–2& 7. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
25.Jump up ^Eyman, Scott (1997). The speed of sound: Hollywood and the talkie revolution, 1926–1930. Simon & Schuster. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-684-81162-8.
26.Jump up ^Leff, Leonard J.; Simmons, Jerold L. (2001). The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code. University Press of Kentucky. p. 108.
27.Jump up ^MacDonald, Laurence E. (1998). The Invisible Art of Film Music: A Comprehensive History. Scarecrow Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-1-880157-56-5.
28.Jump up ^Bell, Alison (June 25, 2010). "Inland Empire cities were once 'in' with Hollywood for movie previews". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
29.Jump up ^Thomson, David(1992). Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-56833-1.
30.^ Jump up to: abcdLambert, Gavin(March 1973). "The Making of Gone With The Wind, Part II". The Atlantic Monthly265(6). pp. 56–72. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
31.Jump up ^Harris, Warren G. (2002). Clark Gable: A Biography. Harmony Books. p. 211.
32.Jump up ^Cravens, Hamilton (2009). Great Depression: People and Perspectives. Perspectives in American Social History. ABC-CLIO. p. 221. ISBN 978-1-59884-093-3.
33.^ Jump up to: abcSchatz, Thomas (1999) [1st. pub. 1997]. Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. Volume 6 of History of the American Cinema. University of California Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0-520-22130-7.
34.^ Jump up to: abcShearer, Lloyd (October 26, 1947). "GWTW: Supercolossal Saga of an Epic". The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
35.Jump up ^Haver, Ronald(1993). David O. Selznick's Gone with the wind. New York: Random House. pp. 84–85.
36.^ Jump up to: abcBrown, Ellen F.; Wiley, John, Jr. (2011). Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood. Taylor Trade Publications. pp. 287, 293& 322. ISBN 978-1-58979-527-3.
37.Jump up ^Olson, James Stuart (2000). Historical Dictionary of the 1950s. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-313-30619-8.
38.Jump up ^Block, Alex Ben; Wilson, Lucy Autrey, eds. (2010). George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-By-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success. HarperCollins. pp. 220–221. ISBN 978-0-06-177889-6.
39.^ Jump up to: abcKrämer, Peter (2005). The New Hollywood: From Bonnie And Clyde To Star Wars. Short Cuts 30. Wallflower Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-904764-58-8.
40.Jump up ^Andrew, Geoff. "Gone with the Wind". British Film Institute. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
41.Jump up ^Clark, Kenneth R. (September 29, 1988). "Tnt Rides In On 'Gone With Wind'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
42.Jump up ^Robert, Osborne. "Robert Osborne on TCM's 15th Anniversary". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
43.^ Jump up to: abcdefNugent, Frank S.(December 20, 1939). "The Screen in Review; David Selznick's 'Gone With the Wind' Has Its Long-Awaited Premiere at Astor and Capitol, Recalling Civil War and Plantation Days of South--Seen as Treating Book With Great Fidelity". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
44.^ Jump up to: abcdeHoellering, Franz (1939). "Gone With the Wind". The Nation(December 16, 2008). Retrieved February 1, 2013.
45.^ Jump up to: abcdefFlinn, John C., Sr. (December 20, 1939). "Gone With the Wind". Variety. Archivedfrom the original on February 24, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
46.Jump up ^"From the archive, 28 May 1940: Gone with the wind at the Gaiety". The Manchester Guardian(May 28, 2010). May 28, 1940. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
47.^ Jump up to: ab"Results page – 1939 (12th)". Academy Awards database. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
48.Jump up ^Randall, David; Clark, Heather (February 24, 2013). "Oscars – cinema's Golden Night: The ultimate bluffer's guide to Hollywood's big night". The Independent. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
49.Jump up ^Cutler, David (February 22, 2013). "Factbox : Key historical facts about the Academy Awards". In Goldsmith, Belinda; Zargham, Mohammad. Reuters. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
50.Jump up ^"Beyond the Page: Famous Quotes". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
51.Jump up ^Dirks, Tim. "Academy Awards: Best Picture – Facts & Trivia". Filmsite.org. AMC Networks. p. 2. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
52.Jump up ^Kim, Wook (February 22, 2013). "17 Unusual Oscar Records – Longest Film (Running Time) to Win an Award: 431 Minutes". Time. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
53.^ Jump up to: abcdHaskell, Molly (2010). Frankly, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited. Icons of America. Yale University Press. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-0-300-16437-4.
54.^ Jump up to: abcdLupack, Barbara Tepa (2002). Literary Adaptations in Black American Cinema: From Oscar Micheaux to Toni Morrison. University of Rochester Press. pp. 209–211. ISBN 978-1-58046-103-0.
55.^ Jump up to: abReynolds, David (2009). America, Empire of Liberty: A New History. Penguin UK. pp. 241–242. ISBN 978-0-14-190856-4.
56.^ Jump up to: abYoung, John (February 5, 2010). "'Avatar' vs. 'Gone With the Wind". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
57.Jump up ^"About the 1940 Census". Official 1940 Census Website. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
58.Jump up ^"London Movie Doings". The New York Times. June 25, 1944. X3.
59.^ Jump up to: abcdFinler, Joel Waldo (2003). The Hollywood Story. Wallflower Press. pp. 47, 356–363. ISBN 978-1-903364-66-6.
60.Jump up ^"Show Business: Record Wind". Time. February 19, 1940. Archived from the originalon February 2, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
61.Jump up ^Stokes, Melvyn (2008). D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time. Oxford University Press. pp. 119& 287. ISBN 978-0-19-533678-8.
62.Jump up ^Grieveson, Lee (2004). Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early-Twentieth-Century America. University of California Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-520-23966-1.
63.Jump up ^Thomas, Bob(August 1, 1963). "Movie Finances Are No Longer Hidden From Scrutiny". The Robesonian. Associated Press. p. 10.
64.Jump up ^Berkowitz, Edward D. (2010). Mass Appeal: The Formative Age of the Movies, Radio, and TV. Cambridge Essential Histories. Cambridge University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-521-88908-7.
65.Jump up ^Hall, Sheldon; Neale, Stephen (2010). Epics, spectacles, and blockbusters: a Hollywood history. Wayne State University Press. pp. 181–182. ISBN 978-0-8143-3008-1.
66.^ Jump up to: abThomas, Bob(May 6, 1971). "Reissues playing big role in movie marketing today". The Register-Guard. Associated Press. p. 9E.
67.Jump up ^Kay, Eddie Dorman (1990). Box office champs: the most popular movies of the last 50 years. Random House Value Publishing. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-517-69212-7.
68.Jump up ^The Atlantic Monthly231. 1973. p. 2. "As of the end of 1971, GWTW stood as the all-time money-drawing movie, with a take of $116 million, and, with this year's reissues, it should continue to run ahead of the second place contender and all-time kaffee-mit-schlagspectacle."
69.Jump up ^"Gone with the Wind tops film list". BBC News. November 28, 2004. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
70.Jump up ^"Domestic Grosses – Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
71.Jump up ^"The Ultimate Film Chart". British Film Institute. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
72.Jump up ^"Gone with the Wind". The Numbers. Nash Information Services. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
73.Jump up ^Glenday, Craig, ed. (2011). Гиннесс. Мировые рекорды 2012[Guinness World Records 2012] (in Russian, translated by Andrianov, P.I. & Palova, I.V.). Moscow: Astrel. p. 211. ISBN 978-5-271-36423-5.
74.^ Jump up to: abcSchlesinger, Arthur(March 1973). "Time, alas, has treated Gone With the Wind cruelly". The Atlantic Monthly231(3). p. 64. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
75.^ Jump up to: abcdSchickel, Richard(March 1973). "Glossy, Sentimental, Chuckle-headed". The Atlantic Monthly231(3). p. 71. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
76.^ Jump up to: abcKauffman, Stanley(March 1973). "The Romantic Is Still Popular". The Atlantic Monthly231(3). p. 61. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
77.^ Jump up to: abSarris, Andrew(March 1973). "This moviest of All Movies". The Atlantic Monthly231(3). p. 58. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
78.Jump up ^Crist, Judith(March 1973). "Glorious Excesses". The Atlantic Monthly231(3). p. 67. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
79.^ Jump up to: abcVera, Hernán; Gordon, Andrew Mark (2003). Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness. Rowman & Littlefield. p. viii& 102. ISBN 978-0-8476-9947-6.
80.Jump up ^Silk, Catherine; Silk, Johnk (1990). Racism and Anti-Racism in American Popular Culture: Portrayals of African-Americans in Fiction and Film. Manchester University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-7190-3070-3.
81.Jump up ^Ruiz, W. Bryan Rommel (2010). American History Goes to the Movies: Hollywood and the American Experience. Taylor & Francis. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-203-83373-5.
82.^ Jump up to: abSmyth, J.E. (2006). Reconstructing American Historical Cinema: From Cimarron to Citizen Kane. University Press of Kentucky. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-8131-7147-0.
83.Jump up ^White, John; Haenni, Sabine, eds. (2009). Fifty Key American Films. Routledge Key Guides. Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-203-89113-1.
84.Jump up ^Hickok, Eugene W., Jr. (1991). The Bill of Rights: Original Meaning and Current Understanding. University of Virginia Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-8139-1336-0.
85.^ Jump up to: abcdePaludi, Michele A. (2012). The Psychology of Love. Women's Psychology 2. ABC-CLIO. p. xxvi. ISBN 978-0-313-39315-0.
86.^ Jump up to: abcAllison, Julie A.; Wrightsman, Lawrence S. (1993). Rape: The Misunderstood Crime(2 ed.). Sage Publications. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-8039-3707-9.
87.^ Jump up to: abcPagelow, Mildred Daley; Pagelow, Lloyd W. (1984). Family Violence. Praeger special studies. ABC-CLIO. p. 420. ISBN 978-0-275-91623-7.
88.Jump up ^Frus, Phyllis (2001). "Documenting Domestic Violence in American Films". In Slocum, J. David. Violence in American Cinema. Afi Film Readers. Routledge. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-415-92810-6.
89.Jump up ^Gómez-Galisteo, M. Carmen (2011). The Wind Is Never Gone: Sequels, Parodies and Rewritings of Gone with the Wind. McFarland & Company. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-7864-5927-8.
90.Jump up ^"The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980)". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
91.Jump up ^Spencer, Charles (October 8, 2007). "Moonlight and Magnolias: Comedy captures the birth of a movie classic". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
92.Jump up ^Thames, Stephanie. "The Making Of A Legend: Gone With The Wind (1988) – Articles". TCM database. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
93.Jump up ^McAllister, Bill (March 5, 1990). "Postal Service Goes Hollywood, Puts Legendary Stars on Stamp". The Daily Gazette. p. B9.
94.Jump up ^"AFI's 100 Years...The Complete Lists". American Film Institute. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
95.Jump up ^"Scarlett (1994)". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
96.Jump up ^"AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies". American Film Institute. June 1998. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
97.Jump up ^"AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)". American Film Institute. June 20, 2007. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
98.Jump up ^"The Greatest Films Poll: Critics top 250 – Gone with the Wind". British Film Institute. 2012. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
Further reading[edit]
Bridges, Herb (1999). Gone with the Wind: The Three-Day Premiere in Atlanta. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-672-1.
Cameron, Judy; Christman, Paul J (1989). The Art of Gone with the Wind: The Making of a Legend. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-046740-9.
Harmetz, Aljean(1996). On the Road to Tara: The Making of Gone with the Wind. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-3684-3.
Lambert, Gavin(1973). GWTW: The Making of Gone With the Wind. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-51284-8.
Vertrees, Alan David (1997). Selznick's Vision: Gone with the Wind and Hollywood Filmmaking. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78729-2.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gone with the Wind (film)
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gone with the Wind (film).
Gone with the Windat the Internet Movie Database
Gone with the Windat the TCM Movie Database
Gone with the Windpremiereat the TCMMediaroom
William J. Folsom Gone With the WindPremiere Filmat the Atlanta History Center
Gone with the WindOnline Exhibitat the Harry Ransom Center
Gone With the Windarticle seriesat The Atlantic
Gone with the Windat Rotten Tomatoes





[show]
v·
t·
e

Gone with the Windby Margaret Mitchell







































[show]
v·
t·
e

Filmographyof David O. Selznick













































[show]
v·
t·
e

Films directed by Victor Fleming















































[show]
v·
t·
e

Academy Award for Best Picture











































































































This is a good article. Click here for more information.





Categories: 1939 films
English-language films
Gone with the Wind
1930s romance films
American films
American Civil War films
Best Picture Academy Award winners
Culture of Atlanta, Georgia
Epic films
Films about American slavery
Films about rape
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Victor Fleming
Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award winning performance
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winning performance
Films set in Georgia (U.S. state)
Films set in Atlanta, Georgia
Films set in London
Films set in the 1860s
Films set in the 19th century
Films shot in California
Films shot in Technicolor
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Rape and revenge films
Rape in fiction
Romantic epic films
Selznick International Pictures films
United States National Film Registry films








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk











Read

Edit

View history









Search






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
العربية
Aragonés
Azərbaycanca
Български
Bosanski
Català
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Ido
Italiano
עברית
ქართული
Latina
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
Македонски
मराठी
مصرى
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Scots
Shqip
Simple English
Slovenčina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
தமிழ்
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 January 2014 at 13:37.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Useand Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki








Scarlett O'Hara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2012)

Scarlett O'Hara
Vivien Leigh Gone Wind Restaured.jpg
Scarlett O'Hara as portrayed by Vivien Leigh in the 1939 film adaptation of Gone with the Wind.

First appearance
Gone with the Wind
Created by
Margaret Mitchell
Portrayed by
Vivien Leigh (Gone with the Wind)
Joanne Whalley (Scarlett)
Information

Nickname(s)
Scarlett
Aliases
Katie Scarlett O'Hara
(birthname)
Gender
Female
Family
Gerald O'Hara (father, deceased)
Ellen Robillard O'Hara (mother, deceased)
Susan Elinor "Suellen" O'Hara Benteen (sister)
Caroline Irene "Carreen" O'Hara (sister)
Gerald O'Hara Jr. (name of 3 brothers, all deceased)
Spouse(s)
Charles Hamilton
(1st; deceased)
Frank Kennedy
(2nd; deceased)
Rhett Butler
(3rd)
Children
Wade Hampton Hamilton
(son with Charles)
Ella Lorena Kennedy
(daughter with Frank)
Eugenie Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler
(daughter with Rhett; deceased)
Unnamed child
(miscarriage, with Rhett)
Katie Colum "Cat" Butler
(daughter with Rhett in Scarlett)
Mr. Butler (stepson via Rhett)
Relatives
Langston Butler (father-in-law named in Scarlett; deceased)
Eleanor Butler (mother-in-law in sequel Scarlett)
Ross Butler (brother-in-law named in Scarlett)
Rosemary Butler (sister-in-law)
Pauline Robillard (maternal aunt)
Eulalie Robillard (maternal aunt)
Philippe Robillard (cousin of her mother)
James O'Hara (paternal uncle)
Andrew O'Hara (paternal uncle)
Pierre Robillard (maternal grandfather)
Solange Prudhomme Robillard (maternal grandmother)
Katie Scarlett O'Hara (paternal grandmother)
Will Benteen (brother-in-law)
Unnamed Benteen (niece or nephew, via Sullen and Will)
Melanie Hamilton (sister-in-law)
Beau Wilkes (nephew)
Religion
Roman Catholic
Scarlett O'Hara (born Katie Scarlett O'Hara; credited as Scarlett O' Hara – Hamilton – Kennedy – Butler) is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name. She also is the main character in the 1970 musical Scarlett and the 1991 book Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind that was written by Alexandra Ripley and adapted for a television mini-series in 1994. During early drafts of the original novel, Mitchell referred to her heroine as "Pansy", and did not decide on the name "Scarlett" until just before the novel went to print.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Personality
2 Searching for Scarlett
3 Other actresses considered for Scarlett
4 Adaptations
5 Historical sources for the character
6 Comparisons to other characters
7 References
8 External links

Personality[edit]
Katie Scarlett, or Scarlett as everyone but her father calls her (she is named for his mother, chapter 2, Gone With the Wind) has dark hair and a slim frame. She is an atypical protagonist, especially as a female romantic lead in fiction. When the novel opens, Scarlett is sixteen. She is vain, self-centered, somewhat spoiled, can be insecure, and has an intelligent, bright mind. She stands out in that she is smarter than and very much unlike the typical party-going Southern belles around her. She can be a high-strung busybody, but for someone so smart, with men she loves, she can go into a mode where she is both babyish and overthinks little things. On the outside she seems charming, busy, good, and smart; but on the inside she is insecure and just wants the affection of her neighbor, Ashley Wilkes. She makes surface efforts to live up to the expectations her culture demands, but fears discovery by society of her true self. Scarlett has deep affection for Ashley, and wishes to marry him, despite a tradition in his family to marry cousins. Scarlett's motivation in the early part of the novel center on her desire to win the affection of Ashley, despite the fact that both of them marry others. Rhett Butler, an older bachelor, overhears Scarlett expressing her true feelings to Ashley, during a barbecue at Ashley's home. Rhett admires and is interested in the willful Scarlett, and pursues her through a romantic friendship when she becomes widowed, helping her to ignore Southern conventions and become active in society again. The Civil War is ultimately blamed by disapproving society, and Scarlett finds friendship with Rhett liberating.
After the War, Scarlett's character hardens, when she is burdened by her family, servants, the Wilkes family, and the fear of homelessness and starvation. This causes her to become extremely money-conscious and materialistic. Her motivation is to assure that no one close to her faces the threat of starvation or being a burden to others outside the family. As such, she engages in controversial business practices and exploits convict labor in order to make her lumber business, bought and run in defiance of her second husband's wishes, have a higher profit margin. After she becomes widowed again, she marries Rhett Butler for "fun" and because he is very wealthy.
Unfortunately, Scarlett is too insecure and vain to realize her pursuit of Ashley was misdirected until the climax of the novel. With the death of Melanie Wilkes, she realizes her pursuit of Ashley was in vain and he did not return her affection. She realizes she never really loved Ashley and that she has loved Rhett Butler for some time. She pursues Rhett from Melanie's deathbed to their home in the neighborhood, only to discover he has given up on receiving a return of affection from Scarlett and is preparing to leave her. In a reminder of how important her homeland is to her, Scarlett decides to return to the family plantation, Tara, to rest and set her plans to attract Rhett anew.
Searching for Scarlett[edit]
While the studio and the public agreed that the part of Rhett Butler should go to Clark Gable (except for Clark Gable himself), casting for the role of Scarlett was a little harder. The search for an actress to play Scarlett in the film version of the novel famously drew the biggest names in the history of cinema, such as Bette Davis (whose casting as a Southern belle in Jezebel in 1938 took her out of contention), and Katharine Hepburn, who went so far as demanding an appointment with producer David O. Selznick and saying, "I am Scarlett O'Hara! The role is practically written for me." David replied rather bluntly, "I can't imagine Rhett Butler chasing you for twelve years."[citation needed]Jean Arthur and Lucille Ball were also considered, as well as relatively unknown actress Doris Davenport. Susan Hayward was "discovered" when she tested for the part, and the career of Lana Turner developed quickly after her screen test. Tallulah Bankhead and Joan Bennett were widely considered to be the most likely choices until they were supplanted by Paulette Goddard.
The young English actress Vivien Leigh, virtually unknown in America, saw that several English actors, including Ronald Colman and Leslie Howard, were in consideration for the male leads in Gone with the Wind. Her agent happened to be the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency, headed by David Selznick's brother, Myron. Leigh asked Myron to put her name into consideration as Scarlett on the eve of the American release of her picture Fire Over England in February 1938. David Selznick watched both Fire Over England and her most recent picture, A Yank at Oxford, that month, and thought she was excellent but in no way a possible Scarlett, as she was "too British." But Myron Selznick arranged for David to first meet Leigh on the night in December 1938 when the burning of the Atlanta Depot was being filmed on the Forty Acres backlot that Selznick International and RKO shared. Leigh and her then lover Laurence Olivier (later to be her husband) were visiting as guests of Myron Selznick, who was also Olivier's agent, while Leigh was in Hollywood hoping for a part in Olivier's current movie, Wuthering Heights. In a letter to his wife two days later, David Selznick admitted that Leigh was "the Scarlett dark horse," and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939. Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and Irish."[2]
In any case, Leigh was cast—despite public protest that the role was too "American" for an English actress—and eventually won an Academy Award for her performance.
Other actresses considered for Scarlett[edit]
A great number of actresses were considered for the role of Scarlett. In fact, there were approximately 32 women who were considered and or tested for the role. The search for Scarlett began in 1936 (the year of the book's publication) and ended in December 1938.[3]
Between 1936 and 1938, the following actresses were considered:
Lucille Ball
Constance Bennett
Clara Bow
Mary Brian
Ruth Chatterton
Claudette Colbert
Joan Crawford
Frances Dee
Irene Dunne
Madge Evans
Glenda Farrell
Alice Faye
Joan Fontaine
Kay Francis
Janet Gaynor
Jean Harlow
Katharine Hepburn
Miriam Hopkins
Rochelle Hudson
Dorothy Lamour
Andrea Leeds[4]
Carole Lombard
Anita Louise
Myrna Loy
Pola Negri
Maureen O'Sullivan
Merle Oberon
Ginger Rogers
Norma Shearer
Ann Sheridan
Gale Sondergaard
Barbara Stanwyck
Gloria Stuart
Margaret Sullavan
Gloria Swanson
Linda Watkins
Mae West
Jane Wyman
Loretta Young
Bette Davis
Between late 1937 and mid-1938, approximately 128 actresses were nominated for the role of Scarlett through letters of suggestion sent to Selznick International Pictures from the public.[4]
Adaptations[edit]
A 1966 musical stage adaptation was a major hit in Japan and London's West End, but failed to survive in America where it starred Lesley Ann Warren and Harve Presnell. It closed after engagements in Los Angeles and San Francisco, never opening on Broadway.
In 1980 a film about the search for Scarlett O'Hara was made entitled Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War with actress Morgan Brittany in the role of Vivien Leigh.
In the 1994 TV mini-series based on the sequel Scarlett, the character was played by English actress Joanne Whalley.
In the Margaret Martin musical Gone with the Wind, the role of Scarlett O'Hara was originated by Jill Paice.
Historical sources for the character[edit]
While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with The Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as individuals she heard of. Rhett Butler is thought to be based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. Scarlett's upbringing resembled that of Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens (1844–1934), who was raised on a plantation in Clayton County, Georgia (where the fictional Tara was placed), and whose father was an Irish immigrant. Another source for Scarlett might have been Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt. Martha grew up in a beautiful Southern mansion, Bulloch Hall, in Roswell, just north of Atlanta, Georgia. Her physical appearance, beauty, grace and intelligence were well known to Mitchell and the personality similarities (the positive ones) between Martha, who was also called Mittie, and Scarlett were striking.[citation needed] Some say[citation needed] that some of Scarlett's plotting and scheming aspects might have been drawn from Martha Bulloch Roosevelt's beautiful and vivacious, independently wealthy and grandparent-spoiled, rebellious and attention-seeking granddaughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
Comparisons to other characters[edit]
Troy Patterson of Entertainment Weekly argued that Ally McBeal, the main character of the television series with the same name, has similarities to O'Hara and that "Scarlett and Ally are fairy-tale princesses who bear about as much resemblance to real women as Barbie and Skipper."[5] Patterson wrote that Ally is similar because she is also a child from a ruling class family, "pines hopelessly after an unavailable dreamboat", and has a "sassy black roommate" in place of a "mammy" to "comfort her".[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Shrewd, Selfish Scarlett: A Complicated Heroine". NPR. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
2.Jump up ^ "Letter from David O. Selznick to Ed Sullivan". Harry Ransom Center - The University Of Texas At Austin. Jan 7, 1939.
3.Jump up ^ Thompson, David. "Hollywood", 1930s pgs. 178 - 182
4.^ Jump up to: a b "The Making of Gone With The Wind" Part 2, Documentary circa 1990s.
5.^ Jump up to: a b Patterson, Troy, Ty Burr, and Stephen Whitty. "Gone With the Wind." (video review) Entertainment Weekly. October 23, 1998. Retrieved on December 23, 2013. This document has three separate reviews of the film, one per author.
External links[edit]

Portal icon Fictional characters portal
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scarlett O'Hara.
Short Bios of Scarlett and Vivien Leigh


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: Fictional American people of French descent
Fictional American people of Irish descent
Fictional characters from Georgia (U.S. state)
Fictional socialites
Gone with the Wind characters
Fictional characters introduced in 1936
Fictional antiheroes








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
العربية
Български
Español
Français
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
ქართული
日本語
Polski
Română
Русский
Simple English
Suomi
Svenska
ᏣᎳᎩ
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 1 January 2014 at 00:26.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Rhett Butler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (February 2008)

Rhett Butler
Gone with the Wind character
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind trailer.jpg
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the Gone with the Wind film trailer

Created by
Margaret Mitchell
Portrayed by
Clark Gable (Gone with the Wind)
Timothy Dalton (Scarlett)
Information

Occupation
Professional gambler, Blockade runner, Speculator
Title
Captain
Family
Named in Gone with the Wind
 Rosemary Butler (younger sister)
Named in Scarlett
 Steven Butler (father)
 Eleanor Butler (mother)
 Ross Butler (younger brother)
Named in Rhett Butler's People
 Langston Butler (father)
 Elizabeth Butler (mother)
 Julian Butler (younger brother)
Spouse(s)
Scarlett O'Hara
 Anne Hampton (in Scarlett)
Children
Eugenie Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler
 Katie Colum "Cat" O'Hara (in Scarlett)
 Wade Hampton Hamilton (stepson)
 Ella Lorena Kennedy (stepdaughter)
Rhett Butler is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.


Contents  [hide]
1 Role
2 Character
3 Searching for Rhett
4 Adaptations and sequels
5 Family
6 Reception
7 References

Role[edit]
In the beginning of the novel, we first meet Rhett at the Twelve Oaks Plantation barbecue, the home of John Wilkes and his son Ashley and daughters Honey and India Wilkes. The novel describes Rhett as "a visitor from Charleston"; a black sheep, who was expelled from West Point and is not received by any family with reputation in the whole of Charleston, and perhaps all of South Carolina. He angers many of the Wilkes guests by warning against the coming war, saying that the North's industrial capacity, shipyards, larger population, and other factors will eventually lead to the South's defeat. Rhett's enthrallment with Scarlett O'Hara begins when he overhears her declaration of love for Ashley in the library while the rest of the "proper" girls take a nap. He recognizes that she is willful and spirited and that they are alike in many ways, including their disgust for the impending, and later ongoing, war with the Yankees.
They meet again when Scarlett has already lost her first husband, Charles Hamilton, while she is staying with Charles' sister Melanie and their Aunt Pittypat in Atlanta during the war. Rhett, the daring and infamous blockade runner, creates a stir when he outbids (with $150 in gold) ($3,897 as of 2014)[1] the other gentlemen in order to dance with Scarlett, who is in mourning. Rhett seemingly ruins Scarlett's reputation after this very public display of frivolity and Scarlett's father, Gerald O'Hara, comes to speak to Rhett and to take Scarlett back to Tara. However, Rhett gets Gerald drunk and they come to terms. Gerald returns to Tara and Scarlett remains in Atlanta.
As the Yankees advance towards Atlanta, Scarlett stays behind to help deliver Melanie's baby and then must depend on Rhett to get them out of the city. Scarlett sends her maid Prissy to find Rhett, and when he comes to Aunt Pitty's, he has stolen a horse and buggy in order to "rescue" them. Once they have fled Atlanta, Rhett—in a single moment of perverse idealism—joins the withdrawing Confederate soldiers for their last stand against General Sherman. Before he leaves, Rhett asks that Scarlett kiss him. She refuses, but he hauls her in—she slaps him and tells him that she hopes he gets killed while in battle. He laughs, and turns into the dark, leaving Scarlett alone with Melanie, Beau, her own young son Wade, and Prissy.
Several months later, Scarlett returns to Atlanta, this time to solicit money from Rhett to save Tara from foreclosure, only to learn from Aunt Pitty that he is in military jail, imprisoned by the Yankees for stealing the Confederate gold. Scarlett waltzes in, supposedly horrified that Rhett's life is in danger, all the while maneuvering him to give her money for the plantation. When Rhett sees through her ploy, he laughs in her face and Scarlett attacks him, causing her to faint. After regaining consciousness, she storms out.
On her way back to Aunt Pittypat's she meets Frank Kennedy, her sister Suellen's beau. Learning that Frank has done very well for himself, she plies him with affection, falsely tells him that Suellen is tired of waiting and plans to marry someone else, and finally secures a marriage proposal from him, which she accepts. Once Frank is married to her, he could not possibly allow his wife's kinfolk to be evicted from Tara, so he provides her with the $300 ($4,783 as of 2014)[1] which she needs to pay the taxes on Tara.
Two weeks later, Scarlett is shocked when she sees Rhett while she is running Frank's store, free from the Yankees and amused that she has rushed into yet another marriage with a man she does not love, much less the fact that she stole him right out from under her sister's nose.
Frank Kennedy is killed during a Ku Klux Klan raid on the shanty town after Scarlett is attacked. Rhett saves Ashley Wilkes and several others by alibiing them to the Yankee captain, a man with whom he has played cards on several occasions.
While Scarlett is in mourning following Frank's death, Rhett appears and offers a marriage proposal promising to give her everything. Scarlett accepts only for Rhett's money. In the novel, Rhett's fortune is estimated at $500,000 ($7,971,591 as of 2014)[1] Rhett secretly hopes that Scarlett will eventually return the love he's had since the day he saw her at Twelve Oaks. Her continuing affection for Ashley Wilkes becoms a problem for the couple, however.
When their daughter, Bonnie, falls off a pony and dies, the tragedy causes a rift between the two which is impossible to bridge. Rhett eventually leaves because he knows he has to get away from Scarlett. Her confession of love is something that Rhett seems to have expected from the moment he first saw her breathless face when she rushes to him. He knows that Scarlett could never be happy with Ashley and when she discovers that, he does not want to be around when she throws her obsession onto him.
When he finally receives Scarlett's love, it is too late to salvage the love he once had for her, so he leaves her with his famous parting shot: "My dear, I don't give a damn." It has since been immortalized in film in an altered version: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
Character[edit]
In the course of the novel, Rhett becomes increasingly enamored of Scarlett's sheer will to survive in the chaos surrounding the war. The novel contains several pieces of information about him that do not appear in the film. After being disowned by his family (mainly by his father), he became a professional gambler, and at one point was involved in the California Gold Rush, where he ended up getting a scar on his stomach in a knife fight. He seems to love his mother and his sister Rosemary, but has an adversarial relationship with his father which is never resolved. He also has a younger brother who is never named, and a sister-in-law (both of whom he has little respect or regard for), who own a rice plantation. Rhett is the guardian of a little boy who attends boarding school in New Orleans; it is speculated among readers that this boy is Belle Watling's son (whom Belle mentions briefly to Melanie), and perhaps Rhett's illegitimate son as well.
Despite being thrown out of West Point, the Rhett of the novel is obviously very well-educated, referencing everything from Shakespeare to classical history to German philosophy. He has an understanding of human nature that the obtuse Scarlett never does, and at several points provides insightful perspectives on other characters. He also has an extensive knowledge of women, both physically and psychologically, which Scarlett does not consider to be "decent" (but nonetheless considers fascinating). Rhett has tremendous respect and (gradually) affection for Melanie as a friend, but very little for Ashley. Rhett's understanding of human nature extends to children as well, and he is a much better parent to Scarlett's children from her previous marriages than she is herself; he has a particular affinity with her son Wade, even before Wade is his stepson. When Bonnie is born Rhett showers her with the attention that Scarlett will no longer allow him to give to her and is a devoted, even doting and overindulgent, father.
Rhett decides to join in the Southern cause, but unlike his fellow Confederate, Ashley Wilkes, he is not spiritually paralyzed by the South's loss.
In the sequels − both in official sequels (Scarlett, written by Alexandra Ripley, and Rhett Butler's People, written by Donald McCaig) and in the unofficial Winds of Tara by Kate Pinotti − Scarlett finally succeeds in getting Rhett back.
Searching for Rhett[edit]
In the 1939 film version of Gone with the Wind, for the role of Rhett Butler, Clark Gable was an almost immediate favorite for both the public and producer David O. Selznick (except for Gable himself). But as Selznick had no male stars under long-term contract, he needed to go through the process of negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio. Gary Cooper was thus Selznick's first choice, because Cooper's contract with Samuel Goldwyn involved a common distribution company, United Artists, with which Selznick had an eight-picture deal. However, Goldwyn remained noncommittal in negotiations.[2] Warner Bros. offered a package of Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland for the lead roles in return for the distribution rights. When Gary Cooper turned down the role of Rhett Butler, he was passionately against it. He is quoted saying, "Gone With The Wind is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not Gary Cooper".[3][4] But by then Selznick was determined to get Clark Gable, and eventually found a way to borrow him from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Selznick's father-in-law, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer, offered in May 1938 to fund half of the movie's budget in return for a powerful package: 50% of the profits would go to MGM, the movie's distribution would be credited to MGM's parent company, Loew's, Inc., and Loew's would receive 15 percent of the movie's gross income. Selznick accepted this offer in August, and Gable was cast. But the arrangement to release through MGM meant delaying the start of production until Selznick International completed its eight-picture contract with United Artists. Gable was reluctant to play the role. At the time, he was wary of potentially disappointing a public who had formed a clear impression of the character that he might not necessarily convey in his performance.
Adaptations and sequels[edit]
In the 1939 film adaptation, Rhett was played by Clark Gable.
In the Scarlett TV mini-series produced in 1994 (based on the above sequel novel), Rhett was played by Timothy Dalton.
In the musical production by Takarazuka Revue, Rhett had been played by several top stars of the group, including Yuki Amami (currently a film/TV actress), Yu Todoroki (currently one of the directors of the group) and Youka Wao (former leading male role of the Cosmo Troup that retired from the group in July 2006).
In the Margaret Martin musical Gone With The Wind, the role of Rhett Butler was originated by Darius Danesh.
Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone is either a parallel historical novel, or (after litigation) a parody. It is told from the slave point of view.
Donald McCaig's novel Rhett Butler's People is told from Rhett Butler's perspective.
Family[edit]
Rhett is the eldest child. In Gone with the Wind only his younger sister Rosemary is named; his brother and sister-in-law are mentioned very briefly, but not by name. In the sequel Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley, the Butler parents are called Steven and Eleanor, the younger brother is Ross. In this sequel Rhett marries Anne Hampton after divorcing Scarlett and he reunites with Scarlett only after Anne dies. He and Scarlett have a second daughter called Katie "Cat".
In the authorized prequel and sequel Rhett Butler's People his parents are called Langston and Elizabeth, his brother is Julian. In this novel Belle Watling's son plays an important role; in the end he is revealed to be another man's son even though he believed Rhett was his father.
Reception[edit]
Michael Sragow of Entertainment Weekly compared Butler to James Bond, arguing that both characters share an analytical sense, are good at seducing "ambivalent" women, and are "masters of maneuvering behind enemy lines".[5] He also stated that "007's erotic quips follow straight from Rhett's verbal jousts with Scarlett."[5]
References[edit]

Portal icon Fictional characters portal
1.^ Jump up to: a b c Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2013. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
2.Jump up ^ Selznick, David O. (2000). Memo from David O. Selznick. New York: Modern Library. pp. 172–173. ISBN 0-375-75531-4.
3.Jump up ^ GoneMovie -> Biography Gary Cooper
4.Jump up ^ Paul Donnelley (June 1, 2003). Fade To Black: A Book Of Movie Obituaries, 2nd Edition. Omnibus Press.
5.^ Jump up to: a b Patterson, Troy, Ty Burr, and Stephen Whitty. "Gone With the Wind." (video review) Entertainment Weekly. October 23, 1998. Retrieved on December 23, 2013. This document has three separate reviews of the film, one per author.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: Fictional gamblers
Fictional characters from South Carolina
Gone with the Wind characters
Fictional soldiers
Fictional socialites
Fictional characters introduced in 1936





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
Español
Français
Hrvatski
Қазақша
Română
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
Tiếng Việt
Edit links
This page was last modified on 23 December 2013 at 09:06.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Ashley Wilkes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Ashley Wilkes
Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind trailer.jpg
First appearance
Gone with the Wind
Created by
Margaret Mitchell
Portrayed by
Leslie Howard
Information

Gender
Male
Spouse(s)
Melanie Wilkes deceased
Children
Beau Wilkes
Relatives
John Wilkes (father)
India Wilkes (sister)
Honey Wilkes (sister; not in the movie)
Henry Hamilton (uncle)
Sarah Jane (Pittypat) Hamilton (aunt)
Charles Hamilton (cousin and brother-in-law)
George Ashley Wilkes is a fictional character in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and the later film of the same name. The character also appears in the 1991 book Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind written by Alexandra Ripley, and in Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig.
Fictional biography[edit]
Ashley is the man with whom Scarlett O'Hara is obsessed. Gentlemanly yet indecisive, he loves Scarlett, but finds he has more in common with Melanie, his distant cousin and later his wife. But he is tormented by his obsession with Scarlett. Unfortunately for him and Scarlett, his failure to deal with his true feelings for her ruins any chance she has for real happiness with Rhett Butler. Ashley is a complicated character. He is not sympathetic to the cause of the North. However, he isn't an ardent Confederate patriot, either. What Ashley loves about the South is the serene, peaceful life that he and his dear ones know at Twelve Oaks and similar plantations. At one point (following the war) he comments to Scarlett that "had the war not come he would have spent his life happily buried at Twelve Oaks."
In short, Ashley loves the South, but not necessarily the Confederacy. And he hates war, even telling his friends in the beginning of the book who are eager to start fighting the North that "most of the misery in the world has been caused by war", though he fights because of his loyalty to Georgia.
He claims that he would have freed the slaves after the death of his father if the war hadn't freed them already. His willingness to free the slaves further demonstrates his impractical nature, because if the slaves were free, he would not be able to run the plantation. However, he has a great deal of affection for the slaves on his plantation, and the role that they played in his serene, bucolic life.
There is a sense in which the end of Ashley's life (as he knew it) is more than just the burning of Twelve Oaks. The four Tarleton brothers (Boyd, Tom, Brent and Stuart) are all killed, three of them at Gettysburg. Cade Calvert returns home terminally ill from tuberculosis. Little Joe Fontaine is killed in battle, and Tony Fontaine has to flee forever to Texas after killing a Yankee (specifically, Scarlett's family's former slave overseer, Jonas Wilkerson, during Reconstruction; after Wilkerson encouraged a former slave to attempt to rape Tony's sister-in-law). These were Ashley's childhood friends, all represented in the happy scene at the barbecue, close to the beginning of the book. When the "family circle" of the county is decimated, the life Ashley loved is gone.
At one point in the book Ashley pleads, in vain, with his wife Melanie to move to the North, after he comes back from fighting in the war. This isn't because of any affection for the North however, but because he wants to be able to stand on his own as a man, something he will never again be able to do in Georgia now that his plantation is gone and his home burned. However, he ends up working for Scarlett due to her manipulative entreaties and Melanie's naive support of her. Melanie also states that if they move to New York, Beau will not be able to go to school. This is because in New York black children are allowed to attend class, and they could not permit Beau to attend class with black children. In Georgia the schools were segregated by race, so Beau would be able to attend school if they remained in the South.
Role[edit]
In a sense, he is the character best personifying the tragedy of the Southern upper class after the Civil War. Coming from a privileged background, Ashley is an honorable and educated man. He is in clear contrast to Rhett Butler, who is decisive and full of life but is vulgar and distasteful as well. Rhett is both ruthless and practical, and is willing to do whatever he must to survive. In contrast, Ashley is often impractical (even Melanie admits this on her deathbed), and would resist doing many things Rhett would do because they aren't "proper" or "gentlemanly". Ashley fights in the Civil War, but he does it out of love for his homeland and not a hatred of the Yankees, who he actually hopes will just leave the South in peace. As a soldier he shows enough leadership to be promoted to the rank of Major, and survives being imprisoned at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois (a notorious prisoner-of-war camp) for several months. He eventually returns home, still able-bodied. Ashley could have lived a peaceful and respectable life had the War never taken place. The War that changed the South forever has turned his world upside down, with everything he had believed in 'gone with the wind', a phrase composed by the poet Ernest Dowson.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: Gone with the Wind characters
Fictional soldiers
Fictional characters introduced in 1936





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
Español
Français
Русский
Tiếng Việt
Edit links
This page was last modified on 14 November 2013 at 16:26.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Melanie Hamilton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary. It should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (February 2008)


 This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (August 2009)

Melanie Wilkes
Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the Wind trailer 3.jpg
De Havilland as Melanie Hamilton

First appearance
Gone with the Wind
Created by
Margaret Mitchell
Portrayed by
Olivia de Havilland
Information

Gender
Female
Spouse(s)
Ashley Wilkes
Children
Beau Wilkes (son, with Ashley)
Unnamed child (with Ashley, miscarriage)
Relatives
Charles Hamilton (brother, deceased)
Scarlett O'Hara (sister-in-law)
John Wilkes (uncle and father-in-law)
India Wilkes (sister-in-law)
Honey Wilkes (sister-in-law; doesn't appear in the movie)
Henry Hamilton (uncle)
Sarah Jane "Pittypat" Hamilton (aunt)
Wade Hamilton (nephew)
Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is a fictional character first appearing in the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. In the 1939 film she was portrayed by Olivia de Havilland. Melanie is Scarlett O'Hara's sister-in-law and eventually her best friend.


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography 1.1 1861
1.2 1862
1.3 1863
1.4 1864 and later
2 References
3 External links

Biography[edit]
Melanie and her brother Charles are among the last members left of the wealthy Hamilton family. The family has always valued education and sought to provide its members with the finest available. As a result, they have gained a reputation for producing a fair number of intellectuals and several noted lawyers. For several generations they have intermarried with the like-minded Wilkes family. Unfortunately, this practice of apparent inbreeding has eventually resulted in the birth of progressively sicklier children.
Melanie and Charles' parents die when their children are still young. Their father, Col. William R. Hamilton, was described as a hot-tempered, fiery soldier "with a ramrod for a backbone". The two siblings are placed under the joint guardianship of Henry Hamilton and Sarah Jane "Pittypat" Hamilton, their father's brother and sister. Neither Henry nor Pittypat is married and so they consider their nephew and niece as their children. Henry is a lawyer and resident of Atlanta and the family fortune has been placed under his management. Pittypat is described as having the maturity of a child herself. The one actually responsible for raising the two children is Uncle Peter, an African American slave. Peter is fiercely loyal to the Hamiltons and has served the orphans' father during his military service in the Mexican-American War. Though the Hamiltons are nominally his masters, Peter views them more as his charges and acts as the protector of Pittypat, her niece and nephew throughout their lives. He is described as a brave and intelligent man who, in serving the interests of the Hamiltons, often advises his charges and on several occasions makes decisions for them. Thanks to their devoted uncles and aunt, the siblings grow to be well-educated and well-read young people, but due to their somewhat sheltered environment, they tend to be naive in worldly ways.
1861[edit]
In keeping with the family tradition, in April 1861, Melanie becomes engaged to her cousin, Ashley Wilkes. Melanie is unaware that Scarlett O'Hara intended to marry Ashley. For Scarlett, the news is shocking. Nevertheless, she is present at the engagement celebration, along with her family and most other plantation owners of the county. According to her description, Melanie is a rather petite and delicate young woman with the height and weight of a child. Her most notable feature is a pair of large brown eyes. To Scarlett, she seems quite shy and sweet but not particularly beautiful. However, her way of movement is described as graceful beyond her years. To Scarlett, she seems more interested in discussing books than in flirting with men. While most young girls present at the celebration seek to impress the young men with their dress sense, Melanie is plainly clothed, discussing the works of William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens.
Scarlett is certain that Ashley will prefer her to Melanie. Confronting him privately, she confesses her love for him. Ashley admits he is attracted to her but he is determined to marry Melanie. His main stated reason is that he believes he has more in common with Melanie than with Scarlett. Scarlett feels disappointed and hurt. In her confusion she decides to hurt Ashley in return by accepting a marriage proposal by Melanie's brother Charles. Scarlett also considers that she is taking revenge against Melanie by marrying her brother.
The wedding takes place two weeks later on April 30, 1861, but Melanie is actually pleased about the marriage as she views her new sister-in-law as a true sister. Melanie seems to take an instant liking to Scarlett and welcomes her to their family. On May 1, 1861, Melanie herself marries Ashley. Meanwhile the American Civil War is raging and Georgia is now part of the Confederate States of America. Charles has to leave two weeks after his marriage to enlist in the forces of Wade Hampton, known as "Hampton's Legion". A week later Ashley follows him. In his absence Melanie accepts the invitation of Aunt Pittypat to stay with her in Atlanta. The fortunes of both women are still under the management of Uncle Henry.
In Atlanta, Melanie receives two important pieces of news. Her brother has died less than two months after his enlistment, having contracted and recovered from the measles but then succumbing to pneumonia. His share of the family fortune is inherited by Scarlett, his widow. This sad news is followed by the news of Scarlett's pregnancy. Melanie's nephew is born by the end of the year and is named Wade Hampton Hamilton.
Throughout the year both Melanie and her aunt send Scarlett several invitations to join them. Melanie expresses an interest in getting to know her "sister" better and later in seeing her nephew. On the other hand, Scarlett is going through a state of depression. Her mother is concerned about her and finally manages to convince her to accept the invitations. Following a short visit to maternal relatives in Charleston, South Carolina, Scarlett and her son, accompanied by her maid, Prissy, arrive in Atlanta during the first months of 1862. She is welcomed by Uncle Peter, aging but still determined to take care of his new charges. He brings her to the house of her aunt and sister-in-law.
At first feeling awkward with the thought of living under the same roof with Ashley's wife, Scarlett progressively regains her interest in life. Partly responsible for that is Melanie's interest and affection towards her, though her occasional crushing hugs are hard for Scarlett to get used to. Melanie is serving as a volunteer nurse in the local hospital. Soon Scarlett joins her. Scarlett is somewhat impressed with Melanie's ability to keep a straight face and a smile in the presence of the wounded and her willingness to help and comfort them. Even if some of the gravest wounds make her pale and even cause her to vomit privately, Melanie avoids letting others find out. Scarlett starts considering that her sister-in-law is braver than she appears. At the same time Melanie maintains correspondence with Ashley, and Scarlett is still interested in hearing of his activities.
Scarlett has come to Atlanta intending to stay for a short while and as a visitor, but soon she finds herself settled more permanently and one of Atlanta's socialites. Melanie seems content with the new situation as Scarlett proves to be a better companion than their elderly aunt. At the time Atlanta is seemingly populated mostly by women, by men too old or too young to fight, and the wounded returning from the front. However, a number of men eligible to fight still remain in the city as part of the local militia. Melanie harshly criticizes their presence in the city, while more forces are needed at the front. Scarlett soon finds that, as passively as Melanie usually acts, she can become surprisingly passionate and even aggressive in support of her ideals.
1862[edit]
By the summer of 1862, Melanie and Scarlett have been re-acquainted to a man they met during Melanie's engagement celebration: Captain Rhett Butler, at the time about 35 years old. Born to a respected family of Charleston, Rhett was disinherited by his father when he refused to marry according to the latter's wishes. He has worked his way up and has made his own fortune in the California Gold Rush of 1848-1849. He has gained wealth and success as a trader but he has a poor reputation. At the time he and his sailing ship have been smuggling supplies from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, France and even the port of New York Harbor to the Confederation. Noted for his cynicism, he observes that he has gained both in wealth and in appreciation by this practice. He seems to take an instant interest in befriending both young women and soon starts flirting with Scarlett. Though this provides a subject of gossip for the local society, Melanie seems to approve of both her friends and verbally defends their reputations.
1863[edit]
By early 1863 Rhett has established himself as a friend of both women and a frequent visitor to their house. To Melanie he seems a bitter man in need of a woman to comfort him. On the other hand, Scarlett shares much of his cynical view towards people and their ideas. Both women find some of his ideas disturbing but still thought-provoking. In discussion with patriots and idealists who think this is a just war, Rhett tends to point that all wars seem just to the soldiers fighting them, but that the leaders and orators guiding them to war tend to place themselves behind the lines and are more interested in monetary gain than ideals. Rhett also points out that those ideals are little more than a cover for the actual financial motivation behind wars. Rhett's often stated beliefs have earned him a fair number of enemies, but Melanie and Scarlett are not among them as they also tend to question the motivations behind the war.
Generally less judgmental than most members of her social circle, Melanie is surprised when she is approached by Belle Watling, an affluent prostitute and owner of a local brothel. Belle has become well known in the local society and respected members of it frequent her brothel, but in public she usually finds herself isolated. Intending to contribute part of her weekly earnings as charity for the local hospital, Belle has found her offer being rejected. The idea is that money from such a source would be an insult to the heroic and wounded soldiers. Instead, Melanie accepts the offer. Melanie privately explains to Scarlett, who by this point has become her closest confidante, that in the process she risks her own reputation, but she reasons that the hospital needs any help it can get and that Belle's intentions are noble in this case.
Meanwhile Ashley has been serving in the Army of Northern Virginia and has been promoted to the rank of major. Having participated in a number of victorious battles, this army is steadily advancing towards the northern states under the orders of General Robert Edward Lee. On July 1, 1863, the army is engaged in battle against the Federals near the village of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg lasted until July 3 and ends in the defeat and retreat of the Confederates. The news of the battle reach Atlanta early but both the outcome and the fates of many of the soldiers remain uncertain for some time after. Many wait to learn news of their relatives and friends. Melanie and Scarlett have a personal interest in the fate of Ashley, whom they both love. When the first lists of casualties reaches Atlanta, both are relieved not to find Ashley among them. But their relief is soon followed by grief as, not surprisingly, Melanie, Scarlett and every resident of Atlanta find many of their acquaintances to be included in the lists. As well, several additions to the lists follow. The battle has been the first major defeat of the Confederates and is considered to have turned the tide of the war.
On December 20, 1863, Ashley returns home. He has received a week-long leave, and it is the first time Melanie and Scarlett have seen him in about two years. The weary soldier is met with the joy and affection of both women and seems to return it. Before leaving to rejoin his unit, Ashley explains to Scarlett his worries about his wife's current health and her fate in case he falls in battle. Ashley meets Scarlett with the specific request to look and care after Melanie in his absence. Scarlett is at first taken by surprise but she agrees. Scarlett accepts Melanie as her new charge and for the first time feels responsible for her sister-in-law and rival in love's health and care. Melanie is left blissfully unaware of the feelings her husband and "sister" have for each other and the latter's new responsibility towards herself.
1864 and later[edit]
Ashley's short visit has apparently been enough for Melanie to be three months pregnant by March 1864. Melanie has wanted a child for some time and already acted as a second mother to her nephew Wade. She is glad for the chance to have her own child. Melanie announces the news to Scarlett as soon as she is certain. She expects her friend to share her joy. Having lost her mother years ago, Melanie also seems to expect Scarlett to assume the role of the experienced woman advising her on her pregnancy. Instead Scarlett reacts in surprise, confusion and even anger to finding Melanie pregnant with Ashley's child. Melanie is unable to grasp the reasons for this reaction but fears that she has somehow hurt her friend. Melanie is also met with the fears of the doctor examining her. According to his examination, Melanie's hip bone seems to be too narrow to safely allow her to give birth. In any case Melanie receives a telegram from Ashley's superior officer explaining that her husband has been reported as missing in action for the last three days. Melanie finds herself believed to be a widow.
Turning to each other for comfort, Melanie and Scarlett reconcile. They spend that night crying in each other's arms while sharing Scarlett's bed. But the news of Ashley's death prove to have been premature. Another report informs the two women that efforts to recover his body have failed and that he is considered likely to have been captured by enemy forces. Anxious over her husband's uncertain fate, Melanie grows restless for some time. Even late at night Scarlett can hear Melanie pacing her bedroom back and forth, apparently suffering from insomnia. This practice gradually exhausts her health and at one point she even passes out in public, an unusual incident for her. Fortunately for Melanie, Rhett happens to be near and returns her home safely. Rhett is worried about her, and ascertaining the reasons behind her current state, he promises to use his connections in Washington, DC to find out whether Major Wilkes has been captured or not. In exchange, Rhett asks Melanie to promise him that she will try to get some rest.
A month later Rhett announces to Melanie and Scarlett what has happened to Ashley. He has been wounded in conflict, captured, and is being held in a prisoner camp in Rock Island, Illinois. The women receive the news with mixed feelings. Their loved one is still alive but for how long is questionable. Rock Island's reputation among the Confederates was no better than that of Andersonville among the Federals; only one quarter of the prisoners held there have ever returned home. The rest die from smallpox, pneumonia and typhus, among other diseases.
Melanie's pregnancy continues even though her health is frail. She is put on bed rest for most of the third trimester of her pregnancy. General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops begin to approach Atlanta. Because of this, Aunt Pittypat and Uncle Peter flee to relatives in Macon, Georgia, and Melanie is left in Scarlett's care. A short while later, Melanie goes into labor. At this time, however, General Sherman is beginning to wage battle with the Home Guard. Scarlett sends her servant, Prissy to find help, but is unable to find any for various reasons. Scarlett and Prissy are then forced to deliver Melanie's baby. The delivery is very difficult due to Melanie's health and body structure.
After her son is born, Melanie and Scarlett make a difficult, dangerous journey to Scarlett's home Tara. There, Melanie, her son Beau, Scarlett and Wade live with Scarlet's father, 2 sisters, and few remaining house servants. They face much hardship, living in near constant starvation. After a few months' time, the war finally comes to an end. Eventually Ashley returns to Tara and Melanie is over-joyed.
Soon, Scarlet re-marries her sister's old flame Frank Kennedy and moves to Atlanta. The Wilkes move there also with their little boy after Melanie persuades Ashley to help Scarlett start a lumber business.
Melanie becomes a social pillar of Atlanta, known for her charity and kindness. She even takes in an old convict, Archie. He, along with India Wilkes, witness Scarlett's embrace with Ashley one day at the mill. Melanie refuses to believe the rumors that there is anything wrong between her husband and 'sister', and saves Scarlett's reputation by graciously asking her to co-hostess Ashley's birthday party that night.
Melanie and Rhett continue to have a good relationship, even as his and Scarlett's marriage falls apart. Rhett says Melanie is one of the few real ladies he's ever known. After Scarlett falls down the stairs and miscarries, Melanie comforts Rhett, who in a drunken state, cries on her lap, lamenting that his wife never loved him. He almost reveals that Scarlett has long been in love with Ashley before he realizes who he's talking to. He subsequently gives up his feelings for Scarlett and focuses his attentions on their daughter Bonnie, who later dies in a riding accident. It is Melanie that convinces the grief-stricken Rhett to allow them to bury Bonnie after her death.
Melanie becomes pregnant again, although Dr. Meade had specifically warned her against it. She weakens considerably after a miscarriage and calls Scarlett to her, tells her how much she's loved her, asks her to take care of Beau and of Ashley, and then dies. Melanie's death serves as a catalyst for the final phase of Scarlett's character growth in the book. Scarlett mourns Melanie's death, and unselfishly thanks God for not allowing the dead woman to know about Ashley's emotional involvement with herself.
References[edit]

External links[edit]


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: Gone with the Wind characters
Fictional characters introduced in 1936







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
Français
Tiếng Việt
Edit links
This page was last modified on 7 November 2013 at 20:39.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






India Wilkes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

India Wilkes

First appearance
Gone with the Wind
Last appearance
Scarlett
Created by
Margaret Mitchell
Portrayed by
Alicia Rhett
Information

Gender
Female
Family
Ashley Wilkes (brother)
Honey Wilkes (sister)
Melanie Hamilton (sister-in-law/cousin)
 Beau Wilkes (nephew, via Ashley)
India Wilkes is a fictional character in the novel and film Gone with the Wind. She is the sister of Ashley Wilkes and the rival of Scarlett O'Hara.
In the novel, India despises Scarlett for stealing the attentions of Stuart Tarleton. India also resents Scarlett for marrying Charles Hamilton, the man that everyone assumed would marry her sister, Honey Wilkes. In the film, India is in love with Charles Hamilton and despises Scarlett for marrying him. The book mentions that the only word that could be used to describe her looks was "plain".
After Scarlett's marriage to Charles, in the novel, Stuart resumes courting India but dies in the American Civil War before they can make their relationship official. Since it is assumed that Stuart would have married India had he lived, she is given the respect accorded to widows. Once afforded this status, she grows more sharp-tongued, and is able to say things that most unmarried women cannot.
India moves in with Ashley and Melanie after they move to Atlanta. When Scarlett's engagement to Rhett Butler is announced, India endorses cutting them both from respectable society. She blames Scarlett for causing the death of her previous (second) husband, Frank Kennedy. India also implies that there had always been more to Scarlett and Ashley's relationship than was apparent. Melanie refuses to believe or listen to her sister-in-law, and makes it clear that if Rhett and Scarlett are shunned, then she will be so as well. Melanie's loyalty to Scarlett and Rhett drives a wedge between herself and India.
India is one of the two people who see Scarlett and Ashley embrace. Because Melanie defends Scarlett and Ashley, India leaves the Wilkes home and moves in with Aunt Pittypat. India apologizes for the quarrel, later on, when Melanie is on her deathbed.
India is a traditional southern Antebellum "lady" who takes the place of hostess and lady of the house after her mother dies. She remains unmarried at the end of Gone with the Wind. India is referred to as an "old maid" by Scarlett.
In the movie, she was played by Alicia Rhett.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

Stub icon This article about a character from a novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




 


Categories: Gone with the Wind characters
Fictional characters introduced in 1936
Novel character stubs





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export









This page was last modified on 28 November 2013 at 05:06.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Scarlett (musical)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For the 2008 musical, see Gone with the Wind (musical).

Scarlett
Gone With The Wind
GWTW London.jpg
Original London Cast recording

Music
Harold Rome
Lyrics
Harold Rome
Book
Kazuo Kikuta (Japanese); Horton Foote (English)
Basis
Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone With the Wind
Productions
1970 Tokyo
 1972 West End
Scarlett is a musical with a score by Harold Rome. The original Japanese book is by Kazuo Kikuta, and the English version of the book is by Horton Foote. The Tokyo production was directed by American director/choreographer Joe Layton, who later directed a production in the London West End. London producer Henry Fielding cancelled his plans for a 1974 Broadway production, and the musical has never been performed on Broadway.
Based on Margaret Mitchell's bestseller Gone with the Wind, it traces the fate of self-centered Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara and her passionately turbulent relationship with dashing blockade runner Rhett Butler, from the days prior to the American Civil War through the war itself and the following period of Reconstruction.


Contents  [hide]
1 Productions
2 Song list (Japanese Cast Album)
3 Song list (London Cast Album)
4 Songs (Los Angeles - First Performance)
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

Productions[edit]
In 1966, a nine-hour play (without music) based on Gone with the Wind opened at the Tokyo Imperial Theatre.[1] This production was highly successful, and Kazuo Kikuta and the Toho Company decided to produce a musical version of Gone with the Wind at the same theatre.[1] Kikuta wrote the book to the new musical, but the rest of the production was largely the work of Americans—the music and lyrics were by American Harold Rome, the director was American Joe Layton, and the musical director was well-known Broadway conductor Lehman Engel. The original Tokyo production was presented in two parts - each for 6 months - and each ran four hours long.[citation needed] The production opened in January 1970 with the title Scarlett.[1]
The show underwent severe trimming when it was translated into English, reduced to one part but still close to 4 hours long. It had a new book adapted by Horton Foote and was rechristened Gone with the Wind. The West End version, produced by Harold Fielding and again directed by Joe Layton, opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1972, with a cast headed by June Ritchie, Harve Presnell, Patricia Michael, and Robert Swann. The majority of reviews praised Ritchie's Scarlett and were duly impressed by Layton's staging; however, they criticized Foote's adaptation of the story, which relied heavily on the audience's prior knowledge of the characters and plot and as a result was sketchy in its presentation of both. Still, Fielding was encouraged enough to schedule a Broadway opening for April 7, 1974.
In August 1973, a revised version of the London production was mounted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles by the city's Civic Light Opera Association, with Lesley Ann Warren, Pernell Roberts, Udana Power and Terence Monk in the leads. The strongly negative reviews prompted Layton to make numerous changes throughout the Los Angeles and subsequent San Francisco runs, but Fielding cancelled his plan to move the show to Broadway. In 1976, Lucia Victor staged a production in Dallas that travelled to three other cities, but that was the last time the musical was produced.
Song list (Japanese Cast Album)[edit]
Act IOverture/He Loves Me
We Belong to You
Scarlett
We Belong to You (Reprise)
Two of a Kind
Two of a Kind (Reprise)/Blissful Christmas/My Soldier/Blissful Christmas (Reprise)
Goodbye My Honey
Lonely Stranger
A Time for Love
What Is Love?
Gambling Man
Which Way is Home?
 Act IIEntracte/Bonnie Blue Flag


Original Japanese cast recording
O'Hara
The Newlyweds Song
Strange and Wonderful
Blueberry Eyes
Little Wonder
Bonnie Gone
Finale

Song list (London Cast Album)[edit]
Act IOverture/Today's The Day
We Belong to You
Tara
Two of a Kind
Blissful Christmas/Home Again/Tomorrow Is Another Day
Lonely Stranger
A Time for Love
Which Way Is Home?
 Act IIEntracte
How Often, How Often
If Only
A Southern Lady
Marrying For Fun
Blueberry Eyes
Strange and Wonderful
Little Wonders
Bonnie Gone
It Doesn't Matter Now/Finale

Songs (Los Angeles - First Performance)[edit]
Note: The score was heavily cut and revised during the Los Angeles & San Francisco runs
Act IOverture/Today's The Day
Cakewalk
We Belong to You
Scarlett
We Belong to You (Reprise)
Bonnie Blue Flag
Bazaar Hymn
Virginia Reel
Quadrille
Two of a Kind
Blissful Christmas
My Soldier
Tomorrow Is Another Day
Ashley's Departure
Where Is My Soldier Boy?/Why Did They Die?/Johnny Is My Darling/Bonnie Blue Flag
Lonely Stranger
Atlanta Burning
Tomorrow Is Another Day (Reprise)
 Act IIIf Only
How Often
Gone With The Wind
How Lucky
A Southern Lady
Marrying For Fun
Brand New Friends
Miss Fiddle-Dee-Dee
Blueberry Eyes
Bonnie Gone
Two Of A Kind (Reprise)
It Doesn't Matter Now

Notes[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c Mandelbaum, 180
References[edit]
Mandelbaum, Ken (1991). Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-06428-4
Performing Arts (September 1973) Los Angeles Civic Light Opera program for Gone with the Wind
External links[edit]
Kay Brown Barrett papers, 1906-1991, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts





[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Harold Rome musicals


















[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell





































 


Categories: 1970 musicals
West End musicals
Musicals based on novels
Gone with the Wind





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export









This page was last modified on 5 August 2013 at 17:48.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Gone with the Wind (musical)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For the 1972 Harold Rome musical, see Scarlett (musical). For the 2006 French musical production of Gone with the Wind, see Autant en emporte le vent.




Gone with the Wind
Gone Wind Musical Poster.jpg
Poster for Original London production

Music
Margaret Martin
Lyrics
Margaret Martin
Book
Margaret Martin and Trevor Nunn
Basis
Book by Margaret Mitchell and 1937 film
Productions
2008 West End
Gone with the Wind is a musical based on the Margaret Mitchell's novel of the same name and its 1939 film adaptation, with music and lyrics by Margaret Martin, and a book by Martin, adapted by Sir Trevor Nunn.
It began previews on 5 April 2008 and officially opened at the New London Theatre in London's West End on 22 April 2008.[1] The production was directed by Sir Trevor Nunn and featured sets by John Napier and costumes by Andreane Neofitu. Darius Danesh and Jill Paice starred as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara respectively.[2] The show was produced by Aldo Scrofani, Colin Ingram, Gary McAvay and the Nederlander Producing Company. The production closed on 14 June 2008, after 79 performances.


Contents  [hide]
1 History
2 Synopsis 2.1 Act I
2.2 Act II
3 Differences from the novel and film
4 Roles and original principal cast
5 Musical numbers
6 Critical response
7 References
8 External links

History[edit]
This was not the first musical version of Gone With the Wind. A musical adaptation by Harold Rome played a year at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1972, featuring Bonnie Langford.[3] Margaret Martin, a newcomer to songwriting and playwriting, contacted the Stephen Mitchell Trust, sending tapes of songs and a draft script, and the Trust eventually agreed to give her the rights to make an adaptation of Gone with the Wind.[3] At about the same time, Martin learned that Nunn was extremely interested in American history, and she sent him the materials as well. They collaborated on revisions over the next couple of years, which resulted in a workshop production in London in 2004.[4] With the support of the Mitchell Trust and producer Aldo Scrofani of Columbia Artists Theatricals, plans began forming for the West End production.[5] Plans for the production were officially confirmed in 2007.[6]
Producer Scrofani said in interviews that their hope was that "this theatrical adaptation will cause our audiences to rediscover this timeless and rich story, while also providing each of them a meaningful and memorable experience".[7] Nunn said that "having now worked on adapting two vast novels for the stage, Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables, I am drawn to the challenge of telling Margaret Mitchell's epic story through words, music and the imaginative resources of the theatre."[5]
After opening to poor reviews and criticism of the length of the show, the producers announced that the show would be cut from its original running time of 3½ hours,[8] and they reduced the running time to 3 hours 10 minutes including interval. Producer Scrofani announced that the production would close on 14 June 2008, after 79 performances, adding that "plans for a New York production are currently on hold."[9]
Synopsis[edit]
Act I[edit]
In 1861 Atlanta, Georgia, 16-year-old Scarlett is the eldest of three daughters living a life of luxury on their father's plantation, Tara. The slaves are working ("Born to be Free"), and Scarlett discovers that Ashley Wilkes, who she secretly loves, is to marry his cousin, Melly Hamilton. Scarlett's father returns home ("On Your Land"), and the family hold evening prayers ("Mrs O'Hara's Prayer").
Scarlett dresses for the barbecue at the Wilkes' plantation. The guests arrive ("Good Time Good Cheer"), and they speculate about dashing Rhett Butler's past. Scarlett flirts with every man to try to get Ashley's attention. Charles Hamilton, Melly's brother, falls in love with Scarlett, while the women pass judgement on her ("She's No Lady"). The men talk about the War, and Rhett states his opinion. Ashley finds Scarlett in the library. She tells him that she loves him, he replies that he cares for her ("Softly") but is to be married. As Ashley leaves, Scarlett sees that Rhett has been in the library and has overheard, telling her she's "no lady" ("She's No Lady" reprise). Outside, Charles Hamilton tells her that War is declared, and as she cannot have Ashley, she agrees to marry him. The men are excited at the prospect of War ("Come Join the Troops"). The couples marry, and both Charles and Ashley join the War. She receives news of Charles' death and in due time their son Wade is born. Scarlett is upset to be a widow with a baby, and her family send her to Atlanta to the home of Aunt Pittypat.
In Atlanta, Scarlett is introduced to the society ladies ("The Very Best People"). The Hamilton ladies are still in mourning for Charles, but they help at the bazaar to raise War funds. Rhett arrives ("I'm Your Man"), and Dr Meade proposes an auction, with the men bidding to lead the dances with the lady of their choice. Rhett bids for Scarlett and scandalises society as he dances with her while she is still in mourning. Mr O'Hara hears about the scandal and wants to bring Scarlett home, but Scarlett blackmails her father into letting her stay; she wishes that she could be "Scarlett O'Hara Again".
In 1863 Rhett brings news from the War and gives out the casualty lists; there are many men dead, and the women of the city lament ("Can This Be All?") Ashley comes home on leave, and Scarlett promises him that she'll look after Melly, he kisses her as he leaves. At Mrs Elsing's home, Rhett questions the War, and Melly defends him as he has the same opinion as Ashley. Melly is pregnant, but news arrives that Ashley is missing.
The fighting closes in on Atlanta, but Melly cannot be moved in her condition, and Scarlett has to stay with her. Prissy says that she can help out with the birth. Rhett asks Scarlett to be his mistress ("I'm Your Man" (reprise)), but she refuses. Melly goes into labour, but the doctor is busy with wounded soldiers. Prissy knows nothing about childbirth, so Scarlett is left to deliver the baby herself. The Yankee army is very near, so Prissy finds Rhett, and they all flee the burning city. Outside Atlanta, stung by Scarlett's words, Rhett goes off to join the army, kissing her as he leaves. Scarlett makes her way back to Tara, but discovers that her mother has died, and her father is mad with grief. She walks to Ashley's plantation but finds it in ruins. The life she once knew is gone forever ("Gone With The Wind").
Act II[edit]
With the declaration that the slaves are freed ("Born to be Free" (reprise)), everything is in scarce supply during 1864. Scarlett says that everyone must work the fields. She shoots and kills a Yankee thief at Tara before ransacking his belongings with Melly ("Desperate Times"). In 1865 the War is over, and Ashley makes his way home. With Reconstruction after the War, the taxes on Tara have increased. Ashley tells Scarlett the world has passed him by, and only Rhett has money now. Scarlett says that they should run away together. Ashley refuses but admits that he loves her. Scarlett plans to find Rhett and get the money from him.
In Atlanta, Scarlett visits Rhett in gaol and tries to pretend that all is well, but he sees her rough hands and realises that she wants money. Scarlett offers to become his mistress, but Rhett refuses as he hasn't any money in Atlanta, and he knows her too well ("Nobody Knows You"). Scarlett thinks Tara is lost, but on her way home she meets Frank Kennedy. He boasts of his business and wealth, and seeing him as a way to save Tara, Scarlett lies that Suellen is marrying another. Two weeks later Scarlett marries Frank and pays the taxes for Tara. Scarlett runs Frank's businesses, but the gossips of Atlanta think her behaviour is wrong. Prissy opines that the world has changed since the War ("I'm Gonna Find My Own").
It is now 1866, and Scarlett hears that her father has died ("On Your Land" (reprise)). Ashley wants to leave Tara, but Scarlett persuades Melly that they must come to Atlanta instead. Scarlett bears Frank's daughter, Ella, and she still runs the businesses despite the danger of travelling alone. Scarlett is attacked while passing the shanty town; Ashley and Frank leave to exact revenge. Men come looking to arrest Ashley for the Klan raid, as Rhett arrives home with Ashley, apparently drunk, with a false alibi about spending the evening with a prostitute. Rhett tells Scarlett that her husband was killed, but Scarlett is more worried about Ashley being injured. As Frank lies in his coffin, Scarlett is drunk, and she agrees to marry Rhett. The slaves celebrate their freedom ("Wings of a Dove"), but they have misgivings about some of the changes.
Scarlett and Rhett return from their honeymoon with gifts, including a petticoat for Mammy, who declares she won't wear it as she does not like Captain Butler. Ashley cannot run Scarlett's mill at a profit, and she tells him he should use convict labour. Ashley cannot bear to see how brutal Scarlett has become, and he blames Rhett. Scarlett realises that Ashley still loves her, and she tells Rhett that she will no longer share a bedroom with him. Rhett says that this is no hardship to him; he is then seen with other women. Scarlett invites her old and new friends to her 'crush' ("Reconstruction Planning") but her old friends criticise her and leave. A drunken Rhett argues with Scarlett about Ashley, saying that tonight, instead of three people, there'll be "Just Two!" as he forcefully takes her to his bed. The next morning, Rhett has gone, but Scarlett realises that he loves her. Later, she is dismayed to find that she is pregnant again, but Rhett is delighted.
In 1867, Scarlett gives birth to a girl, Bonnie. Mammy finally accepts Captain Butler and wears the petticoat. Rhett restores his reputation with society for Bonnie's sake. Bonnie has nightmares and is afraid of the dark, so Rhett sings a lullaby ("Once Upon a Time"). Scarlett tells Mammy that she wants to love Bonnie, but the child only cares for her father ("Every Child"). By 1871, Bonnie is learning to ride her pony, but when she tries to take a jump, she is thrown to the ground. Bonnie dies, and Scarlett blames Rhett. In his grief, he refuses to bury her as she was afraid of the dark, and it takes kind words from Melly to comfort him. Rhett says a final goodbye to Bonnie ("Once Upon a Time" (reprise)). Scarlett feels all alone, and Rhett feels like a stranger ("Alone").
Melly becomes ill with a miscarriage. On her deathbed, she tells Scarlett to look after Ashley, and to be kind to Rhett as he helped her with money without Ashley knowing. Outside, Scarlett realises that Ashley loves Melly, and he never loved her. She runs home, telling Rhett that she must have loved him for years. But she is too late; he says it is over. Scarlett asks him what she will do if he goes, but as he leaves, he says that he doesn't "give a damn". Scarlett decides to return to Tara, knowing that she will win Rhett back somehow as tomorrow is another day ("Gone With The Wind" (reprise)).
Differences from the novel and film[edit]
The musical's story is generally more faithful to the novel than the film, with Scarlett's three children appearing, unlike the film, which portrayed only Bonnie. One character not included on stage is Belle Watling, the prostitute. The slaves have a greater voice, especially Prissy, whose character is more dignified than in the film or novel, as she sings of finding her own way in the world and teaching others.
Roles and original principal cast[edit]
Rhett Butler - Darius Danesh
Scarlett O'Hara - Jill Paice
Ashley Wilkes - Edward Baker-Duly
Melanie Hamilton - Madeleine Worrall
Mammy - NaTasha Yvette Williams
Prissy - Jina Burrows
Gerald O’Hara - Julian Forsyth
Ellen O’Hara / Mrs Elsing - Susannah Fellows
Pork - Ray Shell
Dilcey - Jacqueline Boatswain
Uncle Peter - Leon Herbert
Big Sam - Chris Jarman
Mrs Merryweather - Susan Tracy
John Wilkes / Dr Meade - Jeff Shankley
Mrs Meade - Kathryn Akin
Aunt Pittypat - Susan Jane Tanner
Frank Kennedy - Alan Vicary
Charles Hamilton - David Roberts
Suellen O’Hara - Emily Bryant
Careen O’Hara - Gemma Sutton
Stuart Tarleton - Gareth Chart
Brent Tarleton - Tom Sellwood
Cade Calvert - Alan Winner
Bonnie - Leilah de Meza
Wade Hamilton - Mischa Goodman, Gene Goodman & Guy Whitby
Musical numbers[edit]
Act IBorn to be Free
On Your Land
Ellen's Prayer
Gentle People
She's No Lady
Always In My Mind
Come Join the Troop
The Very Best People
I'm Your Man
Scarlett O'Hara Again
Can This Be All?
I'm Your Man (reprise)
Gone With The Wind
 Act IIBorn to be Free (reprise)
Desperate Times
Nobody Knows You
I'm Gonna Find My Own
On Your Land (reprise)
Wings of a Dove
Reconstruction Bounty
Just Two!
Once Upon a Time
Every Child
Once Upon a Time (reprise)
Alone
Ellen's Prayer (reprise)
Gone With The Wind (reprise)

When the musical opened, it contained two additional songs in Act II: "Abundantly Present" and "This Time". These, and several reprises, were cut in May 2008.[citation needed]
Critical response[edit]
Reviews of the musical were generally negative. Critics found fault with the work's structure and score, stating "the large ensemble combines dialogue with passages of narration from the novel. The songs seem constantly to interrupt the proceedings rather than deepening or advancing the narrative."[10][11] However, The Independent noted that "the score is enriched with spirituals, blues and gospel music, spine-tinglingly well-sung by such cast members as Natasha Yvette Williams's loveably sassy Mammy and Jina Burrows' Prissy."[12] The Independent also praised Danesh and Paice: "The diabolically dashing Darius Danesh brings a seductively insolent charm, a dark velvet voice and a genuine, fugitive pathos to the cynical blockade runner. If Jill Paice hasn't quite nailed the comic, outrageously feline wiliness of Scarlett, she boasts the bright, soaring vocal quality to convey the heroine's indomitable survivor's drive."[12] The Sunday Times wrote, "Frankly, I fear, you won't give a damn."[13][14]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ playbill article, April 22, 2008, "Gone with the Wind Opens at the New London Theatre April 22"
2.Jump up ^ Playbill.com article about the show
3.^ Jump up to: a b Article on the background of the show
4.Jump up ^ New York Times article featuring Margaret Martin
5.^ Jump up to: a b Playbill News: Trevor Nunn to Direct Gone with the Wind Musical
6.Jump up ^ Trevor Nunn to Direct Musical Version of Gone With the Wind: Theater News on TheaterMania.com
7.Jump up ^ Gone With The Wind to open at New London Theatre: LondonTheatreDirect.com
8.Jump up ^ "London's Gone with the Wind to Undergo Overhaul" (Playbill.com), 5 May 2008 Retrieved 7 May 2008
9.Jump up ^ Gans, Andrew and Mark Shenton. "London Musical Gone with the Wind to Close", Playbill.com, 30 May 2008
10.Jump up ^ whatsonstage.com Review roundup, 23 April 2008
11.Jump up ^ The Telegraph: "Gone with the Wind: Frankly, my dear, it's a damn long night", 23 April 2008
12.^ Jump up to: a b The Independent: "First Night: Gone With The Wind, New London Theatre, London", 23 April 2008
13.Jump up ^ Hart, Christopher. "Gone with the Wind is nothing more than a flatulent raspberry", The Sunday Times
14.Jump up ^ Roundup of review quotes: Akbar, Arifa. "Nunn hopes a shorter 'Gone with the Wind' will make the critics sweeter", The Independent, 3 May 2008
External links[edit]
"New music theatre adaptation of Gone With the Wind at New London Theatre in April 2008", 1 June, 2007
"Actors picked for Trevor Nunn's 'Gone With the Wind' musical" 2 February 2008


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: West End musicals
2008 musicals
Musicals based on novels
Gone with the Wind





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
Português
Edit links
This page was last modified on 30 July 2013 at 17:30.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Scarlett (Ripley novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2007)

Scarlett
Early edition cover
Early edition cover

Author
Alexandra Ripley
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Historical, Romance, Novel
Publisher
Warner Books
Publication date
September 1991
Media type
Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN
ISBN 0-446-51507-8 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number
23870219
Dewey Decimal
813/.54 20
LC Classification
PS3568.I597 S27 1991
Scarlett is a novel written in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley as a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. The book debuted on The New York Times bestsellers list, but both critics and fans of the original novel found Ripley's version to be inconsistent with the literary quality of Gone with the Wind.
Reviewing the novel for The New York Times in 1991, Janet Maslin said the book was a "stunningly uneventful 823-page holding action." Donald McCaig, author of Rhett Butler's People, said it was his impression that the Margaret Mitchell estate was "thoroughly embarrassed" by Scarlett.[1] Scarlett, universally panned by critics, nevertheless was a commercial success. The book sold millions of copies and remains in print.[2]
It was adapted as a television mini-series of the same title in 1994 starring Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Scarlett O'Hara.
Plot summary[edit]
The book begins where Gone with the Wind left off, with Scarlett attending the funeral of her former sister-in-law and rival for Ashley Wilkes' affection, Melanie Wilkes, at which her estranged husband, Rhett Butler, is not present. Scarlett, heartbroken and aggravated that Rhett left her, sets out for Tara and is saddened when she learns that Mammy, her mainstay since birth, is dying. She sends a telegram to notify Rhett about Mammy under the name of Will Benteen (her sister, Suellen's, husband), because she knows that Rhett won't come if he suspects Scarlett is there. Before Mammy dies, she makes Rhett swear to look after Scarlett. Rhett agrees, although he has no intention of honoring the request. After Mammy's death, Rhett and Scarlett fight, which culminates in Rhett leaving and Scarlett returning to the Atlanta house, determined to win Rhett back.
Scarlett travels to Charleston to visit Rhett's family and tries to corner him by winning his mother's affection. She convinces Rhett to take her for a sail on the harbour, where their boat capsizes during a terrible storm. Scarlett and Rhett swim to an island, where they make love in a cave. Rhett initially denies, then admits, that he loves Scarlett, but he does not want to "lose himself" over her again. Back in Charleston, Rhett leaves Scarlett near death at his mother's house, telling her, in a letter, that while he admires her bravery, he will never see her again.
After Scarlett regains her strength, she leaves Charleston with her two aunts, Pauline and Eulalie, to attend her maternal grandfather's birthday celebration in Savannah. She leaves a note to Rhett's mother with Rhett's sister, Rosemary, who burns the note.
Scarlett connects with the Savannah O'Haras against her maternal family's wishes. Scarlett's grandfather offers Scarlett his inheritance if she remains with him in Savannah until his death and avoids contact with her father's side of the family. Scarlett refuses and storms out of the house. She goes to stay with her cousin Jamie and his family. Soon another cousin named Colm, a priest from Ireland, joins them. Scarlett agrees to travel to Ireland with him. By this time Scarlett has realized that she is pregnant with Rhett's child but she keeps her pregnancy hidden.
In Ireland, Scarlett is heartily welcomed by her Irish kin. Exploring with Colm, they pass an old house called 'Ballyhara'; it was O'Hara land long ago before the English seized it. Scarlett soon receives a notification of divorce from Rhett. She makes plans to leave for America but learns that Rhett is now married to Anne Hampton, who is said to resemble Melanie Wilkes. Heartbroken, Scarlett decides to remain in Ireland. She works with lawyers and leaves her two-third share of her father's plantation, Tara, to her son Wade Hamilton (fathered by her first husband, Charles Hamilton, brother of Melanie Wilkes), buys Ballyhara and settles down in Ireland, to her Irish family's delight. She and Colm tell everyone that her husband died rather than tell the truth that she was divorced.
As Ballyhara is restored, Scarlett eagerly awaits the birth of her child, praying for it to be a girl and vowing to be a good mother. She is well respected by the townspeople and her family, earning her a reputation as a hard worker. She becomes known as The O'Hara, a title reserved for the undisputed leader of a family clan.
On Halloween night, her water breaks. Her housekeeper, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and the midwife whom Colm summons are unable to handle the situation, and it appears that Scarlett will die. Instead, she is saved by a wise old woman who lives near the haunted tower. The Caesarian birth is successful, but internal damage is done to Scarlett, who can no longer have children. The baby, a girl, is born with dark skin like Rhett's, but with blue eyes that slowly turn green. Scarlett names her Katie Colm O'Hara, and calls her "Cat" because of her green eyes.
After Scarlett has settled down in Ballyhara, she runs into Rhett a number of times—in America while she is on the boat to Boston, at a fair where she admits she still loves him, and at a hunt a week later. He still does not know he has a child. He then seeks her out at a society ball and Scarlett realizes he still loves her.
Lord Fenton, one of the wealthiest men in Europe, pursues Scarlett, wanting to marry her. He wants Scarlett to bear his children after seeing Cat's fiery spirit and fearlessness. He also plans to unite their estates; he owns Adamstown, the land adjacent to Scarlett's. Angered by his arrogance, Scarlett refuses and orders him out of her house. Scarlett leaves for Dublin for her yearly visit for parties and hunts. She later decides to accept Lord Fenton when she hears that Anne is pregnant with Rhett’s second child (the first child was lost to a miscarriage).
The news leaks out about her engagement and a drunken Rhett insults her when she runs into him at a horse race. A friend tells Scarlett that Anne and the baby both died, and she rushes back to Ballyhara hopeful that Rhett will come looking for her. She finds English there with a warrant to arrest Colm, who is the head of a group of Irish terrorists. Colm is murdered and Rosaleen Fitzpatrick sets fire to the English arsenal to avenge him. The villagers, thinking Scarlett is in league with the English, burn her house down. Rhett comes to her rescue and tries to convince her to escape with him, but Scarlett runs around her house yelling for her daughter. When she tells Rhett that he is Cat's father, he helps her search. After finding Cat, the three climb into a high tower on Ballyhara and stay there for the night. Rhett and Scarlett both say "I love you". They wake up the next morning ready to start their new lives together and leave Ireland.
TV adaptation[edit]
Main article: Scarlett (TV miniseries)
It was adapted as a television mini-series of the same title in 1994 starring Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Scarlett O'Hara. The plot of the mini-series varies considerably from the book.
References[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
Portal icon 1990s portal
1.Jump up ^ Whitworth, Melissa (November 20, 2007). "Fiction: This Rhett Butler does give a damn". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
2.Jump up ^ "Alexandra Ripley, 'Scarlett' Author, Dies at 70", New York Times, January 27, 2004.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: 1991 novels
20th-century American novels
Sequel novels
American Civil War novels
Gone with the Wind
Novels set in Atlanta, Georgia
Fan fiction works







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
Deutsch
Français
Italiano
Magyar
日本語
Polski
Português
Русский
Edit links
This page was last modified on 6 January 2014 at 23:14.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Scarlett (TV miniseries)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Scarlett
Scarlett (TV miniseries).jpg
Genre
Romantic drama
Directed by
John Erman
Produced by
John Erman
Doris Kirch
Robert Halmi Sr.
Larry Strichman
Written by
Alexandra Ripley (Novel)
William Hanley
Starring
Joanne Whalley
Timothy Dalton
Stephen Collins
Music by
John Morris
Editing by
Malcolm Cooke
 Keith Palmer
 John W. Wheeler
Country
 United States
Language
English
Release date
November 13, 1994
Running time
360 mins.
No. of episodes
4
Scarlett is a 1994 six hour miniseries loosely based on the sequel to Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone with the Wind, written by Alexandra Ripley. The series was filmed at 53 locations in the United States and abroad, and stars Joanne Whalley as Scarlett O'Hara, Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler, and Sean Bean as Lord Richard Fenton as well as many other notable British and American actors.


Contents  [hide]
1 Synopsis 1.1 Return to Tara
1.2 Going to Charleston
1.3 Savannah
1.4 Ireland
1.5 Katie Colm O'Hara
1.6 Lord Fenton
2 Cast
3 Awards and nominations
4 External links

Synopsis[edit]
The series begins with Scarlett attending the funeral of Melanie Wilkes, her ex-sister-in-law and rival for Ashley Wilkes' affection, at which her estranged husband, Rhett Butler, is not present. She, heartbroken that he left her, sets out for Tara and is saddened when she learns that Mammy, her mainstay since birth, is dying. When she arrives there, she sends a telegram to notify Rhett about Mammy under the name of Will Benteen (her sister, Suellen's, husband), because she knows that he won't come if he suspects she is there. Before Mammy passes away, she makes him swear to look after "her lamb", Miss Scarlett. He agrees, although he has no intention of honoring the request. After she dies, he and Scarlett have another snipe-filled encounter, which culminates in him leaving and her returning to the Atlanta house, determined to win him back.
Return to Tara[edit]
This section is practically identical to that of the book regarding Scarlett's actions at the funeral and Mammy's death bed.
Going to Charleston[edit]
The major differences in Charleston are that of the attitude and demeanors of the characters, but most notably Scarlett and Anne. Scarlett is not shown struggling with her unease in society but rather is criticized when Anne sees her and Ashley go into his hotel room together, resulting in a steamy kiss. Anne is completely different from her counterpart in the novel; while she is supposed to be a clone of Melanie, she shyly, yet coyly, flirts with Rhett and does other things that neither her character in the book nor Melanie ever would have done. The series continues to follow the relationship created between them after the book ceases doing so.
Savannah[edit]
Scarlett continues to distance herself from the same character in the novel as her relationship with her kin is not discovering and assimilating her Irish heritage and family, as much as escaping from her grandfather's household and passing the time. Her decision to go to Ireland is also preceded by cutting off all ties to America as well as the details concerning buying her sister Carreen's share of Tara, which had been donated to the convent as a dowry when she became a nun.
Ireland[edit]
Once in Ireland, Scarlett is faced with two main conflicts that differ from what her struggles were in the novel. She is pursued by Lord Richard Fenton, of whom her kin disapprove. She also faces quandaries and mixed emotions over the physical force the Irish rebels use against British rule, and it is contrasted to the way the English treated the Irish to how the South was treated by the North.
Katie Colm O'Hara[edit]
Scarlett keeps her daughter's birth a secret from Rhett to spite him, thinking that if Katie grows up not knowing her father she will, unlike Bonnie, not love him. The day that Rhett finally does meet his daughter, he will realize that she does not love him or even know him, thus giving Scarlett her revenge. Katie is barely talked about beyond this - her role in the book as the possible manifestation of a demon is entirely deleted. Anne Hampton-Butler also travels to Ireland with Rhett, which never occurred in the novel, and she even has a lengthy conversation with Scarlett. Her death from yellow fever is also detailed.
Lord Fenton[edit]
Lord Fenton's character is much more evil than in the novel. He forces a servant girl named Mary to have sex with him, and he also rapes Scarlett. Mary kills him in retaliation, but Scarlett is accused. The plot completely veers from the novel at this point; when Scarlett is put on trial, Rhett comes to her defense, after having learned about Katie. It is also discovered that Colm was killed by Lord Fenton when Colm wanted Fenton to support Mary who was pregnant with Fenton's child. Mary attempts suicide by drowning herself in the river, but is saved by Rhett. At the trial, Mary is still reluctant to confess that she killed Fenton, but does so after Scarlett is found guilty of murder. Later, Rhett and Scarlett make up with one another and decide to travel the world with Katie.
Cast[edit]
Joanne Whalley as Scarlett O'Hara
Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler
Stephen Collins as Ashley Wilkes
Sean Bean as Lord Fenton
Esther Rolle as Mammy
Colm Meaney as Colm O'Hara
John Gielgud as Pierre Robillard (Scarlett's maternal grandfather)
Annabeth Gish as Anne Hampton-Butler
Julie Harris as Eleanor Butler (Rhett's mother)
Jean Smart as Sally Brewton
Ray McKinnon as Will Benteen (husband of Scarlett's sister Suellen)
Ann-Margret as Belle Watling
Barbara Barrie as Pauline Robillard (one of Scarlett's spinster aunts)
Paul Winfield as Big Sam
Awards and nominations[edit]

Year
Award
Result
Category
Recipient
1995 American Society of Cinematographers Nominated Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Mini-Series Tony Imi
Emmy Award Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special Marit Allen
(For episode 1)
Won Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Special Tricia Cameron and Linda De Andrea
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Special Brian Ackland-Snow, Joseph Litsch, Josie MacAvin, and Rodger Maus
(For episode 1)
External links[edit]

Portal icon Television in the United States portal
Portal icon 1990s portal
Scarlett at the Internet Movie Database
Scarlett at allmovie
Scarlett at the TCM Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: 1990s American television series
1994 American television series debuts
1994 American television series endings
American drama films
American television miniseries
English-language films
Films based on novels
Romantic epic films
Sequel films
Television programs based on novels
Television series by Pinewood Studios
Gone with the Wind


Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
العربية
Deutsch
Italiano
Polski
Português
Русский
Svenska
Edit links
This page was last modified on 24 December 2013 at 01:22.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






Rhett Butler's People
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Rhett Butler's People
Cover of a book titled Rhett Butler's People.
The cover of the hardcover edition

Author
Donald McCaig
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Historical novel, Romance
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Publication date
November 2007 (hardcover)
Pages
512 (hardcover)
ISBN
ISBN 0312262515 (hardcover)
Preceded by
Gone with the Wind
Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig is an authorized sequel to Gone with the Wind. It was published in November 2007.
Fully authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate, Rhett Butler’s People is a novel that parallels Gone with the Wind from Rhett Butler's perspective.[1] The book was unveiled on November 3, 2007[1] after several years of setbacks and two previous authors.[2][3] Both Ema Tennant and Pat Conroy had been previously commissioned by the estate to produce the book.[2]
McCaig chooses to disregard the novel Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. He does not acknowledge its existence in the canon of Gone with the Wind nor does his novel incorporate any of its characters. McCaig's impression is that the Margaret Mitchell estate was "thoroughly embarrassed" by Ripley's novel.[4] The book attempts to present a semi-journalistic view of the life and times of Rhett Butler, while remaining faithful to the original Mitchell work. The Rhett-Scarlett love-story is downplayed in the book.
The novel begins with a duel which is mentioned in Gone with the Wind. This is the reason that Rhett is not received in Charleston. Eventually the novel flashes back to when Rhett is twelve. It continues through the time until Gone with the Wind and retells the story. The story is not completely from Rhett's perspective. It proceeds to tell other moments from the time during the original story and then proceeds to add a new ending to the story. The book only goes a short ways past the timeline of Gone with the Wind (unlike the sequel Scarlett, which travels several years further).
Reception[edit]
[icon] This section requires expansion. (November 2008)
The Daily Telegraph described McCaig's Butler as "touchy-feely".[4] In The New York Times, Stephen Carter noted that the character of Rhett Butler was made into a more human, flawed person than either Mitchell or Ripley portrayed him to be. However, he stated that the novel transformed Rhett from the man of mystery that drew readers to him into "a version of the angst-ridden, on-the-make, love-struck antihero of modern fiction: Rhett Butler as channeled by Rabbit Angstrom [of Rabbit, Run] or T. S. Garp [of The World According to Garp]." He then wondered if such a Rhett was one wanted by readers.[5]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Second 'Gone with the Wind' sequel ready". Yahoo News. October 28, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Rich, Motoko (May 16, 2007). "Rhett, Scarlett and Friends Prepare for Yet Another Encore". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
3.Jump up ^ Patrick, Bethanne (November 7, 2007). "Gone but Not Forgotten: Rhett Butler's People". The Washington Post. pp. C08.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Whitworth, Melissa (November 20, 2007). "Fiction: This Rhett Butler does give a damn". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
5.Jump up ^ Carter, Stephen L. (November 4, 2007). "Almost a Gentleman". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
External links[edit]

Portal icon 2000s portal
Portal icon Novels portal
Portal icon United States portal
Official Site for Rhett Butler's People


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 




Stub icon This article about a historical novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




Stub icon This article about a romance novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




 


Categories: Sequel novels
21st-century American novels
2007 novels
Gone with the Wind
Novels set in Atlanta, Georgia
Historical novel stubs
Romance novel stubs







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
日本語
Edit links
This page was last modified on 22 August 2013 at 07:27.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






The Wind Done Gone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2011)

The Wind Done Gone
TWDG.jpg
Author
Alice Randall
Country
United States
Language
English
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Publication date
1 May 2001
Media type
Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages
210 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN
ISBN 0-618-10450-X (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number
45002181
Dewey Decimal
813/.6 21
LC Classification
PS3568.A486 W56 2001
The Wind Done Gone (2001) is the first novel written by Alice Randall. It was a bestselling historical novel that reinterprets the famous American novel Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Characters
3 Legal controversy
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

Plot summary[edit]
The plot of Gone with the Wind revolves around a pampered Southern woman named Scarlett O'Hara, who lives through the American Civil War and Reconstruction. The Wind Done Gone is the same story, but told from the viewpoint of Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett's plantation and the daughter of Scarlett's father and Mammy; the title is an African American Vernacular English sentence that might be rendered "The Wind Has Gone" in Standard American English. Cynara's name comes from the Ernest Dowson poem Non sum qualís eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, a line from which ("I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind") was the origin of Mitchell's novel's title as well.
Sold from the O'Haras, Cynara eventually makes her way back to Atlanta and becomes the mistress of a white businessman. She later leaves him for a black aspiring politician, eventually moving with him to Reconstruction Washington, D.C.
The book consciously avoids using the names of Mitchell's characters or locations. Cynara refers to her sister as "Other", rather than Scarlett, and to Other's husband as "R" instead of Rhett Butler. Other is in love with "Dreamy Gentleman" (Ashley Wilkes), although he is married to "Mealy Mouth" (Melanie Wilkes). The magnificence of the O'Haras' house, Tara, is reduced to "Tata" or "Cotton Farm", and Twelve Oaks is renamed for its builders, "Twelve Slaves Strong as Trees".
Characters[edit]
Cynara – The narrator of the novel, the recently-freed slave is the daughter of white plantation owner Planter and his slave Mammy. She has a lifelong rivalry with her half-sister Other, sparked by jealousy that Mammy paid more attention to the white baby. They both came to love R.
Mammy - Cynara's mother and Other's wet nurse, Mammy doted on Other while neglecting her own daughter. Her masters believe she is a loyal slave, but the other slaves suspect that she killed Lady and Planter's male children—given to her to nurse—so that Planter would be Cotton Farm's last white master. Her real name, Pallas, is so rarely used that her daughter didn't learn it until after her death. A clear parallel to Gone with the Wind 's Mammy, she is the only major character called by the same name in both books.
Other – The daughter of Planter and Lady, Other formed a strong bond with her wet nurse Mammy. When her youngest daughter dies in an accident and her husband R. leaves her, she returns to Mammy and the Cotton Farm. Parallel to Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.
R. – Other's husband R. leaves his wife and takes Cynara as a mistress and kept woman. Cynara sees him as a prize that she can win in her rivalry with her half-sister Other. While R. loves Cynara for her beauty, he never tries to understand her. Parallel to Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.
Beauty - A brothel owner who once owned Cynara, Beauty is a source of advice for the young woman. Although she had an affair with R., Cynara believes she is a lesbian. Parallel to Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind.
Garlic - Planter's manservant Garlic is the architect of his master's success, his master's marriage and the house Tata. He used his wits and patience to manipulate Planter, with the goal of becoming the estate's real master. Cynara suspects that he may also be the mastermind behind Planter's death. Parallels Pork in Gone with the Wind.
Lady - After the death of her cousin Filipe, her only love, Lady joined Planter in a chaste marriage. Hurt by the close relationship between Other and Mammy, she would sometimes care for and breast-feed Cynara. She kept a secret that could destroy her family: she learned that one of her distant ancestors was black, which by the One-drop rule made her and her children Negro. Parallel to Ellen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.
Planter - Though he doted on his daughter Cynara when she was young, he gave her away to another family when he realized that she was Other's rival. His passion was for Mammy, not for his wife. Parallel to Gerald O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.
The Dreamy Gentleman - The unobtainable knight of Other's dreams, the Dreamy Gentleman chose to marry his plain cousin Mealy Mouth and live respectably. As a homosexual, he was horrified by Other's advances; he secretly loved Miss Priss' brother. When his lover revealed the affair to his wife, Mealy Mouth had the slave whipped to death. Parallels Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.
Miss Priss - Garlic's daughter holds a grudge against Mealy Mouth, whom she blames for two of her brothers' deaths. One of her brothers was whipped to death when Mealy Mouth discovered his affair with her husband. The other starved to death as a baby when his mother became wet nurse to Mealy Mouth's child. The whites believe she was psychologically broken by her brothers' deaths, but the slaves believe that she is a crafty woman who is responsible for Mealy Mouth's death. Probable parallel to Prissy in Gone with the Wind.
Legal controversy[edit]
The estate of Margaret Mitchell sued Randall and her publishing company, Houghton Mifflin, on the grounds that The Wind Done Gone was too similar to Gone with the Wind, thus infringing its copyright. The case attracted numerous comments from leading scholars, authors, and activists, regarding what Mitchell's attitudes would have been and how much The Wind Done Gone copies from its predecessor. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated an injunction against publishing the book in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin (2001), the case was settled in 2002 when Houghton Mifflin agreed to make an unspecified donation to Morehouse College in exchange for Mitchell's estate dropping the litigation.[1]
The cover of the book bears a seal identifying it as "The Unauthorized Parody." It is parody in the broad legal sense: a work that comments on or criticizes a prior work. This characterization was important in the Suntrust case. However, the book is not a comedy, as the term "parody" would imply in its common usage.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "‘Wind Done Gone’ copyright case settled | Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press". Rcfp.org. 2002-05-29. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
Randall, Alice (June 2001). The Wind Done Gone. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-10450-X.  (paperback ISBN 0-618-21906-4, CD ISBN 0-618-19424-X)
Further reading[edit]
Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas, p. 198.
External links[edit]
"'Gone With the Wind' parody draws challenges, supporters". CNN. 2001-04-13.
"Settlement reached over 'Wind Done Gone'". Freedom Forum. Associated Press. 2002-05-10.


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

 


Categories: 2001 novels
21st-century American novels
Debut novels
Parallel literature
Parody novels
Gone with the Wind
Houghton Mifflin books








Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export









This page was last modified on 20 December 2013 at 05:25.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






The Scarlett O'Hara War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2013)
The Scarlett O'Hara War is a 1980 made for TV movie directed by John Erman. It is based on the novel Moviola by Garson Kanin. The film is set against the backdrop of late 1930s Hollywood as the search for Scarlett O'Hara begins to unfold.


Contents  [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Reception, Filming Locations, and Additional Details
4 References
5 External links

Synopsis[edit]
In 1936, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind is released and it is an instant nationwide sensation. As all things in Hollywood go, the movie rights are up for grabs and every studio in Hollywood wants in on it. While having lunch at the MGM dining room, Louis B. Meyer is talking to his son-in-law David O. Selznick about the film rights. In time, Selznick establishes his own production company, Selznick International Pictures, and wants his studio to have a film that will cement both its fame and his as well.
Back at MGM, Joan Crawford is negotiating the idea of her portraying the acclaimed heroine, even getting Selznick to come back to her place to spend the night to "seal the deal". However, other actresses must be tested in order to expand possibilities. One of the first to do this is Paulette Goddard and her screen test is the most praised out of them all. Tallulah Bankhead comes down from New York and auditions for the role and although she herself is a Southerner who could easily play the part, Selznick decides to give her more tests and seek other candidates. But when Louella Parsons gets wind of this, she misinforms her radio audience that Tallulah has gotten the part, thanks to the influential power of her father William Brockman Bankhead. When this is announced, Joan Crawford throws her radio at a mirror and Paulette makes a beeline to the study of her lover, Charles Chaplin, announcing that Tallulah has gotten the part.
After this error has been cleared and the actresses have been reassured that the role is still up for grabs, the casting process continues. One day while Clark Gable and Myron Selznick are hunting, Gable mentions that he is being considered for the role of Rhett Butler. Fleming agrees that Gable would be an appropriate choice but Gable is uncertain about accepting the role because the film is to be directed by George Cukor, a woman's director. Gable first tries to withdraw from the very idea but later goes forth with the role after Louis B. Meyer threatens him with a suspension. It isn't long before Gable's love interest Carole Lombard is considered for the part.
One night at the Selznick lot, a party is thrown to honor the actresses who are closest to winning the role of Scarlett and entertaining such stars as Joan Bennett, Margaret Sullavan, Jean Arthur, and Miriam Hopkins. Tallulah Bankhead is there, too, sitting at the table saying to herself, "Oh God, when will it ever stop?". While at this party, George Cukor is talking with the actresses, seeing if they would be interested to star in his new film The Women (1939 film) after Gone With The Wind is filmed. When it comes time to have dinner at the party, Tallulah and Carole, who are sitting with Selznick between them, decide to get back at the producer for putting them through this acting contest. They stand up to make an announcement, pour their soup bowls onto his head, and declare, "Frankly my dear we don't give a damn". Laughter ensues.
Later in 1938 Selznick has still not decided who he'll have as his Scarlett after Paulette Goddard is denied the part for failing to verify whether she is married to Charlie Chaplin. As the burning of Atlanta scene is to begin for a test sequence, his brother Myron Selznick arrives with a new actress. When he directs Selznick to look at her, David first refuses but after more badgering finally submits. When the young actress removes her hat, he sees the beautiful Vivien Leigh and informs her that she is his Scarlett. The rest is film history.
Cast[edit]
Tony Curtis... David O. Selznick
Bill Macy... Myron Selznick
Harold Gould... Louis B. Mayer
Sharon Gless... Carole Lombard
George Furth... George Cukor
Edward Winter... Clark Gable
Barrie Youngfellow... Joan Crawford
Carrie Nye... Tallulah Bankhead
Clive Revill... Charlie Chaplin
Gwen Humble... Paulette Goddard
Jane Kean... Louella Parsons
Marianne Taylor... Katharine Hepburn
Gypsi DeYoung... Lucille Ball
Vicki Belmonte... Jean Arthur
Sheilah Wells... Miriam Hopkins
Morgan Brittany... Vivien Leigh
Reception, Filming Locations, and Additional Details[edit]
At the 1980 Emmy Awards, The Scarlett O'Hara War won two awards for make-up by Richard Blair and costume design by Travilla.[1] It was nominated in five categories; Outstanding Director in a Limited Series or Special, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Special (Tony Curtis), Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series (Harold Gould), and Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series (Carrie Nye).[2] At the Golden Globe Awards in 1981 the movie was nominated for Best TV Series in the Drama category.[3]
A large percent of the studio scenes were filmed on Stages 12 and 19 at the Warner Bros. Burbank Studios in Burbank, California.[4] This film was so well received that a follow up was made entitled The Silent Lovers (1980) which was also set in the 1930s Hollywood and focused on the ill-fated relationship of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.[5][6] The distribution company for this film was by Warner Bros. Television.[7]
Actress Morgan Brittany actually reprised her role as Vivien Leigh; in 1976 she first portrayed the famed actress in Gable and Lombard. Also, actress Annie Potts, of Designing Women fame, has a small, uncredited role as a starlet who auditions for the role of Scarlett.
The complete film is one of the bonus features on the Blu-ray Bonus disc (disc 2) included with the 70th Anniversary Limited Edition of "Gone With the Wind" from Warner Home Video.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081458/awards
2.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081458/awards
3.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081458/awards
4.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081458/locations
5.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081458/movieconnections
6.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081514/
7.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081458/
External links[edit]
The Scarlett O'Hara War at the Internet Movie Database
 


Categories: 1980 films
Films based on actual events
Films set in California
Films set in the 1930s
American biographical films
English-language films
American television films
1980 television films
Films based on novels
Warner Bros. films
Gone with the Wind





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export





Languages
Deutsch
Edit links
This page was last modified on 28 May 2013 at 01:06.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   






The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
The Making of a Legend- Gone with the Wind.jpg
Directed by
David Hinton
Produced by
Daniel Selznick
L. Jeffrey Selznick
Jonathan Wickham
Written by
David Thomson
Starring
Christopher Plummer (Narrator)
Music by
Greg Crawford
Max Steiner (original GWTW music recordings)
Cinematography
Glenn Roland
Editing by
Bobby Jones
Distributed by
Turner Entertainment
Daniel Selznick Properties
MGM/UA Home Entertainment
Release dates
October 1988
Running time
124 min.
Country
 United States
Language
English
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind is a 1988 documentary outlining the successes and challenges of the casting, filming, and legacy of the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, from concept to finished product. The documentary focuses on David O. Selznick from the time of the book's publication to the Academy Awards ceremony of 1940. Included are interviews with many of the crew and office personnel involved in making the film. Producer David O. Selznick struggled to control his project, working with three directors along the way--George Cukor, Victor Fleming and Sam Wood. Each had their own vision and the strong-willed men often clashed.[1]
The Making of a Legend brings up many of the "what ifs?" that arose as different scenarios were discussed. Among these were the possibilities of Errol Flynn and Gary Cooper as Rhett Butler.[1]
Cast[edit]
Christopher Plummer ... Narrator (voice)
L. Jeffrey Selznick ... David O. Selznick (voice)
Arthur E. Arling ... Himself - Camera Operator (as Arthur Arling)
Katherine Brown ... Herself - Eastern Story Editor for David O. Selznick (as Kay Brown Barrett)
Arthur Fellows ... Himself - Assistant to George Cukor
Raymond A. Klune ... Himself - Production Manager in 'Gone with the Wind' (as Ray Klune)
Silvia Shulman Lardner ... Herself - Secretary to David O. Selznick
James E. Newcom ... Himself - Associate Film Editor in 'Gone with the Wind' (as James Newcom)
Marcella Rabwin ... Herself - Executive Assistant to David O. Selznick
Harry L. Wolf ... Himself - Assistant Cameraman in 'Gone with the Wind' (as Harry Wolf)
Evelyn Keyes ... Herself - Actress in 'Gone with the Wind'
Butterfly McQueen ... Herself - Actress in 'Gone with the Wind'
Ann Rutherford ... Herself - Actress in 'Gone with the Wind'
Sunny Lash ... Herself - Secretary and Friend to Vivien Leigh
William Erickson ... Himself - Preview Audience Member
Johnny Albright ... Himself - Extra in 'Gone with the Wind'
Phillip Roth ... Himself
Julie Landau ... Herself
External links[edit]
The Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind at the Internet Movie Database
Official DVD Website
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b [1][dead link]


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


Characters
Scarlett O'Hara ·
 Rhett Butler ·
 Ashley Wilkes ·
 Melanie Hamilton ·
 India Wilkes ·
 Others
 

Adaptations
Film ·
 Harold Rome musical ·
 Margaret Martin musical
 

Related works
Scarlett (miniseries) ·
 Rhett Butler's People ·
 The Wind Done Gone ·
 The Scarlett O'Hara War ·
 The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
 

Related topics
American Civil War ·
 Confederate States of America ·
 Antebellum ·
 Reconstruction ·
 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
 

Stub icon This article about a documentary film about the arts is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




 


Categories: English-language films
American documentary films
Documentary films about films
1988 films
1980s documentary films
Gone with the Wind
Peabody Award winning broadcasts
Arts documentary film stubs





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk










Read

Edit

View history









 Search 






Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools










Print/export









This page was last modified on 21 August 2013 at 01:28.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki