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The Producer: David O. Selznick (Film Daily, 1939)"Observers of the career of David O. Selznick see his enterprises this year the culmination of a dream....The most lavish motion picture project ever conceived, 'Gone With the Wind', is already acknowledged as Selznick's chef d'oeuvre and the picture destined to mark the peak of cinema progress during the past 50 years. Executives of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which company released the picture, as well as those of Selznick International who have seen it, are unanimous in declaring it the greatest picture ever made, and the most frequent comment heard today from those who have observed it in production is 'No one could have made it but Selznick.'" Vivien Leigh to Play Scarlet (Photoplay, 1939)A short notice from a Hollywood fan magazine announcing that Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley: 1913 – 1967), an actress largely unknown to U.S. audiences, had been cast to play the roll of 'Scarlet'. Accompanied by a black and white head shot, this five paragraph article outlines her genetic background, her marriage to Leigh Holman, and her thoughts concerning the upcoming roll.
"Will she succeed as 'Scarlet'? That, of course, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, wouldn't it be sporting to withold judgment until 'Gone with the Wind' is finished?" Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith. An Interview with Margaret Mitchell (Yank, 1945)A YANK MAGAZINE interview with the author of Gone with the Wind (1936). At the time this article was printed, Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949; Pulitzer Prize 1937) was an American publishing phenomenon; "Gone with the Wind" (or GWTW, to those in the know) was said to be the fastest selling novel in the history of American publishing. Her one book had a sales record of 50,000 copies in one day and approximately 1,500,000 during it's first year. By May of 1941 the sales reached 3,368,000 in the English language alone; of the eighteen translations that were printed, the most popular among them was in German (having sold 500,000 copies): an unprecedented popularity. This interview concerns her continuing popularity -the masses who insist that she write a sequel and the soldiers who write wondering if she really is like Scarlet.
Margaret Mitchell and her Novel (Coronet Magazine, 1961)"What was the real origin of "Gone With The Wind"? Margaret Mitchell referred to a simple incident in her childhood. One afternoon, her mother took her on a buggy ride through the countryside around Atlanta, showing her all the once proud plantation homes that stood in crumbling shame from the Civil War, and others that were symbols of revival and progress. The impression never left her. "Gone With The Wind", she said, was the story of Georgians who survived and those who didn't."
"I chose the Civil War period to write about because I was raised on it," she once said. "As a child I heard everything about it, except that the Confederates lost." Gone with Wind Begins Shooting (Photoplay Magazine, 1939)Jack Wade, one of the many Hollywood reporters for PHOTOPLAY must have let loose a big girlish squeal when he got word from the "Selznick-International man" that he would not get bounced off the set of "Gone with the Wind" if he were to swing by to take a look. "First of all, a report on Vivien Leigh...Hollywood already agreed that she's the happiest choice any one could have made. Even swamp angels from deepest Dixie put their okay on her accent...Clark Gable looks like the real Big-Man-From-the-South. In a black frock coat, starched bosom and ruffles, he makes a menacing, impressive Rhett, and he's a little pleased about it, too." A Four Million Dollar Epic (Click Magazine, 1940)"Many a movie of the deep South has come out of Hollywood studded with 'you-alls' and trailing jasmine blossoms. Never before, however, has any studio had "Gone With The Wind", already the most heavily publicized picture of the era, which, at long last, makes its film debut...For over two and a half years casting difficulties had beset the producers of Gone With The Wind. Most difficult was the part of Scarlet O'hara, green-eyed vixen around whom the 1,307 page novel revolves.With every leading lady in Hollywood under consideration, the studios tested and re-tested Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, and Paulette Goddard. Even the 56,000,000 people reported by the Gallup poll to be waiting to see the picture began to get tired..."
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