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Gossip Friday: Scarlett Also-Rans
From March 1940: Talk of Hollywood, recently, is how much luck the girls who did NOT get the Scarlett O’Hara role in Gone with the Wind had! Of course, Vivien Leigh was the “lucky” one who got the part. But look at the others– Bette Davis did Jezebel instead and won an Academy Oscar; Norma Shearer, in The Women, did such a swell job that she may get the next Award; Tallulah Bankhead, when she flopparooed on Scarlett, did the stage play that’s getting her international raves…ditto Katharine Hepburn, who also did NOT get the O’Hara plum, but who scored hugely behind the footlights in Philadelphia Story. And Susan Hayward,…
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Bette Davis vs. Vivien Leigh
Today is Bette Davis’ 103rd birthday– here’s a letter to the editor of a fan magazine from June 1940: I was extremely disappointed to learn that Vivien Leigh, not Bette Davis, was the recipient of this year’s Academy Award. What right had they to give the “Oscar” to a star who has had only one great picture to back her? Hasn’t Miss Leigh been in pictures before this “GWTW” epic? And hasn’t she just been “among those present” as far as the fans were concerned? Did she ever attract any attention before they thought she looked the way Scarlett O’Hara should look? It isn’t fair that Miss Davis be de-throned by a…