-
Gone with the Wednesday: Leslie Howard Speaks Scarlett
In my years of vintage magazine collecting, I haven’t come across many interviews with Leslie Howard, but here’s one! In the July 1939 issue of Hollywood magazine, Leslie discusses Scarlett and Gone with the Wind, in an interview conducted at Busch Gardens in Pasadena, while on location filming the Twelve Oaks barbecue scene. Here’s Howard’s take on Scarlett: “…what people seem to overlook is that Scarlett was so modern! Scarlett O’Hara was a new-fashioned girl in an old-fashioned setting She was a 1939 sub-deb…in hoopskirts.” “Possibly my idea of Scarlett differs from that of some people. But I’ve studied her carefully. I think I’m right. She was fascinating, even more for…
-
Gone with the Wednesday: The Gift of Rhett
Turns out Clark REALLY liked the sketch that Photoplay magazine did of him as Rhett Butler, that we posted last week. A few issues later, Ruth Waterbury, Photoplay‘s editor, wrote: …it was nothing to be photographed with Mr. Gable…though suffering with Mr. Gable is not actually the worst of all human agony… Clark had asked for that Vincentini portrait of himself as Rhett Butler that we ran in our October issue and though I was more than delighted to have him have it I had to see that PHOTOPLAY got something out of it too…so I asked that we get a shot of him receiving the drawing and they decided to…
-
Gone with the Wednesday: Photoplay Magazine Makes Their Choice For Rhett
In 1937, when the casting of Gone with the Wind was the #1 topic of debate, Photoplay magazine declared their choice for Rhett Butler loud and clear. Photoplay Throws Its Hat in the Ring Herewith we enter the Great Casting Battle of “Gone with the Wind,” because to our mind there is but one Rhett–Clark Gable. So sure we were of our choice that we had Vincentini paint this portrait of Clark as we see him in the role: cool, impertient, utterly charming. We like all the other handsome actors mentioned as Rhett–only we don’t want them as Rhett. We want Gable and we’re going to stick to that…
-
Gone with the Wednesday: “I Was Afraid of Rhett Butler!”
One of the things I’ll be doing on “Gone with the Wednesdays” this year is revisiting the Gone with the Wind-themed articles in the archive. There are so many and I know that the archive is so hefty now that it is hard to find what you’re looking for sometimes. This article, “I Was Afraid of Rhett Butler!” appeared in Liberty magazine in February 1940 and is completely written by Clark Gable. It’s not very long so here it is in its entirety: Rhett Butler really put me on a spot, a hot one. Or rather Margaret Mitchell did when she created Rhett. I hope some day to have the privilege of…
-
Gone with the Wednesday: An English Girl as Scarlett?
From Hollywood magazine, April 1939: The two-year search for Gone with the Wind’s “Scarlett” is ended. You would think that all of the excitement would be over. You would think that those people who have debated passionately the relative merits of nearly every Hollywood actress for the part during these two years would welcome any decision. You would think that the hurricane of speculation and argument would due away to an exhausted sigh of relief. But arguing over Scarlett has become a habit, perhaps, because discussion still rages. “Vivien Leigh is absolutely unknown in this country!” protest those who had chosen, in their own minds, Bette Davis or Miriam Hopkins…
-
Introducing…Gone with the Wednesdays!
Happy New Year! 2014 is a special year for classic film fans, as it marks the 75th anniversary of what is considered the greatest year in film: 1939. And of course that means that we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of Gone with the Wind this year! To commemerate, every Wednesday there will be a GWTW item here on the blog–pictures, articles, audio, etc. Everything GWTW related that I have will be shared! Enjoy!
-
CMBA Film Passion 101 Blogathon: Gone with the Wind (1939)
When I saw what theme had been chosen for the Classic Movie Blog Association’s latest blogathon—what movie inspired your love of classic film, there was not even a second’s pause as to what my choice would be: Gone with the Wind. This will sound corny and somewhat cliché, but… Gone with the Wind changed my life. I was not born in the south, but I consider myself a southerner as I have lived in Georgia for 24 years. My mother was born and raised in Arkansas and her grandmother was a true Southern belle from Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t too long after we moved to Georgia that a fateful trip to…
-
Happy 100th Birthday to Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh was heralded as one of the great beauties of her time, won two Best Actress Oscars (especially impressive since she starred in only 19 films), and was the wife of one of the most celebrated actors of the century, Sir Laurence Olivier. Despite all of the above, to most she was simply Scarlett O’Hara. When she died at only 54 years old, many of the world’s headlines proclaimed “SCARLETT O’HARA DEAD!” I’m sure she would have cringed at that headline. Not that she wasn’t proud of hving played Scarlett, but the role became suffocating in a way that she couldn’t escape. Vivien was always Scarlett and sometimes she…
-
Gossip Friday: In Defense of Clark Gable
From June 1940, letter to editor: Never having complained before, I feel I am entitled to do so now. I sat through Gone with the Wind twice, thanks to Clark Gable’s excellence performance (and he is not my favorite actor.) Everyone I have seen since the picture was shown here was highly enthusiastic over his marvelous portrayal of Rhett Butler. Now it seems he has been completely ignored, and consideration give to a silly and boring performance by James Stewart in “Mr. Smith, etc.” Finally the Academy Award was given to Robert Donat. Nice going! It’s a wonder to us that Gable’s name was even recalled in connection with the…
-
Gossip Friday: Rhett Refuses to Twang
From June 1939: Clark Gable, even, is taking his role of Rhett Butler very, very seriously. More seriously than any he’s every played before, his pals tell us. But he’s not going to try to talk with a Southern accent. So different from Vivien Liegh, the English gal who got the Scarlett O’Hara role. Vivien IS developing a Southern drawl for the film. Even to the extent of snooting her English pals, these nights. She turns down their dinner and party invitatons with this classic–“So soddy, my deahs–but I just cahn’t afford to be exposed to your broad A’s. I’ve got to talk Southern, honey!”