Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind (43 page)

Macmillan was not alone in its efforts to profit from the release. Thanks to Loew's, department and drugstore shelves and windows were full of tiein novelty items. A woman lucky enough to have scored tickets to the movie could slide on her new Scarlett O'Hara slip and dab on some Flirt perfume and powder from containers shaped like Scarlett. She could wrap a scarf featuring scenes from the film on her hair and tuck into the pocket of her
Gone With the Wind
coat a Scarlett and Rhett hankie. Her husband could coordinate with a Rhett Butler bow tie and keychain. At home with the babysitter, the children could color in their
GWTW
coloring book or play with
GWTW
paper dolls. Traditionally, such widespread marketing had focused on children's movies like
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
and
The Wizard of Oz
, but
Gone With the Wind
was the first straight feature film merchandised to such an extent.
⁵⁵

Atlanta rolled out the red carpet for the big event. Never before had the city hosted such a star-studded occasion. Local officials worked closely with Loew's representatives and Brown to schedule a series of public events, including a parade of stars for the many cast members who were flying in for the celebration. Only two of the film's leading actors were not making the trip to Atlanta. Leslie Howard, who played Ashley Wilkes, had returned to his native England after it declared war on Germany. Hattie McDaniel, the African American actress who portrayed Mammy, was confronted with the ugly reality that Atlanta's theaters and hotels were segregated in 1939.* Demonstrating remarkable grace, McDaniel wrote to Mitchell the Monday before the premiere to thank the author for creating the “outstanding personage” of Mammy and to share that her grandmother, a slave, had told of events in her life similar to those described in
Gone With the Wind
. McDaniel never mentioned the uncomfortable reason for her absence, saying only that she hoped to visit Atlanta soon.
⁵⁶
Mitchell replied right away, relating that she had heard about McDaniel's “splendid” performance and was looking forward to seeing her on the screen. The author added, “Should you be in Atlanta at any time, please telephone me. I would like to see you and talk to you.”
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On the evening of Wednesday, December 13, Mitchell hosted a gathering at her new apartment for some of the movie people who had arrived that afternoon. Although Mitchell had complained many times about the impositions the movie had caused her, she would have been hard-pressed to maintain ill feelings against Selznick, who seemed to want so desperately to please her. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, the producer had sent her a telegram the week before admitting how nervous he was about her seeing the finished product and asking her to be open-minded.
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Mitchell would let bygones be bygones, at least temporarily. According to the
Atlanta Geor-
gian
, the author served as a gracious hostess to Selznick, Leigh, and Olivia de Havilland. (Clark Gable and his wife, actress Carole Lombard, did not arrive in Atlanta until the following day.) The newspaper described the gettogether as a low-key event at which “the diminutive author . . . sat on the floor and talked animatedly with her guests.” The account also reported that “in accordance with the true rules of hospitality,” Mitchell offered her guests a drink, but they “refused so much as a Southern Comfort” because they needed “no other stimulus than their hostess' conversation.”
⁵⁹
The guests did not arrive until 10:30 p.m. and stayed until well after midnight. The next day, Leigh sent the author a note saying it had been a joy to meet her and that she hoped they had not kept her up too late.
⁶⁰

On Thursday, Richard Brett and his wife, Latham, Cole and Allan Taylor, and Blanton and his wife arrived in Atlanta on a chartered train car. (Due to a last-minute problem at the office, George Brett and his wife flew down later that day.) The entire contingent was put up at the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where the movie stars were also staying. As guests of the city, the Macmillan team was chauffeured around town with an official escort—two police cars rolling alongside each vehicle. Cole later said of the experience, “It was just lovely. I had always wanted to ride with a police escort, and here I was.”
⁶¹
Even the staid Latham was caught up in the hoopla. He told the
Atlanta Journal
that he planned on going to everything, seeing everything, and thoroughly enjoying his time in the city.
⁶²

The group's first stop was at Mitchell's apartment for tea.
⁶³
Later that afternoon, the firm hosted a cocktail party in the suite of hotel rooms reserved for the Brett brothers. That evening, they attended a charity costume ball sponsored by the Atlanta Junior League. The Macmillan team sat in box seats near Gable and his wife. For years afterward, Richard Brett's wife, Elizabeth, regaled family and friends with a tale of how the King of Hollywood stepped on her foot that night, causing an ingrown toenail.
⁶⁴

On Friday, Rich's department store hosted a luncheon in its tea room to honor the Macmillan executives. At long last, the store that had declined to hold a signing for Mitchell in June 1936 and had been finagling to make up for the gaffe ever since, managed to get the author to attend an event in celebration of
Gone With the Wind
. The party got off to an inauspicious start when someone pulled out Mitchell's chair for her as she was sitting down. She missed the seat and hit the floor, injuring her weak back and forcing her to endure the rest of the events with her back wrapped in a bandage.
⁶⁵

Later that afternoon, the Marshes slipped across the street from their apartment to the exclusive Piedmont Driving Club, where the Atlanta Women's Press Club hosted a cocktail party for the visiting celebrities. The Macmillan team was invited as well. At the request of Brown's husband, Cole chatted with a lonesome-looking young Brit who told her his girlfriend was an actress. After about fifteen minutes of conversation, the dashing man shook Cole's hand and graciously excused her as she was being pulled away by some old friends. The editor later realized, much to her chagrin, that she had abandoned the actor Laurence Olivier, Leigh's future husband.
⁶⁶
Mitchell, meanwhile, was escorted into a side room to have a private conversation with Gable. According to Cole, Mitchell had no idea what to say to him and, in her frank way, asked, “What in the hell are we supposed to talk about?” The world's biggest movie star gamely replied, “I don't know, if you don't.” Charmed by the author's forthrightness, he later declared Mitchell the most “fascinating” woman he had ever met.
⁶⁷
Caught up in the excitement of the day, the author agreed to sign a copy of
Gone With the Wind
—albeit a partial one. Members of the press club had obtained a salesman's copy of the motion picture edition that consisted of a few sample text pages and photographs but mainly blank sheets. They asked those in attendance to sign the book as a thank-you gift for club president, Medora Field Perkerson. The pages were filled with dozens of signatures, including those of Gable, Leigh, de Havilland, Brown, Latham, Cole, Berg, Marsh—and “Margaret Mitchell Marsh.”
⁶⁸
It is the only known copy of the motion picture edition signed by the author.

The premiere that night would be a watershed moment in the history of
Gone With the Wind
. After all the stress and disagreements over the previous years, the key people who had played a role in the book's young but remarkable life were coming together to celebrate. Mitchell and Marsh rode to Loew's Grand Theatre with Selznick and his wife. The streets were thronged with fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the arriving celebrities. Cole described the scene: “There were floodlights all over the front of the building, mobs in the street and on the sidewalk, police roping off the hoi polloi, red carpets laid down to the cars as they came up to discharge, red carpets inside the theater.”
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As Mitchell made her way inside, she stopped and gave brief comments that were broadcast on the radio and to the crowd: “This is a very happy and exciting day for me, and at this time, I want to thank everybody in Atlanta for being so nice to me and my poor Scarlett. Thank you.”

Once in the theater, the Marshes were seated between Gable and Whitney. When the lights dimmed and the curtains parted, the audience was breathless with anticipation.
⁷⁰
The author must have been on the edge of her seat, wondering what Hollywood had done with her story. She knew the book would not translate easily to the screen, and her concern went beyond its sheer length; she also felt the story line was too complicated. As she had told her friend Myrick, “It had taken me ten years to weave it as tight as a silk pocket handkerchief. If one thread were broken or pulled an ugly ravel would show clear through to the other side of the material.”
⁷¹

Selznick had faced just such problems. Creating a workable screenplay had taken more than two years, and as Mitchell predicted, drastic cuts had been necessary, including many of her characters. Among those biting the cinematic dust were Scarlett's children from her first two marriages, leaving only doomed Bonnie, her daughter with Rhett. Also cut were several colorful supporting characters, including Will Benteen; Dilcey, Prissy's mother; and Archie the convict. On Selznick's theory that it was better to cut entire sequences than to make minor deletions within them, numerous scenes from the book also fell by the wayside.
⁷²
A few notable ones included Rhett getting Scarlett's father drunk and Scarlett reading Ashley's letters to Melanie. Changes were made within scenes if they moved the story along. For example, in the book, Scarlett's radish-induced vow to never go hungry again takes place in the ruined gardens at Twelve Oaks the day after she returns from Atlanta; in the movie, she makes her promise at Tara shortly after arriving home.

For the most part, the narrative and feel of the print and film versions are remarkably similar given the amount of material Selznick had to digest. However, in several important aspects, the movie offers a different experience than what Mitchell had given her readers. Perhaps most notably, while Leigh is widely remembered as one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood history, Mitchell's Scarlett was decidedly not a beauty, an important nuance that affected one's understanding of the story. Selznick's treatment also misses the parallels between Scarlett and Atlanta and much of the historical detail on the daily lives of Civil War–era Georgians, both essential themes in Mitchell's version. The treatment of racial issues is noteworthy as well. Anyone who judges Mitchell's feelings about slavery based on Selznick's depiction will miss the mark.

Despite the many changes, Mitchell was pleased with the movie. She thought that Selznick and his crew, as exasperating as they had been at times, did a remarkable job of bringing her book to life. Marsh, too, liked the film and was especially relieved that Gable gave a fine performance. Mitchell's husband later described the experience of sitting next to the actor during the screening: “He was so anxious for the thing to be a success, and we couldn't keep our minds on the picture for wanting to tell him, ‘There, there, Captain Butler.' ”
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After the film ended, the mayor asked Gable and Lombard to escort the author to the stage. Mitchell apologized for her nervousness and thanked the audience for its support: “You know, everybody thinks it's just when you're dead broke and you're out of luck that you need friends, but really, when you have an incredible success as I've had, that's really when you need friends. And, thank Heaven, I've had 'em. And I've appreciated everything the Atlanta people and Atlanta's papers have done for me to be kind to me and my poor Scarlett.” She went on to praise the film's emotional wallop, noting that she had “a dripping wet handkerchief,” and closed by paying tribute to Selznick and his “absolutely perfect cast.”
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The audience rose in a long ovation. Latham later wrote to Mitchell that her remarks were pitch-perfect for the occasion and brought a lump to “the throat of this hardened old sinner.”
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After the premiere, the Macmillan group—still in evening dress—caught a train to New York.
⁷⁶
Mitchell and Marsh attended postcelebration festivities at the Piedmont Driving Club along with many of the Hollywood contingent. At 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, Mitchell sent a telegram to McDaniel:

THE PREMIERE AUDIENCE LOVED YOU AND SO DID I. THE MAYOR OF ATLANTA CALLED FOR A HAND FOR OUR HATTIE MCDANIEL AND I WISH YOU COULD HAVE HEARD THE CHEERS. CONGRATULATIONS.
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* Although the book was couched as an exclusive Davison-Paxon edition,
Publishers
Weekly
reported that Sims allowed a few other area retailers to acquire copies at a 20 percent discount.