Far from gone
As film critic Mal Vincent will tell
you, the legendary film “Gone With the Wind” isn’t going away soon, but
an immense exhibit in Elizabeth City will stay only through December.
By Mal Vincent
The Virginian-Pilot
It was 74 years ago this week that
the entire world
wondered and gawked at the world premiere of “Gone With
the Wind” in Atlanta.
Could the film match the promise of
the phenomenal book, which had broken all publication records? Records
showed that more than 55 percent of America’s population had read the
book and, consequently, had preconceived ideas of what Rhett Butler and
Scarlett O’Hara should look like.
Could any movie live up to the expectations?
It did.
Today, far from gone, the film
remains the most seen and most profitable movie in history – at least
when box office tallies are adjusted for inflation.
Its Hollywood origins are legend, and, right now, are much closer than you think.
It may be something of a secret, but
the best of Hollywood’s golden era continues to glisten in Elizabeth
City, N.C. Through Dec. 31 you can see the Oscar trophy Vivien Leigh won
for playing Scarlett O’Hara. You can see one of the dresses she wore in
the film, the typewriter on which Sidney Howard wrote the screenplay
and much more.
“Real to Reel: The Making of ‘Gone
With the Wind’ ’’ is the title of the exhibit at the Museum of the
Albemarle, displaying James Tumblin’s precious collection of “Gone With
the Wind”
memorabilia. It is the largest private collection in the world, showcasing awards, costumes and other artifacts.
The age of the film makes the
curiosities at Elizabeth City even more unusual. Katie Edwards, who
helped curate the exhibit when it debuted a year ago at the North
Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, said that “through costume
sketches, scene storyboard and letters, the exhibit highlights the many
challenges, and the controversy that is a part of this film.”
Tumblin was a makeup and wig expert for Universal film for decades, beginning his work with Hitchcock’s “Psycho” in 1960.
But his “Gone With the Wind”
collection began when he spotted a dress discarded on the floor at
Western Costumes, the warehouse-like center handling many of the rented
costumes for movies. In the lining was a label that read, simply,
“Scarlett.”
“The costume,” he said, “had been
worn by at least two other actresses since ‘Gone With the Wind,’
including a John Wayne Western, but the origin was traceable. That is
the tricky part of collecting. You can find things in the most unlikely
places. In this case, on the floor. I bought it for $20.”
The dress was worn during the scene of the attack on Shanty Town.
It was the start of Tumblin’s collection, which was valued 10 years ago at $66 million and is worth much more now.
One of his most expensive items is the Vivien Leigh Oscar, which he bought for $500,000 several decades ago.
“My mother was always hounding me to
find out how much I paid for it,” he said. “I wouldn’t tell her. I kept
telling her I bought it with money I saved from shaving.”
For four decades he has sported a well-trimmed beard.
His mother, who lives near him in
Seattle these days, can be somewhat placated by the likelihood that the
Oscar could be auctioned today for more than $2 million. It was
originally put on the market by Leigh’s daughter.
Tumblin pointed out that “Michael
Jackson got the best-picture Oscar from ‘Gone With the Wind’ for one and
one-half million dollars. We had an urge to get the two Oscars
together, so I went up to his Neverland Ranch and had them photographed
together.”
Other costumes on view at the Museum of the Albe marle are Bonnie Blue’s velvet dress from her final scene and the
uniform Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) wore when he returned home after the Civil War.
Of the 1,500 outfits Walter Plunkett
designed for the film, his favorite appears in the exhibit: Belle
Watling’s burgundy velvet jacket.
It’s in the show along with Max
Steiner’s score for “Tara’s Theme.” There’s the typewriter Sidney Howard
used when he wrote the script. (He died in a tractor accident on his
Connecticut farm before the film was released. The script was eventually
handled by dozens of writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald.)
Production paintings for the burning
of Atlanta and other scenes are part of the exhibit, as are Butterfly
McQueen’s audition tapes for the role of Prissy.
There’s a letter of appreciation to a fan from Hattie
McDaniel, who, for her role as Mammy, became the first African American actress to win an Oscar.
On Dec. 15, 1939, Clark Gable stood
in front of the Loew’s Grand Theater in Atlanta and said, “I am told the
population of Atlanta is some 300,000. I have seen three million people
on the way from the airport.”
It was something of an exaggeration, but, then, “Gone With the Wind” is a movie that has always thrived on its excesses.
Every aspect of its casting (a
worldwide search to find Scarlett), production (at least three directors
fired or hospitalized along the way) and overruns (it was the most
expensive movie up until its time) was covered in the press.
From the first, the film faced controversy over its fantasy-ridden version of the antebellum
South, but its drama and production values prevailed.
It never faced the fate, for
example, of Walt Disney’s “Song of the South,” which has not been shown
in the United States for some three decades because it was ruled
socially unacceptable, even though it is based on the literary classic
by Joel Chandler Harris.
“Gone With the Wind” largely avoided
controversy on the strength of its quality. Author Margaret Mitchell
supported African American causes, and some observers have pointed out
that a young Martin Luther King Jr. was in a choir that sang during
film’s premiere events.
The movie survives as the prime example of the scope of movies during Hollywood’s golden era.
“Gone With the Wind” was popular
throughout the world, but particularly in countries beset by war. The
film’s greatest popularity, perhaps, is in Japan where it has played in
theaters regularly and been adapted into stage versions.
Mitchell has said that the story’s theme is not for one time, but applies to “survival” in general.
The novel, she said, asks, “What
makes some people come through catastrophes and others, apparently just
as able, strong and brave, go under? It happens in every upheaval. Some
people survive; others don’t. What qualities are in those who fight
their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those that go under? I
only know that survivors used to call that quality ‘gumption.’ So I
wrote about people who had gumption and people who didn’t.”
Mal Vincent, 757-446-2347,
mal.vincent@pilotonline.com
What: “Real to Reel: The Making of ‘Gone With the Wind’ ”
Where: The Museum of the Albemarle, 501 S. Water St., Elizabeth City, N.C.
When: The exhibit is up through Dec.
31; the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through
Saturdays, closed Sundays and Mondays and Christmas Day
Cost: Admission to the museum is
free, but the “Gone With the Wind” exhibit costs $5, $2.50 for senior
citizens. It’s free to military and children.
More info 252-335-1453 or
www.ncdcr.gov/ncmoa
MGM STUDIOS VIA GETTY IMAGES
Among items in the collection are Vivien Leigh’s Oscar and a letter written by Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy.
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