CORRECTION: TITLE SHOULD BE ALL CAPS. Gone With The Wind was the first movie I ever saw. I was five years old when my parents took me along when they went to see it in early 1940. Years later, my mother told me that I would not sit still, that I kept asking questions, and was such all around nuisance she had to go back and see it by herself to find out what she had missed the first time. My dad did not care one way or the other. I think he enjoyed watching me annoy the people seated around us more than he enjoyed the movie. I doubt if many Americans understand why Socialists/Communists hate this scene from GWTW more than they hate any other movie scene: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsvyACdT8NE&feature=player_embedded"]Land is the only thing worth fighting for - YouTube[/ame] That one scene flies in the face of a core Communist belief: “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.” Karl Marx Marx’s theory is completely demolished when Scarlett finally comes to understand what her father was talking about: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn26pEDEhyY&feature=player_embedded"]I'll never be hungry again - Gone with the wind scene - YouTube[/ame] Everything Scarlett does from then on is done to protect her property and her property Rights. Incidentally, it wasn’t the Civil War slaughter that caught the public’s attention in 1939; it was Rhett Butler who shocked the country when he said the D word: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i2RxWs60dRM Finally, younger Americans might not realize it, but Shirley Temple played a much larger role in America’s culture during the Great Depression than did GWTW. No matter how bad things were for some Americans they could always afford a movie ticket to watch Shirley sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WLLSqpYyPD8 or dance up the stairs with Bill Robinson: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjCFYpWDmfM&feature=player_detailpage"]Bill Bojangles Robinson and Shirley Temple - YouTube[/ame] Between Zanuck’s tyke and GWTW the 1930's weren’t as bad as Socialists/Communists told us in order to make their sick ideology look like a good deal. When ‘Gone with the Wind’ premiered in Atlanta Calvin E. Johnson Jr. Saturday, December 10, 2011 Hello America! The 1930s was an exciting time when everyone loved Super Star-Shirley Temple, Baseball Home Run Legend-Babe Ruth, Aviator Pioneer-Amelia Earhart and “Gone with the Wind” Author- Margaret Mitchell. The Great Depression was ending but Europe would enter World War II. The United States was only two years away from entering the war but the Christmas Season of 1939 was a jubilant time for America, especially in the Southland, when…. The movie "Gone with the Wind” premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, just 74 years after the War Between the States had ended and December 15, 2011, marks the 72nd Anniversary of that wonderful-classic movie that opens with: “There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.” Atlanta native Margaret Mitchell saw her book “Gone with the Wind” published in 1936 and then as a Super-Technicolor movie in 1939 that would help boost tourism throughout Old Dixie land. Gone with the Wind won 8 Oscars for 1939, including Best Picture, and; Hattie McDaniel, the first Black American to win an Academy Award, expressed her heart-felt pride with tears of joy, when she was presented the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her unforgettable role as “Mammy.” Victor Fleming won the 1939 Academy Award for the movies Best Director and even though Max Steiner did not receive an award for his excellent music score, the “Gone with the Wind” theme song has become the most recognizable and played tune in the world. Vivien Leigh, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role, humbly and eloquently, summed her appreciation by thanking Producer David O. Selznick. And, who can ever forget Olivia De Havilland as the pure-sweet Melanie Hamilton, Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler? Friday, December 15, 1939, was an icy-cold day in Atlanta, Georgia but folks warmed to the great excitement surrounding the premiere of “Gone with the Wind”, a Selznick International Pictures “Technicolor” Production of the Metro Goldwyn Mayer Release of Margaret Mitchell’s novel about the Old South at the Loews Grand Theater. Do you remember Thomas Mitchell who played (Gerald O’Hara) telling daughter Scarlett: “Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O’Hara, that Tara, that land doesn’t mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” And, there was not a dry eye in the movie theater when Bonnie Blue Butler, the daughter of Rhett and Scarlett, was killed in a pony accident. Anne Rutherford, who played Scarlett’s sister Careen, took time to visit the Old Confederate Veterans at the soldier’s home on Confederate Ave. and the stars toured the famous “Cyclorama” at Grant Park. The festivities surrounding the premiere of “Gone with the Wind” included a parade down Peachtree St, with over three-hundred thousand folks cheering the playing of Dixie, waving Confederate flags and shouting Rebel Yells. It was a grand day to witness the lighting of the “Eternal Flame of the Confederacy,” an 1855 gas light that survived Gen. Sherman’s 1864 Siege during the Battle of Atlanta. This lamp remained for many years on the northeast corner of Whitehall and Alabama Streets. Mrs. Thomas J. Ripley, President of the Atlanta Chapter No. 18 United Daughters of the Confederacy, re-lit the great light with Mr. T. Guy Woolford, Commandant of the Old Guard, by her side. The Time Magazine wrote: “The film has almost everything the book has in the way of spectacle, drama, practically endless story and the means to make them bigger and better. The burning of Atlanta, the great ‘boom’ shots of the Confederate wounded lying in the streets and the hospital after the Battle of Atlanta are spectacle enough for any picture, and unequaled.” http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/43109
Scarlett's bad manners aside, how can you not love a woman who throws a dirt clod at the odious Yankee overseer and prances around in a green drape dress. Go Scarlett.
Gone with the Wind is such a glorious film, even being mentioned by Canada Free Press doesn't taint it. See it in a big theater if you can.
