Months into preparations for “Gone With the Wind,” producer David O. Selznick still had no script, no leading man, and no Scarlett.
Tallulah Bankhead had been campaigning for the part, but Selznick’s colleagues had reservations. Bankhead was 34 years old, which is virtually elderly in Hollywood terms, and they worried how she would play in the scenes from Scarlett’s teen years.
Bankhead dutifully quit drinking, had her teeth capped and took regular Elizabeth Arden facial treatments. But long after the novel came out in 1936, there was still no script for her to read. She eventually lost patience and decided to take other offers.
Filming began on Dec. 10, 1938, with scenes from the burning of Atlanta, and yet there was still no Scarlett. A photo in a new book, “The Making of ‘Gone With the Wind’” (University of Texas Press, $50), shows that Vivien Leigh dropped by the set that evening, with her agent, Myron Selznick, who was also David’s brother.
The story goes that Myron said to David, “Hey genius, here’s your Scarlett!”
The story may be bogus, said the book’s author, Steve Wilson. But a memo that David Selznick sent out the following Monday listed Leigh as a candidate. And somehow she was among the top four.
“The Making of ‘Gone With the Wind’” is a huge book, stuffed with photos, paintings and reminiscences, but some of the most fascinating material comes from the memos sent out by the indefatigable Selznick, who dictated long commentaries on every aspect of the production.
He also kept them all, thousands and thousands of pages of memos, which are now part of the film collection in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin.
Steve Wilson, curator of that collection, reviewed 40,000 pages of notes as he prepared this book. (The Ransom Center also has mounted an exhibit drawn from the Selznick collection that includes photos, manuscripts and several of Scarlett’s dresses.)
Wilson gained an appreciation for Selznick’s obsession with the movie. The producer pursued a punishing work schedule, fueled with what they called pep pills. “Evelyn Keyes (the actress who played Scarlett’s sister, Suellen) said he was popping these pills like popcorn,” Wilson said.
With a foreword by Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, the book deals with the outrage caused by casting a British woman as a Southern belle, and with the more serious issues of racism and historical accuracy.
Selznick wisely decided to omit a certain racial epithet from the movie, despite its liberal use in the novel, but he didn’t stray from the problematic rosy image of the Old South that the novel promoted.
On the other hand, he listened carefully when test audiences commented on how ugly the “historically accurate” costumes were on the Southern ladies and gentlemen. Selznick glammed them up.
Selznick, said Wilson, decided that “when it comes to a decision between historical accuracy and beauty, we should take more liberties with historical accuracy and err on the side of beauty.”
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