TV and Movies

[ECBG]

Bette Davis, Garbo, Hepburn, and other top actresses vied to be Scarlet.

The very interesting story of how the top grossing film ever came to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuP1T0m0OZ4

[Big Joanie]

Only when you see the screen tests of some of the other actresses

they were thinking of for the part do you realize how perfect Vivian

Leigh was ....

[beach-mom]

@ECBG - This was the first real novel I ever read, and when I finally saw the movie it was amazing. I grew up near Savannah, and I loved the characters of the book and the history - good and bad.

I've learned all I can about the casting of the movie and other trivia. I remember watching a TV movie about her casting when I was younger. It is great to see the ones who did try out. 

Thank you for posting this! 

[countrylady]

Loved watching this!   Thanks for posting it!

[fancy pantsy]

very interesting!  i enjoyed this @ECBG  ... thanks for posting. 

[kaydee50]

Haven't watched the youtube version but TCM did 90 minutes on the making of Gone With The Wind.  Some of the actresses that were considered for Scarlett, Jean Arthur?!!!, amazed me.

[Moonlady]

Oh, yes. The "backstory" of GWTW is very interesting, indeed.

I have the DVD, The Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind (runs a little over 2 hours), and it covers, among other things, the search for Scarlett in detail, including screen tests with top contenders. 

I found the screen tests--and the reasons for dismissing  actors--very  interesting: in certain scenes, top contending male and female actors didn't have chemistry (or it didn't translate to the screen), Jeffrey Lynn was unimpressive, and Melvyn Douglas came off as "too beefy" in the role of Ashley Wilkes, Katharine Hepburn didn't possess the "sex qualities" for the role of Scarlett (and there was a public dislike of her at the time because of her relationship with Spencer Tracy), others were simply "all wrong" for their respective parts...

One who had been all right lol for hers, was Paulette Goddard as Scarlett, and this is detailed, too. She was the top contender--until Vivien Leigh rode in.

Also, when a publisher read Margaret Mitchell's original manuscript, he didn't like the name she'd given the heroine: Pansy O'Hara. So they both changed it to Scarlett. Thank you, thank you lol!

I like this documentary almost as much as GWTW, a movie which still manages to captivate viewers.

[on the bay]

@Big Joanie -

I remember watching this and also thought after watching all the others, that no one else but Vivien Leigh could have been Scarlet.

[Big Joanie]

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@on the bay wrote:

@Big Joanie -

I remember watching this and also thought after watching all the others, that no one else but Vivien Leigh could have been Scarlet.

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And then there is Rhett Butler .....Hmmmm....can't imagine anyone else

for that role either ....

[ECBG]

@Moonlady OH!  Thank you for all of that information!  I have always loved GWTW and have seen it 32 times.

I have the Bradford Mint plates in my dining room.