Gone with the Wind (1939)

Trivia: Hattie McDaniel's portrayal of Mammy earned her an Academy Award, the first to be given to an African American.

Trivia: After Margaret Mitchell's (author of "Gone with the Wind") husband saw the scene with the wounded soldiers in Atlanta he is reported to have said "if we had had that many soldiers, we wouldn't have lost the war in the first place."

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Trivia: The Burning of Atlanta scene was shot long before filming started on Gone with the Wind and before either of the actors were cast in the role of Rhett and Scarlet. The purpose was to clear the lot so the sets for the movie could be built. The buildings burnt were sets from other films, the most notable being the huge gates featured in the original King Kong movie. The two actors in this scene were stunt doubles who stood in for Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

Tallicame

Trivia: In the scene where Scarlet goes to look for Dr. Meade to help her with Melanie's delivery she goes to the hospital and encounters all the wounded soldiers. For this scene, the filmmakers were unable to get enough extras so for the injured soldiers lying in the distance they used dummies. The extras lay beside the dummies and by using strings, the filmmakers were able to move the arms and legs making it look like the dummy was moving.

Tallicame

Trivia: Even though Barbara O'Neil plays Vivien Leigh's mother in the movie, she was only three years older than Leigh.

Trivia: Adjusted for inflation, GWTW is the world's highest grossing movie ($1.5 billion in 2009 dollars).

Trivia: When Rhett hands Mammy a glass of whisky you can see her sniff it before drinking. When it was originally filmed, tea was supposed to have been in the glass, but Clarke Gable (Rhett) substituted real whisky as a joke. The actress playing Mammy downed the glass, not realizing what was in it. The scene had to be redone, with tea, and the actress didn't trust Gable after the first incident.

Trivia: Margaret Mitchell wrote "My dear, I don't give a damn." Clark Gable added "Frankly" out of creative license.

Trivia: George Cukor was the original director for the film and worked on it for 2 years. He was fired 2 weeks into production and was replaced by Victor Fleming.

Trivia: In the fire scene, you can actually see the set of King Kong burning (the huge gates that King Kong came through). The huge fire was made by burning all the old spare wooden sets on the MGM lot.

Trivia: When Scarlett is heard gagging after hungrily eating the radish at the ruins of Tara, it is actually Olivia De Havilland who is making the sound. Vivienne Leigh thought it was unladylike to make such a grotesque sound and refused to pretend to vomit.

Trivia: Cammie King, the child actress who played Bonnie Blue Butler, could not stop blinking during the filming of her funeral scene, when she is obviously supposed to be dead. A mask of her face was made, and the scene was finally filmed with the actress wearing the mask.

marfbody

Trivia: In the scene at the Atlanta bazaar, Rhett and Scarlett are dancing a waltz at one point. For the closeup shots, the two actors were put on a spinning platform so they could stand still but appear to be dancing.

Trivia: Under pressure from MGM, the Hays office changed its rules shortly before the film's release to allow certain words when used in an historical or literary context - thus allowing GWTW to be released with the word "damn" intact.

Trivia: Scarlett O'Hara's bank, Atlanta National, was an actual bank that today is part of Wachovia. Ironically, their most famous fictional customer is controlled by their archrival, SunTrust, which administers the novel as trustee for the Mitchell estate.

Trivia: Another story about that famous "Frankly my dear ..." line is that the censors agreed to permit it only if the emphasis wasn't on "damn." This is probably one of the few times censorship improved a movie.

Bob Blumenfeld ★

Trivia: Laura Hope Crews, who played "Aunt Pittypat" was an old friend of Clark Gable. While he was working a job in Portland, Oregon she encouraged him to try his hand at Hollywood, helping launch his career.

Trivia: Gone with the Wind was the longest film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, at 3h 56m. It was also the first colour film to win Best Picture.

Trivia: Rhett Butler is accompanied by a Scarlett body double, on the wagon during his escape from the fire. This scene was the first or one of the very first ones shot for the film, and at that stage, the role of Scarlett was not cast yet, Vivian Leigh signed on a bit later. (00:15:00)

Trivia: Bette Davis turned down the role of Scarlett when it was offered to her. She hated the script and thought the film was destined to fail at the box office, and she thought that Rhett Butler was going to be played by Errol Flynn, whom she loathed and with whom she refused to work.

Krista