Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "bert"

Let’s go to the Movies
Part 17
The flap with the Hays office over ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ was just one of dozens of problems that David Selznick had to resolve between the time filming was complete in early July 1939 to the Atlanta Premier on December 15th.
If there were a problem it would eventually land on Selznick’s desk. But of course that’s the task you assume as motion picture producer.
Just to name a few items; editing the long film down to a reasonable time, hiring someone to write the onscreen titles, a kind of narration that sets up coming scenes. Ben Hecht took the assignment and did an excellent job, even with Selznick looking over his shoulder.
Writing the music and recording the score onto the film is a huge undertaking and is extremely important to the finished film. Max Steiner, a great talent, was hired for the job and as was Selznick’s practice he hired a back-up composer to write a second score just in case Steiner didn’t come through on time. Fortunately Steiner’s worked tirelessly and got it out on time.
His score for Gone With the Wind was much acclaimed and was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to The Wizard of Oz.
Distribution and ticket prices were an issue, remember box office tickets at the time were about a quarter but a special price structure had to be worked out for Gone With the Wind, general admission prices we seventy five cents for morning and afternoon showings, a dollar at night and a dollar fifty for preferred seating.
There was a protracted discussion with the Screen Directors Guild regarding the onscreen credit for director. Remember, several men worked on the film and were contenders for the screen credit. George Cukor, Victor Fleming and Sam Wood all contributed to the film and at one time it was thought all three might share in the credit, however in the end Victor Fleming was given the sole credit.
The film was officially completed on December the 11th with the World Premier scheduled for Atlanta, Georgia on December 15th.
Here’s a typical report of the event at the time:
The focus was on Atlanta last week when David Selznick brought his film version of Gone With the Wind to that Southern city. And he brought Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable with their spouses Lawrence Olivier and Carol Lombard along with a host of others.
I won’t try to name all the celebrities attending that great opening because I’d probably leave your favorite off the list and you’d be ticked off at me.
But I will say that Kay Brown, Selznick’s New York Representative, without whom there might not have been a movie version of Gone With the Wind, was in Atlanta.
This writer was also there. I lived with my family at 1424 South Gordon Street in West End Atlanta. And from the mind of that little boy I can still see those giant Klieg lights hurling those beams of light, crisscrossing the Atlanta skyline and into the sky. They looked so close I felt I could reach out and touch them. Of course I couldn’t because they were about five miles away. I felt the excitement though and was fully aware that they were lighting up the sky for a movie about the South called Gone With the Wind.
Something else, and I didn’t know the significance at the time but at the Cascade Theatre located just around the corner from our house, the current movie playing there was ‘The Wizard of Oz.’
Victor Fleming directed both ‘Oz’ and ‘Wind’ and years later I had the opportunity to work on stage opposite Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion) in the Pulitzer Prize winning play ‘Harvey.’
(To be continued)

Golf and Horse Racing – an Unlikely Paring

Honor and integrity seem to have vanished from the lexicon of the sports world save Golf and Horse Racing.
Are there ever any suspect moments in those two sports, of course there are, but they are rare compared to other sports.
My personal example of lost integrity is in baseball’s home run derby. I personally have put a mental asterisk after every name in the record book since Hank Aaron.
Of course that’s just my personal opinion about steroids and I expect it runs against the tide – but then I always was a rebel.
My point is jockey Calvin Borel who rode Mine that Bird to a whopping upset in the 2009 Kentucky Derby was aboard Rachel Alexandra the day before for the Kentucky Oaks Grade 1 race winning by 20 lengths.
Rachel Alexandra has won 7 out of 10 races and during the last five stakes wins Calvin Borel was the jockey. He made a commitment earlier in the year to ride the filly and he sticks by his word.
Hall of Fame and Eclipse award winning jockey Mike Smith gets the call to replace Borel on Mine that Bird – and from where I sit, not a bad call.
Bennie Woolley’s choice of veteran Mike Smith to pilot the Bird is backed up by past performance. Mike won the Kentucky Derby aboard Giacomo in 2005, and the Preakness aboard Prairie Bayou in 1993.
Excerpt from the Baltimore Sun tells what happened during the running of the 2005 Preakness:
‘At the time, Prairie Bayou, ridden by, Mike Smith was starting his move along the inside rail about 14 lengths off the pace and was moving up from 10th place to his eventual victory.’
Mike said, "I was lucky enough to miss him; he broke down right in front of me," Smith said of Union City. "When horses break down and fall, they usually fall right or left. But he stayed straight and I ducked around him at the last second."
Smith still had nearly half a mile to go, and a lot of traffic to negotiate in order to catch Personal Hope, who held the lead along the rail. But Smith made his move at the head of the stretch when he took Prairie Bayou outside, angling five-wide and circling the pack. He drew into the clear and ran straight down the track to eventually beat the favorite

Writers Notebook:
Here’s a plea for political writers and humorist to look back at a few examples of true humor and wit without malice.

Here are three by Will Rogers.
‘Be a politician, no training necessary.’
‘We’ve got the best politicians in this country that money can buy.’
‘With congress, every time they make a joke it’s a law; and every time they make a law it’s a joke.’
Now who would argue with that logic? Politicians of course.

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
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