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

Let’s Go to the Movies

Selznick and Sam Goldwyn Not on Same Page
During the month of February 1938 Selznick and Sidney Howard were working hard on a script that would use every prominent line possible from the book.
Overall film length was a concern, but they hoped to have a script, that would meet their expectations as to content and running time, ready when cameras rolled. Selznick was so concerned with the overall length that he admonished Cukor to be careful not to add extra lines during the shooting process. Those line changes at the time might give the actors something fresh to work with, however in the long run they would be counter productive as they would end up adding dialogue and as a consequence too much to the overall length of the film.
Gary Cooper was high on Selznick’s list for the role of Rhett Butler and he was trying to put a deal together with Sam Goldwyn that would have United Artist distribute the film – but only as a package that included Gary Cooper. Sam Goldwyn was traveling to Europe and left on his trip before Selznick got any kind of agreement. And as a consequence Gary Cooper was taken off the number one prospect list to play Rhett Butler.
However, the concern over losing Cooper was short lived. The search teams out looking for Scarlett and supporting actors were being peppered with questions by book fans that were asking for Clark Gable. As the chorus grew louder the press picked up the fans enthusiasm and it soon became obvious that Gable was the public choice.
Selznick had not overlooked Gable, but in the early going he had little luck in making a deal with MGM for the loan of their biggest star. It was also known to Hollywood insiders that Gable didn’t want to be the stand-alone star in the film in case it was a dud. And secondly he didn’t want to do a Southern accent.
Of course Louis B. Mayer head of MGM might have something to say on the matter. And sometime in May 1938 Mayer posed the idea to Selznick to allow MGM to buy the property from Selznick International and produce the picture at MGM. The positive element in that proposal was the certainty that Clark Gable would play Rhett Butler and satisfy public demand.
David Selznick gave Mayer’s offer considerable thought, but after talking it over with Jock Whitney, the original champion of the film, Selznick said no.
Of course MGM had opened the door to possible negotiations and within a week they began to work on a deal. Louis B. Mayer had mentioned two of the most important issues in his original proposition to buy the film, Gable and distribution.
At the time those talks were going on between Selznick and Mayer the public was growing more vocal in its demand that Gable to play Rhett Butler. And in the end they got their wish because with the help of Jock Whitney securing more financing a deal was struck where MGM would loan Gable to Selznick International along with a million and a quarter dollars and distribution rights. Selznick International would in turn give up fifty percent of the films profit. A terrible deal on the surface, but the finance situation being what it was with Selznick, he likely figured half a loaf was better than none.
(To be continued)

Another part of ‘The Story Behind Gone With The Wind’
By Sally Trippett Rains author of ‘The Making of a Classic.’
Creative Book Publishers International
(Continued from last week)
“I was very close to Mr. Selznick,” Marcella Rabwin said. “People always said, ‘what did you do?’ and I say, ‘anything he didn’t have time for.’ I was involved in every phase of the production of his films from the beginning when you bought the thing to the time when it was finished and you could breathe again.” According to her (Marcella Rabwin) the film cost “four million, eighty-five thousand, seven hundred and ninety dollars.” Selznick’s original plan was for a movie that lasted 2 ½ hours and cost about two million. At that time it was the most expensive film ever made or even imagined. As noted by Tom Barnes, Selznick had originally turned away from buying the rights to Margaret Mitchell’s very famous book, but his money-man Jock Whitney--urged on by Kay Brown-- told him that if Selznick did not buy it, then Whitney was going to. “We had no idea of the enormous task ahead of us when we took it on,” said Marcella Rabwin. “That book (Gone With The Wind) had become such a Bible to so many people---there were 20 million copies of the book sold in the first year. The first time we ran it as a consecutive piece of work it was five hours, and I didn’t know how he was going to cut it. Every minute of it was a beauty but still he had to get it down to what it was; 3 hours and 45 minutes.” The year 2009 marks the 70th Anniversary of Gone With The Wind's movie premiere in Atlanta, Georgia. Author Sally Tippett Rains has interviewed over 70 people involved with the movie including actors, historians, and other authors. She was fortunate enough to work with one of Margaret Mitchell's cousins who has a scrapbook full of stories from her own family. Many of the stories that had been passed down from Mitchell's relatives who lived through the Civil War were similar to stories in Gone With The Wind. In her upcoming book The Making Of A Classic, Margaret Mitchell and Gone With The Wind. Rains gives insight into how Mitchell may have come to write about her various characters and stories. She worked with Tom Barnes on a chapter where there was a cross-over from one of his books, Doc Holliday's Road To Tombstone with Gone With The Wind. It seems Doc Holliday was a cousin to Margaret Mitchell. He had a special relationship with another of her cousins, Mattie Holliday (who was also his cousin.) Barnes' research tells him it was love, but it was unrequited, for he left to go out West. According to Barnes' book, after the Gunfight at OK Corral she realized he was never coming back. She joined the convent and changed her name to Sister Mary Melanie and she was called Sister Melanie. Was it a coincidence that there were at least two storylines which may have come from this Mitchell family story. There was a woman named Melanie (Melanie Wilkes)who married her cousin (Ashley); and in another part of the book, a memory of Scarlett's mother Ellen falling for her cousin, who left for the "west." Barnes has researched his book for many years and stands by his story.
Writers Notebook:
Maxwell Perkins, one of America’s best-known editors worked for Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York and edited works of such famous writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolf. Perkins wrote in answer to a letter, received from a young man in the Military, regarding the active pursuit of a writing career had this advice for the young man. ‘As to perhaps a couple of years in college, I should think that might be a great advantage, in the general sense, but don’t try to learn about writing there. Learn something else. Learn about writing from reading. That’s the right way to do it. But then it can only be done by those who have eyes and ears, and by seeing and listening. Very few of the great writers had that formal education, and many of them never mastered spelling or grammar. They got their vocabulary by reading and hearing. But the way they teach literature and writing in college is harmful…’
Writing courses have changed a lot since Perkins made those remarks, however much of his advice is still valid. Being a good observer and developing good reading habits will likely take you farther along the path to a writing career than anything else.
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
www.RocktheTower.com