Clark Gable to Gone With the Wind in Technicolor

Let’s Go to the Movies
Part 7
The summer of ‘38

From late March, when the deal for Gary Cooper fell through, until mid August when MGM signed an agreement for Clark Gable to play Rhett Butler, much of Selznick International’s pre production work on Gone With the Wind was slowed to a crawl. Of course that didn’t relieve any of the pressure on Selznick himself because other pictures took much of his time. He also had a couple of worrisome problems that required his attention, one was the GWTW script and the other was the film’s director George Cukor.
Cukor had apparently gone over the line refusing assignments to one picture after another. And it was that particular annoyance that caused Selznick to begin looking at Cukor as expendable to the production of Gone With the Wind. Considering long term and big money agreements with directors Selznick expected some loyalty and flexibility regarding picture assignments and he wasn’t getting that from Cukor.
With that in mind Selznick began to look around at possible replacements. MGM directors Jack Conway and Victor Fleming were both mentioned, but no preference was given at that time.

In the early planning stages of GWTW there was some talk of using black and white film, however, by mid summer of 1938 everyone was focused on Technicolor and who would be the best cameraman to shoot the picture. There were many top cameramen to draw from but not all of them had knowledge and experience in Technicolor. Several men under consideration were Hal Rosson, Oliver Marsh, and Ray June at MGM and Charlie Lang at Paramount. However, the possible front-runner for that position might have been Tony Gaudio mentioned in one of Selznick’s memos when he said, ‘Tony Gaudio’s work on Robin Hood was, in my opinion the best photographic job in color that has yet been done.’
And while those were major parts to the production of GWTW, getting a workable shooting script in place before cameras rolled was still the number one priority. Selznick needed some rest and decided to take a short working vacation in Bermuda. He hoped to be joined there by Sidney Howard, whose screenplay they were working from, along with Margaret Mitchell as a kind of on scene consultant. As it turned out they both declined his offer to join him and at the last minute Selznick chose Jo Swerling to work with him in Bermuda.
When the short working vacation was over Selznick returned to New York, still not satisfied with the script. At that time he put out a call for writers, he wanted Oliver Garrett to work on continuity and mentioned several writers he thought might be good for dialogue Robert Sherwood, Stark Young, James Boyd and F. Scott Fitzgerald were among them.
At that point in time as regards to casting -- of the four major players only Clark Gable was set for the film. There were too many candidates for Scarlett to even try to organize a list; in fact you might come just as close to a Scarlett by throwing darts at the pages of a Hollywood phone book.
Selznick ran hot and cold on Leslie Howard for the Ashley role, although some of that negativity was likely posturing for the benefit of Howard’s agent in order to get a better price.
The role of Melanie would be simple if Warner Brothers would play ball. Selznick wanted Olivia de Havilland but Warner Brothers was reluctant to loan out one of their stars for a secondary role.
(To be continued)

Before the film ‘Gone With the Wind ‘ there was the book:
And before the book there were lives and legends. Lenora Smalley makes the connection in her review of ‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone.’

“Who would have ever thought the legend of Doc Holliday could be connected in any way to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind.
When Doc Holliday went west after he discovered he had tuberculosis… He left behind a sweetheart who thought he would return after he was cured…
During his incredible research into the life of Doc Holliday, Tom Barnes discovered that this sweetheart, besides being a cousin of Doc Holliday was a distant cousin of Margaret (Peggy) Mitchell. This beautiful girl, Mattie Holliday, wrote letters to Doc for a number of years before giving up and becoming a nun in the order of Sisters of Mercy. If you read the letters, which appear in this book, you will know almost immediately which of the main characters of Gone With the Wind was inspired by Mattie Holliday.”

Writers Notebook:
Fiction and nonfiction:
Nonfiction is a term loosely used to describe a factual happening or event. But is it all fact? No. During the recreation of actual events fiction techniques are often employed, and when those techniques are used today they are called creative non-fiction. For example – one of the most famous nonfiction books in the English language is Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood,’ a book filled with passages of pure fiction. There are no clear-cut rules that state how far writers of nonfiction may legitimately go into the area of fiction. And while the ivory tower crowd mull over the changing rules of the English language, non fiction writers that feel a need to stray too far into fiction might keep Television’s famous cop Joe Friday’s admonition in mind – ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’

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