Pop quiz for all the Windies out there. What is the "flaming embrace"? Which of these lines is correct? "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" or "My dear, I don't give a damn." And what or who are the Windies? • Windies, my dear, are most faithful fans of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, the book and the movie and everything in between (like "birthin' babies" and such). In case you are a newbie to the planet, the 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the most famous story ever about life before, during and after the Civil War, is one of the most widely read books in America.
Then there's the beloved 1939 movie starring Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh. As a Windie, I've read the book no fewer than 10 times. The movie? All the way through, I've seen it at least that many, bits and pieces of it more times than that. It's what a Windie does.
If you're a true Windie, or even a fan of GWTW, or just occasionally need a Scarlett and Rhett fix, then you really must visit the Gone With the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square in Marietta, just north of Atlanta.
Now to that flaming embrace. It's the scene where Rhett Butler is practically ravishing Scarlett O'Hara, her "buzzum" (Mammy's word) heaving as Atlanta blazes in the background. Rhett is leaving Scarlett as a Confederate going off to fight "the Cause" against the Yankees near the end of the Civil War in 1864.
That answered, which of Rhett's now famous "don't give a" well, you-know-what, is correct? Both are. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" is from the movie, while "My dear, I don't give a damn" is from the book. And "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn" is an amalgamation of the two and considered a malapropism used by someone who isn't a true Windie.
In any case, flaming embraces, heaving buzzums and that single curse word were pretty risque for Dec. 15, 1939, when the movie premiered at Atlanta's Loew's Grand Theater. Producer David O. Selznick came, as did Mitchell and most of the cast, including Gable and Leigh.
Loew's, in an ironic twist, burned to the ground in 1978.
Thanks, doc
The Gone With the Wind museum, in an 1875 former cotton warehouse, is a veritable circus of GWTW and Margaret Mitchell memorabilia from the private collection of Dr. Christopher Sullivan of Akron, Ohio. Sullivan began amassing these items from the time he was a teenager, and now on display are foreign editions of the book, original scripts and costume pieces, movie posters from around the globe and in every language, autographed copies of the book that belonged to Mitchell, and the piece de resistance, the original Bengaline honeymoon gown that is one of only eight original costumes still known to exist.
Connie Sutherland, director of the museum, says that if there is one thing that gets more "oohs and aahs" than anything else, it's the gown. "It's the most talked-about item in the museum," she says, "mainly because it's the only original dress worn by Vivian Leigh in her role as Scarlett that's on display to the public."
Fiddle-dee-dee! There's more than nostalgia and memorabilia here. Not only will you feel that you have been personally introduced to all the characters with all the items on display, but the movie runs continuously throughout the day.
For history fans, too
Just don't go expecting Tara, because Tara it's not. It is simply an extraordinary museum devoted to an extraordinary writer, book and movie.
"For the most part, our visitors are fans of Gone With the Wind," Sutherland says, "but you don't have to be a diehard fan to appreciate history. The memorabilia and the building in which it's displayed bring about a real feeling of yesteryear."
Now with the 70th anniversary of the premiere of the movie just months away, a "repremiere" of GWTW Nov. 13-14 has been scheduled by the museum, in partnership with Marietta's historic Strand Theatre, Warner Home Video and Turner Classic Movies and with a little help from the Marietta Welcome Center & Visitors Bureau.
The ticket-only events include museum events and a GWTW authors Q&A session at the Strand with a host of writers, including Herb Bridges, who wrote Gone With the Wind — The Definitive Illustrated History of the Book, the Movie and the Legend; Cammie King Conlon, who played Bonnie Blue Butler in the movie and who penned Bonnie Blue Butler: A Gone With the Wind Memoir; Mollie Haskell, who wrote Frankly, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited; and Kathy Witt, author of The Secret of the Belles.
Also at the Strand during the event is an evening with a few remaining cast members, including Conlon, Ann Rutherford (Carreen O'Hara), Mickey Kuhn (Beau Wilkes), Mary Anderson (Maybelle Merriwether), and Patrick Curtis (Baby Beau). Olivia de Havilland, forever known to Windies as "Miss Melly" (Melanie Wilkes), has been invited.
A Belles and Beaus costume ball slated for the event is fittingly complete with Virginia reel dance instruction. Black veils are optional for the Virginia reel (Windies will understand). Matinee and evening showings of the movie will be at the Strand.
if you go
Gone With the Wind Museum
Dates and times of operation of the museum, as well as tickets for the "repremiere," are available by visiting the Gone With the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square at www.gwtwmarietta.com, or call (770) 794-5145. Visit the Marietta Welcome Center & Visitors Bureau at mariettasquare.com or call (770) 429-1115. Visit the Margaret Mitchell House at margaretmitchellhouse.com or call (404) 249-7015.
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