Featured in the Stories to Tell exhibition is a rare exclusive look at Henri Matisse’s art book, Jazz (1947). [Read more…] about In the Galleries: Rare opportunity to see Henri Matisse’s Jazz on display
In the Galleries
In the Galleries: “The Rectory Magazine”
The man who became famous as Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832. Dodgson, the third of 11 siblings, grew up in northern England surrounded by his brothers and sisters. Together they put on plays and created family publications like The Rectory Magazine, named for their home in Croft-on-Tees. Dodgson’s father was an Archdeacon in the Church of England and lived in a rectory, or a residence for the parish clergyman.
This edition of The Rectory Magazine includes essays, poems, and short stories, as well as hand-drawn and colored illustrations. The sense of humor and parody that appear in much of Carroll’s later work is already evident in The Rectory Magazine, produced when Dodgson was 18 years old.
Visitors to the Ransom Center’s exhibition Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, on view through July 6, can turn the pages of a digital version of The Rectory Magazine on a touchscreen in the galleries.
Please click on the below thumbnails to view larger images.
![Title page of Charles Dodgson's [Lewis Carroll], The Rectory Magazine, produced by Dodgson and his siblings in 1850.](https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/files/2015/02/3_300dpi.jpg)
![Illustrations from Charles Dodgson's [Lewis Carroll], The Rectory Magazine, produced by Dodgson and his siblings in 1850.](https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/files/2015/02/26_300dpi.jpg)
![Illustrations from Charles Dodgson's [Lewis Carroll], The Rectory Magazine, produced by Dodgson and his siblings in 1850.](https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/files/2015/02/38_300dpi.jpg)
![Illustrations from Charles Dodgson's [Lewis Carroll], The Rectory Magazine, produced by Dodgson and his siblings in 1850.](https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/files/2015/02/74_300dpi.jpg)
In the Galleries: “Gone With The Wind” producer David O. Selznick demanded proper Southern accents from actors
Letters poured into producer David O. Selznick’s office on the proper use of Southern accents in Gone With The Wind. One woman wrote, “Come South and study our dialect. I don’t know your people as you do, but it cuts deep when we see our lovely old Southern life ‘hashed up.’”
Clark Gable employed a dialog coach, but two days before filming, Selznick learned that Gable was refusing to use an accent. Selznick then had Will Price, from the casting department, and Susan Myrick, a technical advisor, work on coaching the actors in the use of an appropriate accent.
Price and Myrick, in a memo to Selznick and director George Cukor, wrote, “we find that the script includes innumerable attempts at written southern accent for the white characters. Both Miss Myrick and I strongly agree that this is extremely dangerous as it prompts the actors immediately to attempt a phony southern accent comprised merely of dropping final ‘ings’ and consonants. A phony southern accent is harder to eradicate than a British or western accent.” They then advise that the script should be retyped, without the written southern accents.
Filming went on hiatus as Selznick replaced director George Cukor with Victor Fleming. Selznick wrote to studio manager Henry Ginsberg about his concerns over the accent during this period: “We know that Leslie Howard has made little or no attempts in the direction of accent and since he is on our payroll there is little excuse for this…. I am particularly worried about Vivien Leigh since she has been associating with English people and more likely than not has completely got away from what was gained up to the time we stopped.” Leigh was already under fire from the media and many Southerners for being British, so it would have been doubly ruinous for the film if she were unable to employ an accent.
Memos related to the actors’ accents are on view through January 4 in the Ransom Center’s current exhibition The Making of Gone With The Wind. A fully illustrated exhibition catalog of the same title is available. Co-published by the Harry Ransom Center and University of Texas Press, the catalog includes a foreword written by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) host and film historian Robert Osborne.
Please click thumbnails to view larger images.
