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Victor Fleming

In the Galleries: “Gone With The Wind” producer David O. Selznick demanded proper Southern accents from actors

November 5, 2014 - Gabrielle Inhofe

Casting director Will Price and Susan Myrick both coached the actors on accents. Selznick took their advice and had the screenplay retyped to eliminate the forced southern dialect.

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.

Casting director Will Price and Susan Myrick both coached the actors on accents. Selznick took their advice and had the screenplay retyped to eliminate the forced southern dialect.
Casting director Will Price and Susan Myrick both coached the actors on accents. Selznick took their advice and had the screenplay retyped to eliminate the forced southern dialect.
Clark Gable initially agreed to work on a southern accent during breaks in filming "Idiot's Delight" (1939). While Selznick softened his position on Gable's accent, he remained vigilant over the accents of the other players, particularly Vivien Leigh.
Clark Gable initially agreed to work on a southern accent during breaks in filming “Idiot’s Delight” (1939). While Selznick softened his position on Gable’s accent, he remained vigilant over the accents of the other players, particularly Vivien Leigh.

Filed Under: Exhibitions + Events, Film Tagged With: accent, Clark Gable, David O. Selznick, dialect, exhibition, Film, George Cukor, Henry Ginsberg, In the Galleries, Leslie Howard, Southern accent, Susan Myrick, The Making of Gone With The Wind, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh, Will Price

“Films of 1939”

September 30, 2014 - Alicia Dietrich

Film still from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

The Ransom Center kicks off the series “Films of 1939” with a screening of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this Thursday, October 2, at 7 p.m.

 

1939 is widely considered by film historians to be one of the most outstanding years in filmmaking. In conjunction with the Harry Ransom Center’s exhibition, The Making of Gone With The Wind, which marks the 75th anniversary of the film, the Ransom Center will screen three other films released in this prolific year: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Idiot’s Delight, and The Wizard of Oz.

 

The screenings are free and open to the public. The Ransom Center’s Charles Nelson Prothro Theater has limited seating. Line forms upon arrival of the first person, and doors open 30 minutes in advance.

 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Thursday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m.

Mickey Rooney and Rex Ingram star as Huck and Jim in this adaptation of the Mark Twain classic. Daring boy Huck (Rooney) sails down the Mississippi River with Big Jim (Ingram), an enslaved man running away from being sold. Ingram turned down the role of Big Sam in Gone With The Wind to play Jim. Film run time is 91 minutes.

 

Idiot’s Delight

Thursday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.

Starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer in their third film together, Idiot’s Delight follows disparate travelers stranded at an Alpine hotel when the borders are closed with war imminent. MGM hoped to reunite Gable and Shearer as Rhett and Scarlett in Gone With The Wind, but the negative public response to rumors of Shearer’s casting ensured that it would not happen. Film run time is 107 minutes.

 

The Wizard of Oz

Thursday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m.

In in this early Technicolor classic directed by Victor Fleming, Judy Garland stars as Dorothy Gale, who is swept away to a magical land by a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the wizard who can help return her home. After completing work on The Wizard of Oz, Fleming took over as director of Gone With The Wind after George Cukor left the production. Film run time is 102 minutes.

 

Image: Film still from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Filed Under: Exhibitions + Events, Film Tagged With: Clark Gable, Films of 1939, George Cukor, Gone with the Wind, Hollywood’s Golden Age, Idiot’s Delight, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Norma Sherer, Rex Ingram, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Making of Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming

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