Ransom Center Magazine

Vivien Leigh

75 Days. 75 Years: Actresses who had screen tests for role of Scarlett O’Hara

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For 75 days, the Harry Ransom Center is raising funds for its 2014 exhibition The Making of Gone With The Wind. Opening on September 9, 2014, The Making of Gone With The Wind will reveal stories about the making of this quintessential film from Hollywood’s Golden Age and illustrate why it remains influential and controversial 75 years after it was released. Items from film producer David O. Selznick’s archive provide a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the film. Donations will help support outreach, additional exhibition tours, a published exhibition catalog, and complimentary programming and presentations.

David O. Selznick, the film producer of Gone With The Wind (1939), mounted a nationwide search for a woman to play the role of Scarlett O’Hara. Scores of women read for the part, but only the women listed here, some talented amateurs and some experienced actors, actually sat for filmed screen tests.

Selznick found Lana Turner “completely inadequate, too young to have a grasp of the part.” Until Vivien Leigh’s arrival, Paulette Goddard was Selznick’s first choice. Goddard made more screentests for the role than any other established actress and eventually signed an option agreement with Selznick in anticipation of getting the part.

The four finalists for the role of Scarlett were Goddard, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Leigh.

The exhibition will highlight over 300 original items from Selznick’s archive housed at the Ransom Center, including photographs, storyboards, correspondence, production records, audition footage, and fan mail. The exhibition will also feature gowns worn by Leigh as the beautiful and ambitious Scarlett O’Hara. The newly conserved costumes will be displayed together for the first time in more than 25 years.

Please click on thumbnails to view larger images.

Image: Memo to David O. Selznick regarding “Girls tested for the role of Scarlett,” ca. 1938.

75 Days. 75 Years: How one of Hollywood’s most famous lines was retained

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For 75 days, the Harry Ransom Center is raising funds for its 2014 exhibition The Making of Gone With The Wind. Opening on September 9, 2014, The Making of Gone With The Wind will reveal stories about the making of this quintessential film from Hollywood’s Golden Age and illustrate why it remains influential and controversial 75 years after it was released.

 

Items from film producer David O. Selznick’s archive provide a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the film. Donations will help support outreach, additional exhibition tours, a published exhibition catalog, and complimentary programming and presentations.

 

Film producer David O. Selznick’s 1939 epic film Gone With The Wind was embroiled in controversy before a single frame was shot. There were a range of issues on and off the set, including Selznick’s battle with the Hays Office, which was the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America’s office charged with production code. Selznick’s 1939 memo reveals his effort to retain the famous line in the film, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

 

Selznick states that the omission of the line “spoils the punch at the end of the picture, and on our very fade-out gives an impression of unfaithfulness after three hours and forty-five minutes of extreme fidelity to Miss Mitchell’s work.”

 

He notes that preview audiences are also stumped at the line’s omission, one that “forever establishes the future relationship between Scarlett and Rhett.”

 

The Making of Gone With The Wind will include over 300 original items from the Selznick archive housed at the Ransom Center, including photographs, storyboards, correspondence, production records, audition footage, and fan mail. The exhibition will also feature gowns worn by Vivien Leigh as the beautiful and ambitious Scarlett O’Hara. The newly conserved costumes will be displayed together for the first time in more than 25 years.

 

Click on thumbnails to view larger images.

 

Turner Classic Movies to be premier sponsor for upcoming “Gone With The Wind” exhibition

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Turner Classic Movies (TCM), the Peabody Award-winning network that is the leading authority on classic films, is a premier sponsor for the Harry Ransom Center’s exhibition The Making of Gone With The Wind, which opens September 9, 2014.

In its 20th year of presenting uncut and commercial-free films, TCM also hosts events such as the TCM Classic Film Festival. At the 2014 film festival, TCM will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Gone With The Wind (1939) with a screening of a recent restoration of the film in collaboration with Warner Bros. Studios.

Held in Hollywood April 10–13, the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival will celebrate its fifth consecutive year of bringing together legendary stars, award-winning filmmakers, and classic movie fans. TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne serves as official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival.

TCM’s sponsorship will support the Ransom Center, which plans to exhibit more than 300 original items from Gone With The Wind film producer David O. Selznick’s archive housed at the Center, including behind-the-scenes photographs, storyboards, correspondence, production records, audition footage, fan mail, and gowns worn by Vivien Leigh. Donations for the exhibition will contribute to tours, an exhibition catalog, and programming.

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