… premiered in Atlanta on this date 67 years ago.
Hattie McDaniel, who won a supporting-actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy, was not present in segregated Atlanta.
Martin Luther King, Jr., sang in the “negro boys choir” from his father’s church at the Gone With The Wind Ball the evening before the premiere.
The 2,000 tickets were $10 and up.
When the news of war is announced in the film, the audience in the theater rose to its feet with rebel yells.
Laurence Olivier reportedly proposed to Vivien Leigh on their flight from Atlanta to New York after the premiere. Their marriage lasted 20 years.
The Loew’s Grand Theater, where the premiere was shown, was destroyed by fire in 1978.
The film, however great as a motion picture, forever ruined America’s understanding of what the War of the Rebellion was all about.
I remember reading Gone With the Wind for the first time. It was the summer before sixth grade and it was a rainy day at the beach. I started it at 10 a.m., and didn’t finish until 4 a.m. (the next day, obviously). I loved it, and because I was only 11, I had no understanding of its accuracy or lack thereof. I thought it was a great story, and I subsequently begged my grandmother to rent the movie and watch it with me.