Stage & Screen: Gone With The Wind

Words and Photography by Anouk Lefavre

Once a month, Captain Paul Creighton hosts the Stage & Screen event dedicated to several classic movies and plays we have learn to love and appreciate. On April 13th, the Captain invited all Swing Timers for a visit to Tara where we met Miss Scarlett and Mr. Rhett Butler as well as sweet Ms. Melanie Hamilton and Mr. Ashley Wilkes.

Gone With The Wind, a 1939 film, is often considered the most beloved, enduring and popular film of all time. Sidney Howard's script was derived from Margaret Mitchell's first and only published, best-selling Civil War and Reconstruction Period novel.

The famous film, shot in three-strip Technicolor, is cinema's greatest, star-studded, historical epic film of the Old South during wartime that boasts an immortal cast in a timeless, classic tale of a love-hate romance. The indomitable heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, struggles to find love during the chaotic Civil War years and afterwards, and ultimately must seek refuge for herself and her family back at the beloved plantation Tara. There, she takes charge, defends it against Union soldiers, carpetbaggers, and starvation itself. She finally marries her worldly admirer Rhett Butler, but her apathy toward him in their marriage dooms their battling relationship, and she again returns to Tara to find consolation - indomitable.

Authenticity is enhanced by the costuming, sets, and variations on Stephen Foster songs and other excerpts from Civil War martial airs. Its opening, only a few months after WWII began in Europe, helped American audiences to identify with the war story and its theme of survival.

The Gone With The Wind setting in Swing Times Studios Backlot was beautifully done – a perfect replica of Tara, and the music selection was exquisite, based on the original soundtrack of the epic movie.

«I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.»

.

_______

Sources:

- Wikipedia.com

- Wikiquote.com

- Goodreads.com