CMBA MOVIES OF 1939 BLOGATHON - GONE WITH THE WIND

      

Gone With the Wind is nearly as famous for its back story as it about its plot. It was a publicity juggernaut long before it was even made. Margaret Mitchell's novel had been a best-seller, and when David O Selznick announced he would produce it, the public clamored to vote for who they wanted to star in it. Clark Gable was the hands-down favorite as Rhett, but who should play Scarlett? Most of the biggest stars of the day coveted the role: Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Lana Turner, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Miriam Hopkins, Tallulah Bankhead, and Paulette Godard among others (photo from Photofest).

Costume designer Walter Plunkett was the recognized expert of period costume in film. Selznick engaged him on a non-paying basis to make preliminary studies for the costumes. Margaret Mitchell herself had wanted another designer. Plunkett spent several months visiting the South and studying ante-bellum costumes and fabrics. After he returned to L.A. and was hired by Selznick, he furiously began sketching costume designs and had stars fitted for their wardrobe. But the script kept changing, and still there was no one to play Scarlett. Scarlett alone had 44 costume changes. Olivia de Havilland came very late to the film to play Melanie. She too had 22 costume changes. In all, GWTW would need some 2,868 costumes and an additional 1,230 Confederate and Union uniforms.

Costume design sketch by Walter Plunkett. Margaret Mitchell liked green for the costumes.

Walter Plunkett's job was not made any easier by Selznick's wavering between wanting the highest quality costumes possible but then blowing up at the size of the costume budget. After one cost-saving move he saw the actors appear in rented costumes and railed at their poor quality. Another headache for Plunkett was the requirement at the time that a Technicolor consultant approve all colors to be used for costumes and set designs. Selznick fired off one his infamous memos to the director and production manager, stating that if they needed to listen to Technicolor they may as well do away with the artists and have the Technicolor company design all the costumes and sets for them. Despite Selznick's cost-saving efforts, the costume budget grew to $154,000, a huge sum in 1939.

Walter Plunkett costume sketch for Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.

Plunkett costume sketch for Laura Hope Crews as Aunt Pittypat

In one of those moments in history when you wish you were there, during the night of December 10,1938 - David Selznick and George Cukor watched while Bill Menzies set on fire the old RKO/Pathe lot with its huge wooden gates and palisades from King Kong. Also watching was David's brother, agent Myron Selznick and his new client, Vivien Leigh with her lover Laurence Olivier. It was the scene being filmed as the burning of Atlanta. Watching the flames reflected on the cheeks of Vivien Leigh, David Selznick knew he had found his Scarlett.

The picture above is from the opening scene of GWTW, yet it was the very last scene filmed for the movie. Vivien Leigh was so exhausted from the filming schedule that she looked gaunt by the time this scene should have been shot, and it kept being postponed. It shows the Tarleton twins and Leigh on the porch talking about the approaching war. She wears a white flounced organdy dress with ruffled sleeves. The dress was actually off-white due to problems with Technicolor when filming pure white, and here it appears rose due to reflections.

Above Vivien Leigh is shown in her "barbecue dress." It was made of white silk muslin printed with green flower sprigs. The printed muslin was a copy of an antique fabric Plunkett found in Philadelphia.

Photofest

Olivia de Havilland as Melanie

The ladies' dresses like De Havilland's above were made with hoop-skirts. The Civil War caused fabric shortages that eliminated such fashions. Real hoops

had to be fabricated and made into underskirts for the dresses in the film.            

Photofest

The most iconic costume in film history is Scarlett's "curtain dress," based on the plot of having Scarlett and Mammy make the dress out of faded green curtains and silk tassels. The outfit combined the perfect attributes of costume design, representing her poverty, her determination, and her pride as she walked through the streets of Atlanta.

Above is a costume illustration Walter Plunkett made after he retired.

One of Plunkett's most challenging costumes was not the curtain dress but rather Scarlett's simple calico dress she wears through most of the Civil War scenes. Plunkett had to have 27 copies of the dress made to show the progressive stages of its deterioration as the war drags on. Leigh's double also had to have copies to wear. By the end of its use Plunkett had to have the dresses taken apart and turned inside out to show their faint coloring. It was actually the first GWTW costume made because it was worn during the burning of Atlanta scene - the scene shot while King Kong's gates and the mock Atlanta train depot burned. Since Vivien Leigh had not yet been cast, it was her double that wore the costume on the wild wagon escape with Rhett.

Above is Plunkett's costume sketch for the burgundy colored velvet and feathered ball gown.Scarlet wore the gown to Ashley's surprise party. Plunkett had asked for Margaret Mitchell's consent to change the color to burgundy from the original green it had been in her book. She   agreed and the red color made the scene more dramatic.                                                                                

                                                               

Ann Rutherford is shown above playing Scarlet's youngest sister Carreen. Rutherford is made to look like a 13 year old in this early scene.

Gone With the Wind went on to make movie history with its 13 Oscar nominations and 8 wins. Yet there was no Oscar category for best costume. That would not come until 1948. But Walter Plunkett shared the same fate as David O Selznick as regards GWTW. They both made many great films in their careers but were destined to be best remembered for GWTW. As time went on all the other successes were as good as forgotten. Such was the huge scale of the movie that it did the same thing for many of the actors, including Vivien Leigh. Even today, the movie remains a monument and a legacy from those far away days of that great year of 1939.

Today, precious few of those beautiful costumes remain. Some are part of the Shaw-Tumblin collection now on exhibit in Little Rock, Arkansas.. Five of them are with David O Selznick's archives at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. The university recently raised the money to restore the costumes.