Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Gone With The Wind

 

It is hard to believe that in fourteen years, the movie Gone With The Wind  will be 100 years old. This premier was "big doings" in Atlanta in 1939. It is a great film in many aspects, especially considering the time in which it was made. The burning of Atlanta scenes are epic. I guess my only pet peeve with the film is the fact that the movie illustrates a life that very few Southrons ever lived. One point I think almost all will agree on is the fact that Vivian Leigh was a major babe when she starred opposite of Clark Gable in this classic. 

H/T to reader James in Columbus






                                                                        Atlanta Premier 1939








                                                                 Poem form the opening scenes

34 comments:

  1. Appalachian till I dieFebruary 11, 2025 at 10:41 PM

    I agree sir.
    Also, it’s a rare film that at least purports to represent the true Southern price paid.

    the yankees haven’t changed that much either. just different tools.

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    1. A lot of wrong on both sides. Do yourself a favor and drop the victim status. Both sides were wrong driven by a handful of politicians/leaders. The people paid the price on both sides. Casting aspersions on "Yankees" may make you feel better but it accomplishes nothing and creates discord.

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    2. Lincoln was a usurper whom destroyed the union and set the Federal leviathan upon us till this day.
      And I'm a Yankee.

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    3. There were a lot of terrible deeds committed during the invasion of GA and the march to the sea by both sides (look up 1st Ala. Cav. U.S.). My grandmother told me a story that her grandma had told her. My gg-grandmother lived north of Atlanta with three kids and her man (my gg-granddaddy) gone to fight in the 1st Ga. Cavalry when Sherman's bummers visited her. She had killed a hog that morning and hid the meat in the well. A gang of yankees took all of the foodstuffs, anything of value, and even took the quilts off the beds. They didn't find the meat. Her husband returned from the war unrecognizable and vermin ridden. He died at 88 in 1925.

      A few books worth mention pertaining to this subject:
      Marching Through Georgia
      Last Train From Atlanta
      Ghosts of Atlanta (letters, diary, journals, newspapers, etc. from citizens and Soldiers Mostly personal accounts).
      Silent Cavalry (several political innuendos, Trump/MAGA slights, but enough history to read...i.e the torturous account of Thomas Pickney Curtis

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    4. anon - 8:35 Do yourself a favor and spare ME "both sides were wrong..etc..etc.." You may think it accomplishes nothing, but if getting the truth out makes "yankees" look in the mirror and maybe question the narrative they've been lied too about since they could attend a government school..well then, that might be a step in the right direction. I say this as a life long Northerner...who was fed lie upon lie about that war in my youth...lies like this one "The North went to war to free the slaves"...pure fiction.

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    5. Anon 9:37 - You've distilled it down to one piercing sentence of truth. Bravo.

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    6. Boba carrying around hatred of the "Yankees" to this day some 155+ years later is incredibly stupid. There isn't a "Yankee" alive that fought in that war, just as there are no living rebels alive. Give it a rest for Christ sakes.

      As for Atlanta it makes perfect sense. If you are a general and the enemy is killing your soldiers and you have an opportunity to end the war and the killing by using the forces at hand then you are obligated to do so. Believe it or not a civilian's life is not worth more than a soldiers life. You civilians may think so but we both bleed. It ended the war, shock and awe. That was the goal, probably saved more lives than dragging the war out would have. War is hell, worse for the side that loses.

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    7. I see you miss the point, not a surprise. Have a nice day.

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    8. There’s a village name My Lai who would care to share a word with you on the subject.

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    9. ColdSoldier, Thank you for the classic example of what a low IQ person does when they got nothing. Where in the hell did the My Lai comment come from??? Oh yeah! Just to slander militray. Good job! Next call me a Nazi!!!

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    10. Anon's right about Dishonest Abe. He provoked an illegal war (all the other Federal installations were vacated peaceably; Anderson was ordered to stay in Sumter so the Rebs would be dumb enough to feel obligated to take it). More to the point, VA, NC, TN, and AR begged Lincoln to give them time to calm things down, but he wouldn't have it. That's why most of the Confederacy seceded in December, but those 4 seceded in April.

      As for Cold, the Lefties have get in their little dig where they can. Just like all the Demos invoking Old Hickory and the Trail of Tears when Trump and Elon talk about how the connivance of John Marshall in violating separation of powers by expecting the Executive to do his dirty work for him.

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    11. FWIW You don't have to be a Southerner or have some "racist" views to see the South was the injured party. They bore the full weight of the protective tariff (which was almost the entire source of revenue for the Feds) and, being fed up, decided to secede (nowhere in the Constitution, then or since, is it forbidden). Thus the real cause of the war. Dishonest Abe couldn't allow the South to go. The irony here is the same rich Abolitionists who made such a show about blacks had no sympathy for the slave wages and hideous working and living conditions the Irish and Germans, among others, who made them rich.

      Sounds just like the rich Lefties today, don't it?

      Irish Catholic Pennsylvanian, born, raised, and educated, but I've read the history.

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    12. Well said edutcher. Watch it all.
      https://youtu.be/lWXnTF2iACo

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    13. I think this the same historically ignorant cretin who went ballistic on me for a simple accurate statement on the war of northern aggression on “daily time waster”.

      Anon. Show me on the doll where the south hurt you.

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  2. Sheeit! It was still considered a hit in the 60's when I was a little kid.

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  3. I had an aunt who went to it when first released. She said they packed lunch to eat during the intermission!

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  4. I saw it as a kid when it was re-released to the big screen in the '70s. Two intermissions is too long a film for children. All I remember is that it was a royal pain sitting through...

    Also saw 2001 re-released in the same time period, about a year or so before Star Wars came out. The former blew me away, the later was like a bad cartoon.

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  5. I think have probably seen it 100 times.
    Eastwood

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  6. Loved the book too. Even deeper

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  7. Most of the movie was shot at the Pathe/RKO/Desilu "40 Acres" lot in Culver City, CA. Along with GWTW, many TV shows were done there - The Andy Griffith Show and Hogan's Heroes come immediately to mind. A few Star Trek episodes were also done there, so if you seen an old original ST series episode that looks like they beamed down to Mayberry, you're exactly right. The mansion Tara, Atlanta CW street scenes, and the Atlanta RR station were all there. Of course, the facility is long gone, it's now an industrial park. Great refs on the GWTW period of the lot and also a detailed analysis of Tara - https://retroweb.com/40acres_gwtw.html and https://tomitronics.com/old_buildings/tara/index.html

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  8. my dad took my mom to the premier in atlanta ,before they were my mom and dad

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  9. Clark Gable always looked like somebody's dad tagging along.

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  10. I saw this for the first time over 40+ years ago and it is still one of my all-time favorites. Now I'm gonna have to watch it again this weekend.

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  11. The power of film. Grandma's story of its original 1939 release: When Rhett takes Scarlett in his arms, says "That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.", and then kisses her women in the audience actually passed out. Happened often enough that theaters showing it had nurses on premises.
    When GWTW had one of its many theatrical re-releases (1974? 1979??) I saw it in Richmond, VA. Galvanizing to say the least.

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  12. While the war wasn’t started the free the slaves, the southern elite saw the writing on the wall as decided to make a go of it. How did that work out for all the soldiers and civilians. The war was started near my hometown of Charleston.
    Ed

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    1. It was never about the slaves, except for a few fanatics; slavery was the excuse for some. For most on the Union side, it was about Fort Sumter and the Rebs firing on a Federal installation. You read some of the correspondence and it sounds like the reaction to Pearl Harbor.

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    2. It was about commerce. The Yankees were jealous and wanted tariffs on southern products to enrich the Yankees and their products.

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    3. The tariff had been there for 40 years already.

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    4. But it had recently been raised, on some goods, to approximately 60%.
      Tariffs were the largest part of Federal revenues, with excise taxes and fees making up the rest.
      The States could survive the secession on both sides, but the Federal Government could not survive without the Southern revenue. The North and the South had different economic interests and could have survived seperately.
      John in Indy.

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  13. Vivian was nothing compared to Olivia. She was the real babe.

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  14. Forget Leigh, Olivia was the babe.

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  15. Outside of the main characters- Mammy was always my fav. So many great lines she had. “It ain’t fittin’. It just ain’t fittn’ “. Etc.

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