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to Gone with the Wind, but I will say that from a technical viewpoint that it, and The Wizard of Oz, released around the same time, were real technology breakthroughs.  I really dislike the entire story (it is barely better than any given soap opera today), but what was accomplished on a Hollywood sound stage was astounding.

Except for a few stock footage, everything was filmed (and I mean filmed, not taped) on a California soundstage or a back lot.  The few that I can point out is the mill in the credits (actually stock footage from a landmark in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and the “12 Oaks” scene from stock footage from Georgia.  Except for a very few other things, the motion picture was filmed in California.

Here are some of the technological breakthroughs.

The Technicolor(TM) process at the time involved a camera that used four rolls of unexposed film, one black and white, one cyan, one magenta, and one blue.  The lenses of the cameras would direct the appropriate colors to emulsion sensitive to that particular color, with the black and white one sensitive to everything.  The ASA speed of the film at the time sort of corresponds to what we, who remember color photography, would call ASA 4 or so.  Extremely slow response emulsion, so exposures had to be very great, so lots of arc lamps, (or full sun with reflectors, the reason that southern California was chosen int he first place, because of its bright solar irradiation) that were the best at the time for intense light, but also intense heat producers.

As an aside, Keith just ran a story about the corrupt Florida Republican official who has recanted his criticism about the President’s annual school speech.  The wonderful part is that he chose to end the segment with an EXTREMELY obscure song byte by The Who, called A Legal Matter, from their debut record The Who Sing My Generation from 1965.  I shall look for a link in a bit, but I want to finish this.

Then there was the problem with Scarlett’s green eyes.  The producers hired a fairly famous British actress to play her, Vivian Leigh, but she had BLUE eyes.  To compensate, when they did closeup shots, they would shine a very bright YELLOW light into her eyes, and with the emulsions at the time, they appeared green.  This was brilliant filmmaking.

There is a lot of controversy about the use of a mercury temperature thermometer for the wounded at the rail station in “Atlanta”.  Acutally, the mercury thermometer for medical use had been invented just a few years before the horrible conflict, so that was fine, EXCEPT that very few were available in the Confederate States, but possible.  That myth is busted, because they did exist.

The two most difficult scenes were the burning of Atlanta and the bringing out the wounded in the railroad yard in Atlanta, later.  The first scene was done with stunt doubles, and MGM actually burnt a backlot set of old, outside sets for that one.  The producers put only a little money into redressing the old sets to resemble Atlanta, and then set it on fire.  The doubles drove the buggy through it, and the rest is history.  Just remember that neither Rhett’s nor Scarlett’s faces were clear on the actions scenes, only on the close ups that were not filmed on the set.

The Atlanta train rail yard was extremely difficult.  In 1938, when the film was made, helicopters were just on the drawing boards.  These days, such a scene is common using them and image stabilizers.  Not then.  Herre is what they did.

They poured a concrete track, very gently sloping downhill, and put a camera on a very tall crane.  They then rolled the crane (it had wheels) down the slope, and used the pan feature of the camera along with getting closer to the subjects to do the zoom.  The results really look realistic.  By the way, of all of the wounded in the scene, over 90% were dummies, and only a few real extras.

Now for a little trivia about the actors.  Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh married, then divorced.  Sort of like Rhett and Scarlett.  Vivian Leigh was British, and her “southern” accent was really pretty bad.  Gable was from Oklahoma, and was more convincing.

The character “Ashley”, Scarlett’s true love, was played by the British actor Leslie Howard, brought in to add screen attraction.  He also had a very poor southern accent.  He went on to be a true war hero in WW II, being killed in action, as I remember.

One of the two suitors at the very beginning of the film was George Reeves, later known as Clark Kent in the 1950 series Superman.

Hattie McDowell (Mamy) was nominated for an Academy Award, the first black actress to get that honor.

Butterfly McQueen (Prissy) whose line, “Miss Scarlett, I don’t NOTHING about birthing babies!” died of burns in a fire at her home only a few years ago.

By the way, there are many rumors that Gable was gay.  So far, I have not seen enough evidence to say one way or another.  It is pretty well established that he shaved his entire body daily, but that could well be to protect his “good looking guy” image until he died.

Finally, Gable and Marilyn Monroe starred in a movie called The Misfits in the late 1950s.  He died just after production, and it was a very poor exit for him, since it is, at best, a “B” movie.

Once again, Gone with the Wind was HORRIBLE insofar as the story line went, but was at the cutting edge insofar as the art and technology was evolved at the time.  I remember it as a very pretty film as far as the visual presentation went, but just horrible as the story and acting went.

Hey, ek,

Do you think that this is good enough to be a standalone entry for Popular Culture this coming Friday?

Warmest regards,

Doc