Gone With the Wind’s First Sneak Peek

A book to celebrate GWTW’s 75th Anniversary!By September, producer David O. Selznick was ready to preview Gone With the Wind. Because the film was not completely finished, he didn’t want to attract the attention of the press, so plans for the preview were super...

Sweating Gone With the Wind’s Small Stuff

In addition to using matte paintings, special-photographic-effects artist Jack Cosgrove also relied on miniature models for creating the virtual reality of Gone With the Wind. Cosgrove sweated the small stuff in these sequences: Ellen O’Hara’s Return to Tara: The long...

Editing Gone With the Wind

On Wednesday, August 30, 1939, producer David O. Selznick updated Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Director of Publicity Howard Strickling about the ongoing issue of Gone With the Wind’s running time. In his letter, Selznick reported having shown a four hour and twenty-seven...

Accident Kills Gone With the Wind’s Screenwriter

Work on Gone With the Wind halted suddenly when tragic news from the East Coast reached Selznick International Pictures: Gone With the Wind’s original screenwriter was dead.  Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sidney Howard owned a 700-hundred-acre cattle ranch...

Gone With the Wind’s Special Effects

During August 1939, special-photographic-effects artist Jack Cosgrove and the assistants he supervised at Selznick International Pictures worked day and night to create a virtual reality for Gone With the Wind. The movie magic that Cosgrove conjured for producer David...