My mother instilled within me the love of the south and the movie Gone with the Wind. Mary Dorothy Cecil Robertson, my mother, was born in Kentucky, before migrating to Michigan. I was born in Michigan but brought up with many of the southern values. She took me to Detroit, Michigan to a grand theater to see the re-release of the movie. The theater was so beautiful with magnificent drapes with gold fringe (much like the ones in which Scarlett made her glamorous dress). The theater had thick patterned carpet in deep reds with gold patterns running through it and a huge crystal chandelier in the lobby. I was so excited and that memory will be with me always. As for Gone with the Wind, I just adored it!
Gone with the Wind, the Book
As an adult, I read the book by Margaret Mitchell and visualized every page with the previously seen movie. However, like all novels there is some differences between the movie and the novel itself. You will have to read it to determine those differences! The story is set in Jonesboro and Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War and Reconstruction and follows the life of Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irish immigrant plantation owner. The novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1939 film of the same name. It is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. It took her seven years to write the book and a further eight months to check the thousands of historical and social references. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. Over the years, the novel has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of mythological archetypes.
Margaret Mitchell, the Author
Gone with the Wind, published on June 30, 1936, is a romantic novel and the only novel written by Margaret Mitchell. Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American author, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone with the Wind. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies (the highest selling book next to the Bible). An American film adaptation, released in 1939, became the highest-grossing film in the history of Hollywood, and received a record-breaking ten Academy Awards. Mitchell is reported to have begun writing Gone With the Wind while bedridden with a broken ankle. Her husband, John Marsh, brought home historical books from the public library to amuse her while she recuperated. After she supposedly read all the historical books in the library, he told her, "Peggy, if you want another book, why don't you write your own?" She drew upon her encyclopedic knowledge of the Civil War and dramatic moments from her own life, and typed her epic novel on an old Remington typewriter. She originally called the heroine "Pansy O'Hara", and Tara was "Fountenoy Hall". She also considered naming the novel Tote The Weary Load or Tomorrow Is Another Day. Finally she settled on a phrase from a favorite poem by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind, / Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng." She wrote the last chapter first, and skipped around from chapter to chapter. Gone With the Wind was published on June 30, 1936. The book was dramatized by David O. Selznick, and released three years later. The premiere of the film was held in Atlanta on December 15, 1939. Sadly, there was no sequel written by Margaret Mitchell, as she was struck by a speeding automobile as she crossed Peachtree Street at 13th Street with her husband, John Marsh, on her way to see the British film A Canterbury Tale at The Peachtree Art Theatre in August 1949. She died at Grady Hospital five days later without regaining consciousness. She is buried in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia. The home of Margaret Mitchell, where she penned Gone with the Wind, is today a Museum for all to see....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Margaret_Mitchell_House (Source: wikipedia.com)
Scarlett, the sequel to Gone with the Wind,, was much of a disappointment to many readers, including me.
Although, the quench for thirst of Gone with the Wind has not kept me from reading it, several times! Scarlett is a novel written in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley as a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. It was adapted as a television mini-series of the same title in 1994 starring Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Scarlett O'Hara. The book picks up right where Gone with the Wind left off, with Scarlett attending the funeral of her former sister-in-law and rival for Ashley Wilkes' affection, Melanie Wilkes. Her adventures take her from Atlanta, to Savannah, to Ireland where she finally reconciles with Rhett in the end.
Finally, authorized by Margaret Mitchell's estate, came the book, Rhett Butler's People, published in 2007, that parallels Gone with the Wind fro Rhett Butler's perspective.
McCaig chooses to disregard the novel Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. He does not acknowledge its existence in the canon of Gone with the Wind nor does his novel incorporate any of its characters, which was very good, as the characters matched that of the original. The book attempts to present a semi-journalistic view of the life and times of Rhett Butler, while remaining faithful to the original Mitchell work. The Rhett-Scarlett love-story is downplayed in the book and the story, in my opinion, spent too much time in Charleston and not enough time with Rhett and Scarlett. I found sections of it dull as I wanted just to read about Rhett and Scarlett. 
I have just received the latest sequel, which has been banned in the United States, because it was unauthorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate, called the Winds of Tara, by Katherine Pinotti. In reading the snippet view of the book, I was very entranced.Read for yourself (http://www.thewindsoftara.com/). Scarlett, headstrong and beautiful, tries to win back the love of her estranged husband, Rhett. The Saga Lives On! I am on chapter 7 and loving it thus far! I purchased this book from ebay at a small fortune!I have made several Polyvore pages dedicated to Gone with the Wind, but my favorites are made by one of my favorite Polyvore artists, Vivian22. I have posted these, as well as a few others, below for your enjoyment. Long live the South!
David O. Selznick, born David Selznick (May 10, 1902–June 22, 1965), was one of the iconic Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. He is best known for producing the epic blockbuster Gone with the Wind (1939) which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture. Not only did Gone with the Wind gross the highest amount of money in the U.S. domestic box office of any film ever (adjusted for inflation), but it also won seven additional Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award that same year. He would make film history by winning the Best Picture Oscar a second year in a row for Rebecca (1940).
Top left: Producer David Selznick, stars Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and director George Cukor meet to sign contracts for Gone With the Wind.
Top right: Selznick Studios, famous from the movie Gone with the Wind, was founded in 1935 by producer David O. Selznick and investor John Hay "Jock" Whitney after Selznick left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and leased a section of the RKO Pictures lot in Culver City, California. The studio itself had been built for Pathé Pictures in 1919.
Bottom photos from Time Magazine: Walking among the set of Atlanta for Gone with the Wind.
Scarlett O'Hara (full name Katherine Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler) is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name. Ironically, during early drafts of the original novel, Mitchell referred to her heroine as "Pansy", and did not decide on the name "Scarlett" until just before the novel went to print. I am certainly happy on the name of Scarlett because I don't believe the name Pansy would have fit this heroine very well. Scarlett O'Hara is not beautiful in a conventional sense, as indicated by Margaret Mitchell's opening line, but a charming Southern belle who grows up on the Clayton County, Georgia, plantation Tara in the years before the American Civil War. Scarlett is described as being sixteen years old at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, which would put her approximate birth date in early 1845/late 1844. She is the oldest of three daughters. Her two younger sisters are the lazy and whiny Susan Elinor ("Suellen") and the gentle and kind Caroline Irene ("Carreen").
Suellen O'Hara
Carreen O'Hara
Her mother also gave birth to three younger sons, who were all named Gerald Jr. and died as infants. Selfish, shrewd and vain, Scarlett inherits the strong will of her Irish father Gerald O'Hara, but also desires to please her well-bred, gentle French American mother Ellen Robillard, from a good and well respected Savannah, Georgia, family.
The Perfect Scarlett O'Hara.
While the studio and the public agreed that the part of Rhett Butler should go to Clark Gable (except for Clark Gable himself), casting for the role of Scarlett was a little harder. The search for an actress to play Scarlett in the film version of the novel famously drew the biggest names in the history of cinema, such as Bette Davis (whose casting as a Southern belle in Jezebel in 1938 took her out of contention), and Katharine Hepburn, who went so far as demanding an appointment with producer David O. Selznick and saying, "I am Scarlett O'Hara! The role is practically written for me." David replied rather bluntly, "I can't imagine Rhett Butler chasing you for ten years." Jean Arthur and Lucille Ball were also considered, as well as relatively unknown actress Doris Davenport. Susan Hayward was "discovered" when she tested for the part, and the career of Lana Turner developed quickly after her screen test. Tallulah Bankhead and Joan Bennett were widely considered to be the most likely choices until they were supplanted by Paulette Goddard. In fact, at total of 38 girls were considered or tested for the role (Source: wikipedia.com). Gone with the Wind Scarlett tests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xmfLHXiAhA
Viven22 for Polyvore, made a set dedicated to several choice actresses.
Vivien Leigh - The young English actress Vivien Leigh, virtually unknown in America, saw that several English actors, including Ronald Colman and Leslie Howard, were in consideration for the male leads in Gone with the Wind. Her agent happened to be the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency, headed by David Selznick's brother, Myron. Leigh asked Myron to put her name into consideration as Scarlett on the eve of the American release of her picture Fire Over England in February 1938. David Selznick watched both Fire Over England and her most recent picture, A Yank at Oxford, that month, and thought she was excellent but in no way a possible Scarlett, as she was "too British." But Myron Selznick arranged for David to first meet Leigh on the night in December 1938 when the burning of the Atlanta Depot was being filmed on the Forty Acres back lot that Selznick International and RKO shared. Leigh and Laurence Olivier were visiting as guests of Myron Selznick, who was also Olivier's agent, and Leigh was in Hollywood hoping for a part in Olivier's current movie, Wuthering Heights. In a letter to his wife two days later, David Selznick admitted that Leigh was "the Scarlett dark horse," and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939. Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and Irish." In any case, Leigh was cast—despite public protest that the role was too "American" for an English actress—and Leigh eventually won an Academy Award for her performance.(Source: Wikipedia.com)
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. Despite his reluctance to play the role, Gable is best known for his performance in Gone with the Wind (1939), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Carole Lombard may have been the first to suggest that he play Rhett Butler (and she play Scarlett) when she bought him a copy of the bestseller, which he refused to read.
Gable was an almost immediate favorite for the role of Rhett with both the public and producer David O. Selznick. But since Selznick had no male stars under long-term contracts, he needed to go through the process of negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio. Gary Cooper was Selznick's first choice. When Cooper turned down the role of Butler, he was quoted as saying, "Gone With the Wind is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me." By then, Selznick had become determined to hire Gable, and set about finding a way to borrow him from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Gable was wary of potentially disappointing an audience that had decided that no one else could play the part. He later conceded, "I think I know now how a fly must react after being caught in a spider's web." Decades later, Gable said that whenever his career would start to fade, a re-release of Gone with the Wind would soon revive his popularity, and he continued as a top leading actor for the rest of his life. In addition, Gable was one of the few actors to play the lead in three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. However, he did not win his nomination for best actor to Gone with the Wind, losing out to Robert Donat, Goodbye Mr. Chips. (He was robbed!)
Watch the video clip, Getting Clark Gable
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/dor/objects/14231788/gone_with_the_wind/videos/gwtw_1_111609.html
Below is a Polyvore set dedicated to Clark Gable, by non other than my favorite GWTW Polyvore creator, Vivien22.
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time. Gable's most famous role was Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh. His performance earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor; he won for It Happened One Night (1934) and was also nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Later performances were in Run Silent, Run Deep, a submarine war film, and his final film, The Misfits (1961), which paired Gable with Marilyn Monroe in her last screen appearance. In his long film career, Gable appeared opposite some of the most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with, was partnered with Gable in eight films, Myrna Loy was with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer in three. Gable was often named the top male star in the mid-30s, and was second only to the top box-office draw of all, Shirley Temple. Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio to William Henry "Bill" Gable, an oil-well driller, and Adeline (née Hershelman), who was of German and Irish descent. He was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. His original name was probably William Clark Gable, but birth registrations, school records and other documents contradict one another. "William" would have been in honor of his father. "Clark" was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. In childhood he was almost always called "Clark"; some friends called him "Clarkie," "Billy," or "Gabe". At seventeen, Gable was inspired to be an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise, but he was not able to make a real start until he turned 21 and inherited money. By then, his stepmother Jennie had died and his father moved to Tulsa to go back to the oil business. He toured in stock companies and worked the oil fields and as a horse manager. Gable found work with several second-class theater companies and worked his way across the Midwest to Portland, Oregon, where he found work as a necktie salesman in the Meier & Frank department store. While there, he met actress Laura Hope Crews, who encouraged him to go back to the stage and into another theater company. His acting coach was a theater manager in Portland, Oregon, Josephine Dillon (seventeen years his senior). Dillon paid to have his teeth repaired and his hair styled. She guided him in building up his chronically undernourished body, and taught him better body control and posture. She spent considerable time training his naturally high-pitched voice, which Gable slowly managed to lower, and he gained better resonance and tone. As his speech habits improved, Gable's facial expressions became more natural and convincing. After the long period of rigorous training, she eventually considered him ready to attempt a film career.
Gone with the Wind ~ The Movie
The film opens on a large cotton plantation called Tara in rural Georgia in 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) is flirting with the two Tarleton brothers Brent (Fred Crane) and Stuart (George Reeves). /a> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUzNiY0FgVE
The brothers share a secret with Scarlett that one of her county beaux, whom she secretly loves, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) is to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland) and the engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks. Scarlett, so upset with the secret, runs away from the plantation and meets up with her father, Gerald O'Hara, Irish Imigrant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szfbQDG5Q_4
The following Polyvore pages are dedicated to this scene with Scarlett in her white dress. Most of them are by my Polyvore friend, Viven22. What's interesting is that no matter which Polyvore artist makes the sets, they are each lovely in their own way.
Twelve Oaks Barbecue - The next sets are dedicated to Scarlett as she prepares for the Twelve Oaks Barbecue including wearing a dress that is not proper that "shows her bosom in the light of day." Dear Mammy tries to instill in Scarlett what is proper for a young lady. Mammy consents to Scarlett wearing the dress if she would just eat some breakfast. Scarlett manages to eat a few bites before her father yells that they are late for the barbecue. Check out the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92kLpKuRJfo
Arriving at the Wilke's Twelve Oaks Plantation, the site is breathtaking. The exterior of Twelve Oaks was actually a matte painting. Per hookedonhouses.com, the images of the carriages rumbling up the drive were added later, creating a ghostly effect.
As Scarlett enters Twelve Oaks and ascends the elegant split staircase, she notices that she is being admired by a handsome but roguish visitor. He is the notorious Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) who had been disowned by his Charleston family.
Who will Scarlett eat barbecue with? She has so many admirers, including Mr. Charles Hamilton.
All the young ladies appropriately take an afternoon nap to be well rested for the Ball at Twelve Oaks. Even in the Civil War era, there were mean girls. Check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4546UkGWSw While the girls nap, the little slave girls fan them to keep them cool.
Scarlett, not necessarily a good girl, doesn't nap. She uses this time to sneak down the stairs to spill her secret to Ashley.
Dreams of Glory
Rhett finds himself in further disfavor among the male guests when, during a discussion of the probability of war, he states that the South has no chance against the superior numbers and industrial might of the North. He leaves the group with his apologies. See the talk of war video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3OLFmfWBWI
It's naptime. All well behaved ladies take a nap before the ball. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4546UkGWSw&NR=1
Scarlett sneaks out of her afternoon nap to be alone with Ashley in the library, and she confesses her love for him. He admits he finds Scarlett attractive, and that he has always secretly loved her back, but says that he and the sweet Melanie are more compatible. She accuses Ashley of misleading her to think that he did love her and slaps him in anger. I love this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XKyXEe5Mfc&feature=related
Ashley silently exits and Scarlett's anger is intensified when she realizes that Rhett was taking an afternoon nap on the couch in the library, and has overheard the whole conversation. "Sir, you are no gentleman!" she protests, to which he replies, "And you, miss, are no lady!" Nevertheless, Rhett promises to keep her guilty secret.
Later in the day, when the news of Abraham Lincoln's call for troops arrives and as the men at the party excitedly leave to join the war, Scarlett impulsively accepts a marriage proposal from Charles Hamilton in an attempt to make Ashley jealous. However, Ashley marries his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, played by Olivia de Havilland.
Both couples marry a day apart. Melanie, who now considers Scarlett to be her sister, gives her a warm welcome to the Hamilton family.
Scarlett bitterly regrets her decision in marriage and turns green with envy when war is announced and Ashley kisses Melanie goodbye.
It's a short marriage, for two months later, Charles dies of measles and pneumonia at a military camp, before he had an opportunity to fight on the battlefield, confirming Scarlett's opinion of his unheroic weakness.
Scarlett is not only a widow but she is a new mother (novel only, not the movie), giving birth to a baby boy named Wade Hampton whom she cares little for and pays no attention to. Her contempt for motherhood is equaled only by her interminable impatience with the customary protocol for Southern women in mourning. The movie doesn't indicate her having any children, but the Margaret Mitchell novel does, as well as the sequel novels to follow. Her lamentations include the fact that she is forced to dress in all-black and she cannot go to any parties. Scarlett finds, to her disgust, that she is living quietly at home, with limited social interactions like an old widow. She is more distressed over her boredom and new motherhood than at Charles' death.
Her mother, Ellen O'Hara, believing Scarlett to be pining away from a broken heart, sends her, little Wade, and Prissy (a young slave of the O'Hara's) on trips to visit family in an effort to revive her spirit.
Scarlett has been receiving letters from Melanie and Charles' elderly Aunt Pittypat and Melanie who are living together in Atlanta. These letters beg Scarlett to come live with them as the two women are all alone and would love to see Charles’ only son, Wade. Scarlett takes immediately to the hustle and bustle of Atlanta and finds Aunt Pittypat to be an easy enough pushover. Even though she is contemptuous of Melanie, the lure of Atlanta proves a fair trade for Scarlett. (On a personal note, Aunt Pittypat's house was among my favorites, beautifully decorated. This house must not have been burned by the notorious General Sherman because it later became a home in the Andy Griffith Show. LOL! Another memory is that mother use to tell my sister, Donna, that she resembled Aunt Pittypat because Donna wore her hair with little curls coming down that looked much like Pittypat's.)
At a fund raising bazaar, Melanie insists that Scarlett join them even though Aunt Pittypat doesn't consider it acceptable in society. Both women are dressed in black for the loss of Charles Hamilton; Scarlett for the loss of her husband, and Melanie for the loss of her brother.
At a fundraising bazaar, Melanie insists that Scarlett join them even though Aunt Pittypat doesn't consider it acceptable in society. Both women are dressed in black for the loss of Charles Hamilton; Scarlett for the loss of her husband, and Melanie for the loss of her brother.
Women in Black
During the Bazaar, Melanie and Scarlett donate their gold wedding rings to the Confederate cause. Rhett pays for the return of Melanie's ring, and Melanie that always sees the best in people, notices that Rhett is a perfect gentleman at heart.
If Scarlett's presence at the Bazaar is not enough to disturb society and Aunt Pittypat's nerves, it really is upsetting to the ton when Rhett bids $150 in Gold for a Dance with Mrs. Charles Hamilton. Although Scarlett claims to hate Rhett Butler, she accepts as she wants to dance, dance, dance and would dance with Abraham Lincoln himself. While they dance, Rhett tells her of his intention to win her, which she says will never happen, as long as she lives. Dance the Virginia Reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtOVmAtZ9tU&NR=1
Against the background of war, Scarlett stays in Atlanta and enjoys the company of Rhett. He ostensibly calls on Aunt Pittypat, as widows cannot properly receive male callers. Aunt Pittypat is uncomfortable with Rhett's presence, but Melanie firmly declares that he is a good man. Rhett's sharp wit and sarcastic charm infuriate and beguile Scarlett, who is still in love with Ashley. Rhett gives Scarlett a present from France, a new green velvet bonnet.
When Ashley comes home for Christmas in 1863, Scarlett becomes acutely aware of the privileges Melanie holds as his wife. The day Ashley leaves, Scarlett again reveals her feelings for him, hoping Ashley will break down and allow himself to reveal he loves her, too.
Christmas Morning
Christmas Night in Atlanta (even if you is the last chicken in Atlanta)
Ashley has a more important matter to discuss with Scarlett, other than her love for him. Sensing the end of the war and the fall of the South, he makes Scarlett promise that she will look after Melanie and see his family through the upcoming crisis in his absence. Scarlett blindly agrees to his promise. As Ashley heads for the door, Scarlett clings to him desperately and they share a passionate, forbidden kiss. Scarlett sobs that she loves him and that she only married Charles to hurt him. Ashley says nothing and wrenches himself from her grasp. He hurries from the house and away from Scarlett.
The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg and many county friends and old beauxs of Scarlett were killed.
Melanie and Scarlett work at the hospital caring for the soldiers. Scarlett gets enough of the war, the soldiers, injuries, blood, amputations, and flees the hospital determined to leave Atlanta.
The city is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign while Melanie goes into a premature and difficult labor. Aunt Pittypatt leaves Atlanta, leaving the girls: Scarlett, Melanie, and Prissy behind.
Scarlett sends Prissy for Doctor Meade. Unfortunately she returns without him. Prissy swore that she knew all about "birthing babies" but she wasn't any help to Scarlett.
Scarlett goes for Dr. Meade herself. This is one of the most heart-breaking scenes of the movie as Scarlett walks among the miles and miles of wounded at the railroad station. Dr. Meade, who cannot possibly care for all the wounded, tells Scarlett she will have to deliver the baby alone.
Scarlett must deliver the child by herself with the help of a house servant Prissy.
Scarlett calls upon Rhett to bring her home to Tara immediately with Melanie, Prissy, and the baby. He appears with a horse and wagon to take them out of the city on a perilous journey through the burning depot and warehouse district.
Rhett leaves Scarlett on the road to Tara with a nearly dead horse, helplessly sick Melanie, her baby, and tearful Prissy, ending their company with a passionate kiss. She repays him rudely with a slap, to his bemusement, as he goes off to fight with the Confederate Army.
On her journey back home, Scarlett finds Twelve Oaks burned out, ruined and deserted. At Twelve Oaks, they do find a cow that had someone escaped the slaughter of both armies. They tie it on the wagon to take to Tara, not knowing what they would find.
Scarlett is relieved to find Tara still standing but it has been deserted by all except her family and two servants, Mammy and Pork (Oscar Polk). Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever and her father's mind has begun to crumble under the strain. With Tara pillaged by Union troops, and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself: "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"
Scarlett sets her family and servants to picking the cotton fields. She also kills a Union deserter who threatens her during a burglary, and finds gold coins in his haversack, enough to sustain her family and servants for a short time.
With the defeat of the Confederacy and war's end, Ashley returns from being a prisoner of war. Mammy restrains Scarlett from running to him when he reunites with Melanie. The dispirited Ashley finds he is of little help to Tara, and when Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. Gerald O'Hara dies after he is thrown from his horse in an attempt to chase from his property a Yankee carpetbagger, the former overseer of his plantation who now wants to buy Tara. Scarlett is left to support the family, and realizes she cannot pay the rising taxes on Tara.
Knowing that Rhett is in Atlanta and believing he is still rich, she has Mammy make an elaborate gown for her from her mother’s drapes still hanging in the parlor. However, upon her visit, Rhett tells her his foreign bank accounts have been blocked, and that her attempt to get his money has been in vain.
When Rhett is unable to help Scarlett, she calls him a cad and flees the jail only to encounter Belle Watling, a lady of scandalous occupation, coming to see Rhett.
After Scarlett departs the jail, she encounters on the streets of Atlanta her sister’s fiancé, the middle-aged Frank Kennedy, who now owns a successful general store and lumber mill. Scarlett lies saying Suellen is tired of waiting and married another beau determined to get the money to pay Tara's taxes. She and Frank are married. Another child (novel only) is born to Scarlett with her husband Frank, a little girl named Ella.
After becoming Mrs. Frank Kennedy, Scarlett takes over his business, too and with the profits, buys a sawmill which becomes very profitable during the rebuilding of Atlanta — in part because she is willing to trade with the despised Yankee carpetbaggers and use convict laborers in her mill.
When Ashley is about to take a job offer with a bank in the north, Scarlett preys on his weakness by weeping that she needs him to help run the mill; pressured by the sympathetic Melanie, he relents.
One day while going to the mill, Scarlett is attacked while driving alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union troops, and Frank is killed.
Believing that husband Frank Kennedy is at a political meeting, she spends a night with the ladies--complaining about her husband.
With Frank’s funeral barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett, and proposes marriage. Scarlet takes him up on his offer, partially for his money. He kisses her passionately and tells her that he will win her love one day because they are both the same. "You need kissing very badly, Scarlett." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nACj50uq6_s; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxUdtYz93tY
Scarlett is the subject of much gossip around the old Biddies of Atlanta.
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After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Rhett promises to restore Tara to its former grandeur, while Scarlett builds the biggest mansion in Atlanta.
The two have a daughter, Eugenia Victoria, nicknamed Bonnie Blue Butler. Rhett adores her as a symbol of the spirited but not grasping girl Scarlett was before the war. He does everything to win the good opinion of Atlanta society for his daughter’s sake.
Scarlett, still pining for Ashley and chagrined at the perceived ruin of her figure (her waist has gone from eighteen-and-a-half inches to twenty), lets Rhett know that she wants no more children and that they will no longer share a bed. In anger, he kicks open the door that separates their bedrooms to show her that he will decide that.
When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett listens to a nostalgic Ashley, and when she consoles him with an embrace, they are spied by two gossips including Ashley's sister India. They eagerly spread the rumor and Scarlett’s reputation is again sullied.
Later that night, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett out of bed and to attend a birthday party for Ashley. Rhett selects Scarlett's apparel for the evening of the rich red velvet dress with red feather plumes, dressing her for the part of a Scarlett woman.
Incapable of believing anything bad of her beloved sister-in-law, sweet Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false.
At home later that night, while trying to sneak a drink for herself, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk. Blind with jealousy, he tells Scarlett that he could kill her if he thought it would make her forget Ashley. Picking her up, he carries her up the stairs in his arms--one of the most famous love scenes ever written--telling her, "This is one night you're not turning me out." She awakens the next morning with a look of guilty pleasure, but Rhett returns to apologize for his behavior and offers a divorce, which Scarlett rejects saying it would be a disgrace. Rhett decides to take Bonnie on an extended trip to London.
While Rhett and Bonnie are gone, Scarlett truly misses Rhett and finds out she is pregnant with Rhett's child. She is determined to make her marriage work.
Rhett returns with Bonnie, and Scarlett is delighted to see him, but he rebuffs her attempts at reconciliation.
He remarks at how she looks different and she tells him that she is pregnant again. Rhett asks who the father is and Scarlett tells him he knows the baby is his and that she doesn't even want it. Hurt, Rhett tells her "Cheer up. Maybe you'll have an accident." Enraged, Scarlett lunges at him, falls down the stairs and suffers a miscarriage.
Rhett, frantic with guilt, cries to Melanie about his jealousy, yet refrains from telling Melanie about Scarlett's true feelings for Ashley.
Rhett visits Belle Watling to complain about Scarlett and she sends him home to his wife and daughter.
Rhett is determined to make the marriage work, for Bonnie's sake. Scarlett is recovering with tea on the patio as little Bonnie Blue shows off her horsewoman skills with her new pony. Check out this video, Bonnie my baby, on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1aucAT5wgg&feature=related and Rhett and Bonnie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rMQo7zrK0I&feature=related . Scarlett loved Bonnie with a love that she could not give to her other children, Wade and Ella.
Little Bonnie, as impulsive as her grandfather, dies in a fall while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Scarlett blames Rhett, and Rhett blames himself. Melanie visits the home to comfort them, and convinces Rhett to allow Bonnie to be laid to rest, but then collapses during a second pregnancy she was warned could kill her. On her deathbed, she asks Scarlett to look after Ashley for her, as Scarlett had looked after her for Ashley. With her dying breath, Melanie also tells Scarlett to be kind to Rhett, that he loves her. Outside, Ashley collapses in tears, helpless without his wife. Only then does Scarlett realize that she never could have meant anything to him, and that she had loved something that never really existed.
Scarlett runs home to find Rhett packing to leave her, she begs him not to leave, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along, that she never really loved Ashley.
As Rhett walks out the door, she pleads, "Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" He famously answers, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," and walks away into the fog. See this scene on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ7z6hpO57c
She sits on her stairs and weeps in despair, "What is there that matters?"
I love this video of Scarlett and Rhett, "Something Stupid" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VreBbz7ne0&NR=1
She then recalls the voices of Gerald, Ashley and Rhett, all of whom remind her that her strength comes from Tara itself. Hope lights Scarlett's face: "Tara! Home. I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!"
In the finale, Scarlett stands once more, resolute, before Tara.
Oscars
Vivian Leigh Wins Best Actress
Olivia de Havilland wins best supporting actress
Hattie McDaniel, the First African American Woman to Win an Oscar
hattie mcdaniel wins 1939 best supporting actress oscar by The Bombshell featuring Chinese Laundry shoes
The Modern Scarlett?
My Scarlett Room
