When a workman nailing the boards struck them with a hammer, the caps exploded. As a prank on Clark Gable, stagehands sewed seventy pounds of lead weights into the skirt of Olivia deHavilland costume. For the scene of Rhett's rescue, Gable had to lift a weakened Melanie from her bed and carry her down the stairs to the wagon that would whisk them out of Atlanta. Gable, staggering under the added weight, good-naturedly asked the crew if they had nailed her to the floor. After the birth of his daughter Bonnie, Rhett celebrates by offering Mammy a glass of sherry.
Cold tea is the traditional liquor substitute used on movie sets.
Gable poured from the decanter while McDaniel delivered her line then downed her drink. An instant later, she froze. Tears came to her reddened eyes, and cast and crew roared with laughter. Gable had put real scotch in the decanter in place of the cold tea. Word had spread like wildfire throughout the studio that de Havilland wore nothing underneath the nightgown.