The Wilmington morning star., 1940-02-25
Facts About Gone With The Wind;--
Noted Film Opens Here Tomorrow

+s about Gone with Inc
fas~ which begins its Eastern
VIM carolina premiere at the
No''n Viva theatre here tomorrow:
calo r;d O. selznick bought the mo-
nicture rights of Gone with
ion Wind" on July 80, 1896, for
ne ooo the highest price ever paid
s'V'Vs'' first novel. The title is a
tf ion from Ernest Dowson's
Qus about synara. The book,
p pasI consists of 1887 pages,
Sli'~s surpassed fifty thousand copies
aS0 mo first day of sale, shattering
Oh Oh eyisting fiction records. 1t was
& by Margaret Mitchell in
f NJ Most of the book had been
Nv .n,a-ed by 1929. In the succeed.
'V+DF years until its publication in
.ass much additional work was
n% in filing in missing chapters,
uu., ;ting certain others and check
tho thousands of historical and
M ..ssr factual statements for &C.
v aracv. 1t has now been translated
t.-o' is foreign languages and has
n Nv around two million copies Of
.si.b one and three-quarter mil
w.. we're sold in the United
r rYr Of established stars men
.ianed for the part of Scarlet
Guara, Bette Davis, Katharine
v.ahnrn, Margaret SULLIVAN,
,frism Hopkins, Norma Shearer,
c..,1e Lombard and Paulette God
w.; we're most prominent. Oscar
,.-fin. Maxwell Arrow and Charles
Morrison. talent scouts, conducted
rational search for a girl to play
tho part. Their records show that
,mo candidates were interviewed;
M screen.tested; 100000 feet of
.l.ck and white film and $4,000
tsst of Technicolor shot in these
+ss-s The cost of the search has
HON computed by studio account
ants at s92, 900, of which about two
.sirds. represents cost of the screen
acts Magnitude of this figure is
snparent by comparison with the
met of casting the other So prin-
dpal characters, which totaled
Donly" $4,000.
wien Leigh Cast
The burning of the military sup
niles OF Atlanta, n of the major
spectacular scenes in the picture,
Was filmed on the night Of Deem
her Is. 1888, at which time David
n selznick met Vivien Leigh, a
sDectator, who had accompanied his
brother Mvron, the well known talent
representative, to the studio. Struck
by her physical resemblance to the
srarlett described by Miss Mitchell,
in that she has the green eyes,
narrow waist and pert features, he
suggested a test. 1t was made and
on January 16, 1889, he signed her
for the role. To insure her mastery
Of the Southern accent, Selznick en-
RACED Will A. Price Of McComb,
Mississippi, an expert in Southern
dialects, and Susan Myrick of Ma
con, Georgia, known as the emily
Post Of the South" to assist her in
her cultivation of it. Miss Myrick
was also entrusted with the job of
technical adviser in the matter of
Southern customs and manners. To
authenticate all details Of the pro-
duction historically, Wilbur G..
Kutrz Of Atlanta, distinguished his
torian and artist of the South, was
added to the staff. Other noted in
iividuals to whom credit must go
for eyacting chores in the produc-
ton are William Cameron Menzies.
who was given the unparalleled as
signment Of production designer"
Lyle Wheeler, head of the Sell
nick International are department;
Joseph B. Plat, one Of the nations
foremost industrial designers and
head of one of the nations largest
1eslsnlng firms, who created inter-
iors for the picture; Walter Plum
kett, one Of Hollywood's foremost
@stylists, who designed the costumes.
Sidney Howard worked with SELF
nick for almost a year on the