YEAR: 1939
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Released in 1939, Gone with the Wind won 10 Academy Awards including Best Art Direction. Lyle R. Wheeler was the art director on the film. The image above is attributed to illustrator Dorothea Holt Redmond (See Bios), who worked on over 30 films. Although the film proved to be a wide commercial success, the production struggled initially. David O. Selznick, the producer of Gone with the Wind bought the rights to Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling, thousand-page novel for $50,000. The original director was fired, and the second had to take a break from exhaustion. The script was written and rewritten multiple times to keep it from being a five and a half hour film. The actors didn’t get a final script until the film was practically over.
SUMMARY
Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins, Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.
AWARDS
Won 10 Oscars:
Best Art Direction; Best Actress; Best Actress is Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Writing; Best Cinematography'; Best Film Editing; Best Picture; Outstanding Achievement in Color; Pioneering Equipment
Nominated for 5 Oscars:
Best Actor; Best Actress in Supporting Role; Best Sound Recording; Best Effects, Special Effects; Best Music, Original Score
DIRECTOR
Victor Fleming and George Cukor
ART DIRECTOR/ARTIST
Dorothea Redmond - Featured Artist
Lyle R. Wheeler - Art Direction
Howard Bristol - Set Decoration
Edward G. Boyle - Interior Decoration
Joseph B. Platt - Interiors
Harold Coles - property manager (uncredited)
Arden Cripe - on-set propmaster (uncredited)
Hobe Erwin - set designer (replaced)(uncredited)
Harold Fenton - construction superintendent (uncredited)
James Forney - drapes (uncredited)
Dorothea Holt - illustrator (uncredited)
Ross B. Jackman - propmaker (uncredited)
J. McMillan Jackman - production illustrator (uncredited)
Tom Jung - poster designer (uncredited)
Roy McLaughlin - greensman (uncredited)
Joseph B. Platt - set designer (uncredited)
George Rule - assistant property master (uncredited)
Henry J. Stahl - art department supervisor (uncredited)
Florence Yoche - landscaping: Tara (uncredited)