Liner Notes

Gone With The Wind: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition)

$24.98

CONTENTS:

• Rediscovering Buried Treasure
• The Saga of Gone With The Wind
• The Producer: David O. Selznick
• The Author: Margaret Mitchell
• The Production: Selznick International
• The Composer: Max Steiner
• The Score
• Cast List
• Track List
• Selected Bibliography
• Production Credits

Rediscovering Buried Treasure

In 1939 when Gone With The Wind was first released, the first long-playing record album of the score was still many years away. It should be remembered that records then were still fragile shellac 78 RPM disks, and the playing time for even a 12-inch "78," both sides, was only seven minutes or so. Then, too, musical scoring of dramatic sound films was still only seven or eight years from its very beginnings. Thus, in 1939 no one at M-G-M had any concern over the fact that they did not have the music master recordings.

If the film had been made by M-G-M, the studio would have possessed such a "master" recording on optical soundtrack, which appeared as a black stripe running down one side of a piece of 35mm film. But since Gone With The Wind had been produced independently, M-G-M, as a distributor, wanted what was called an "international track," for economy's sake.

Prior to the advent of the magnetic tape to record sound, the blending of all the elements in a soundtrack was a laborious process. Then as now it was known as mixing. However, at that time even the most advanced facilities could only run six or eight different tracks simultaneously to "mix" them. Therefore, there had to be "premixes." For complicated sound effects this could mean--per given reel--as many as six or seven passes with multiple soundtracks to achieve the final result.

In non-English speaking countries, most films were "dubbed" into the appropriate language. To facilitate this process the distributors of the films in non-English speaking countries wanted one sound element alone to blend with the new dubbed dialogue track--this was the so-called international track, which had the music and sound effects all premixed. Thus, by 1954 when the first Gone With The Wind music albums appeared on the market, they were rerecorded from new orchestrations by orchestras such as Al Goodman and Victor Young. It was thought that the original music tracks had perished or been lost. However, David Selznick never willingly threw anything out, even if the inventories of what was stored may have been less than perfect.

After our father's death in 1965, my brother and I had to take over the contents of the film vaults, including thousands of reels of flammable and potentially decomposing nitrate film going back to the late '20s. I remember spending hot summer days trying to identify unlabeled film. I can remember my astonishment when I heard the first reel of the Gone With The Wind music master negative including sound cues announced by Max Steiner himself.

Later, when the film had been transferred for safekeeping to the vaults at the Humanities Research Center in Austin, Texas, and the recorded music was compared to the archival records of the scored music sheets, it was discovered that, amazingly, 36 of 37 cans of master music negative had survived.

Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music's digital restoration of these masters has now preserved them for posterity. Thus when the last can of nitrate negative finally perishes, as one day it must, the music will still not be lost.

--L. Jeffrey Selznick

Return to Contents

The Saga of Gone With The Wind

The Producer: David O. Selznick

Producer David O. Selznick always believed that well-loved novels could be brought to the screen without obviously shortening or rewriting them. "The only omissions from a successful work that are justified are omissions necessitated by length, censorship, or other practical considerations. Readers of a dearly loved book will for give omissions if there is an obvious reason for them, but they will not for give substitutions. Obviously, we cannot photograph the entire book, but there are ways and means that we have learned of preserving at least the appearance of photographing the entire book and of capturing the same formula as the original."

By the time he started actual production on his magnum opus Gone With The Wind in late 1938, Selznick had already produced, in the 1930s, well-received versions of such literary works as David Copperfield, A Tale Of Two Cities, Anna Karenina, The Prisoner Of Zenda, and The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and was preparing Rebecca. Before he founded his own company in 1935, Selznick International, Selznick had been through the studio systems of the time. The son of pioneer film mogul Lewis J. Selznick, he was completely familiar with what it was like to start one film every Monday and ship another film every Friday for the Paramount assembly line; he went through the rigors of being in charge of the entir e FEATURE output of the relatively modest RKO Radio Pictures studios for a short time during the Depression in the early 1930s, and he knew the luxury and security of operating his own unit at opulent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

But Gone With The Wind presented unusual problems. Published in late June 1936, the 1,037-page novel was to dominate all fiction sales for two years, creating publishing history with sales never before reached in so short a time. One million copies were sold in its first six months, and the book and its author, first-time novelist Margaret Mitchell, established themselves firmly. The property had been brought to Selznick's attention by his Eastern story editor, Katharine ("Kay") Brown. In purchasing the motion picture rights in July 1936, at the time the book was initially appearing in bookstores, Selznick had no idea to what extent the work would captivate so many avid readers and become a literary and cultural phenomenon. After it won the Pulitzer Prize that year, it went on over the decades to sell more than 30 million copies in 27 languages up to 1996 and continues to sell 250,000 copies worldwide each year. It is said to be the best-selling novel in history.

So the relatively small independent company, Selznick International, had on its hands this most valued of literary properties.

Return to Contents

The Author: Margaret Mitchell

Gone With The Wind'sauthor, Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell, was born into a genteel Georgia family in the first year of the 20th century. "Peggy," as she was called, had always written, and in December 1922 she took a job with the Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine. Her first marriage, earlier in 1922, had lasted only a few months. Then she wed John Marsh in 1925 and started her novel during the time she was confined to her home convalescing from a leg injury.

She wrote to a reader in June 1936:

"I began it in 1926 and except for three chapters it was complete by 1929. And I wrote the three missing chapters after the book was bought (in 1935)....I was crippled for four years with arthritis with no expectation of ever walking again....There were months between the writing of one chapter and another--years between the writing of some of them."

She made some notes in the fall of 1936 in which she said:

"It is true that I had thought for years of the historical background but not in connection with putting it into a book. It was not so much that I thought of the background as that I was raised up on it. I knew, of course, the history of old Atlanta....So that day when I sat down to write I did not have to bother about my background, for it had been with me all my life. The plot, characters, etc., had not been with me. That day I thought I would write a story of a girl who was somewhat like Atlanta--part of the old South; part of the new South; (how) she rose with Atlanta and fell with it and how she rose again...."

Margaret's father had a passion for family history, and from childhood she had been brought up on stories of both parents' heredity, especially of her maternal grandmother's family, the Fitzgeralds. After Macmillan agreed to publish, the book revisions were made by the author, and she put in eight months of work carefully checking the facts written largely from an amazingly accurate memory. Her working title was Tomorrow Is Another Day. She had other suggestions including Another Day, Tote The Weary Load, Not In Our Stars, and Bugles Sang True. Then a few months before publication, Margaret Mitchell found her title, which derived from a phrase in an Ernest Dowson poem, sometimes referred to by its abbreviated title, "Cynara." The line that now caught her eye was, "I have for got much, Cynara! gone with the wind... " Dowson was among her favorite poets. She later wrote, "I just lifted the phrase from its context because it had that far away, faintly sad sound I wanted."

Originally, the heroine's name was Pansy O'Hara, an invention borrowed from an earlier short story. Her home was Fontenoy Hall. But Pansy became Scarlett, and her home became Tara. Tara Hill was supposedly the seat of the high kings of Ireland from ancient times until the sixth century. And there was the reference to Tara's Halls in Irish poet Thomas Moore's ballad. Scarlett's gentle sister-in-law was at different times Permelia, then Melisande, before her name finally became Melanie.

Certain people and events in the author's life certainly paralleled to a degree those in her novel.

After paying $50,000 for the screen rights to Gone With The Wind, the highest price paid to an unknown author for a first novel up to that time, Selznick's problem was to adapt the 1,037-page book to the screen. The producer considered playwright and screenwriter Sidney Howard "a great constructionist" and hired him to do the script. Selznick believed strongly that "the trick is to give the illusion of photographing a book." To literally photograph Gone With The Wind would, of course, yield a film that ran 20 or more hours. So artful pruning, telescoping, and some rearrangement of the story and characters were mandatory .

Margaret Mitchell's novel began in the Old South, moved through the Civil War , and then went on to the Reconstruction period. Its heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, who, as the book begins, lives on the plantation called Tara, loves idealistic and sensitive Ashley Wilkes of nearby Twelve Oaks. The young, high-tempered Scarlett spitefully accepts the impetuous proposal of Charles Hamilton, upset that his sister, shy and sedate Melanie, is going to marry Ashley. When Charles dies of pneumonia after going off to war, and Atlanta is seized by Northerners, Scarlett is poverty-stricken. She is forced to struggle for her family and also the aristocratic Ashley, who has not been trained to work with his hands.

But Scarlett is determined to keep Tara. She does manual labor, marries her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, for his money and, after his death in a Ku Klux Klan raid while avenging Scarlett's honor, marries Rhett Butler, black sheep of a good family, blockade runner, and unscrupulous profiteer. Scarlett has had a child by each one of her husbands. Bonnie, her child by Rhett, is killed in an accident. Because of Scarlett's lasting love for Ashley, Rhett finally deserts her. She realizes at last, after the death of Melanie and the indifference of Ashley, that Rhett, similar in spirit to her, is Scarlett's real love.

Return to Contents

The Production: Selznick International

Before the filming of Gone With The Wind, various writers had a hand in working on the script. After Sidney Howard completed his draft, Oliver H. P. Garrett, Jo Swerling, John Van Druten, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Balderston, and others worked from a few days to several weeks on the constantly changing script.

Remarkably, Margaret Mitchell's book remained relatively intact (or, more precisely, gave the illusion of same) during its transfer to film. However, Scarlett's first two children were eliminated, Rhett's candid confessions of his blockade activities were minimized, the character of the notorious Atlanta prostitute Belle Watling was cleaned up, love scenes--particularly the so-called "Orchard Love Scene" (or "paddock scene")--were toned down, any mention of the Ku Klux Klan was dropped, and Rhett's contempt for Ashley was somewhat softened, as was the book's implication that Rhett found solace with Belle after Scarlett vowed not to have any more children following Bonnie's birth. And, of course, some characters were dropped or fused and many scenes and events eliminated.

Because of complications in the areas of casting, screen adaptation, and his distribution contract with United Artists, Selznick was unable to begin actual shooting with the principals until January 1939.

There were only four actors ever seriously considered for the role of Rhett Butler: Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, and Ronald Colman. Gable was under contract to M-G-M, and Colman was mentioned only in the early weeks. Flynn was a relatively strong contender as far back as December 1936. Warner Bros. had both Flynn and Bette Davis under exclusive contract, and for a while it looked as though Warners and Selznick were going to work out a package deal for Davis and Flynn that would also include Olivia de Havilland as Melanie and financing up to $2.1 million, but the negotiations and interest bogged down. Gary Cooper was under contract to Samuel Goldwyn at the time, and discussions seemed to be getting nowhere. Besides, the public was almost unanimous in its choice of Clark Gable. Selznick and M-G-M (his father-in-law was Louis B. Mayer) finally worked out an arrangement to get Gable.

The contract was drawn up. Loew's, Inc. (M-G-M's parent company), would distribute. Selznick International would have Gable and $1.25 million. But if the budget went over $2.5 million, Selznick was responsible for it, no matter that the profits on distribution were to be split 50-50 after Loew's had taken a 20 percent distribution fee. The agreement was to run for seven years from the day of the picture's first release; thereafter, the film would belong 75 percent to Selznick International and 25 percent to M-G-M (Loew's).

The contract was signed on August 25. By the terms of Gable's limited availability, the picture had to start no later than January 1939.

Since Margaret Mitchell wrote the bulk of Gone With The Wind between 1926 and 1929, the apocryphal story about her having Gable in mind for Rhett while she was composing her tome has no validity. Gable was an obscure stage actor in the late 1920s and did not start to come into his own in films until 1931-1932.

Mayer kept trying to convince Selznick to use Victor Fleming, Jack Conway, or W. S. "Woody" Van Dyke (all under contract to M-G-M) to direct rather than George Cukor (under contract to Selznick). Cukor had not worked with Gable; the others had. As late as December 1938 Selznick wrote his wife Irene (who was in New York), "Your father made another stab at getting George off of Gone With The Wind. Incidentally, so far I am very happy with George."

George Cukor had directed several highly regarded films for Selznick including What Price Hollywood? (1932), Dinner At Eight (1933), and David Copperfield (1935). He had also done such fine films as Little Women (1933) and Camille (1937).

Production designer William Cameron Menzies or art director Lyle Wheeler, abetted by production manager Ray Klune, came up with the idea of filming the Atlanta fire on the back lot of the Selznick (Pathé) Studio in Culver City. This simultaneously accomplished two objectives: first, the necessary clearing of the area of the remnants of old standing sets from such pictures as the 1927 King Of Kings and the 1933 King Kong in order to construct the exterior Tara set, sections of Atlanta, and various other exteriors to be used during the course of filming; second, to stage a spectacular fire for the film. The old sets to be burned were given false fronts and new profiles in order to simulate buildings of the period. On the night of December 10, 1938, under the direction of William Cameron Menzies, seven Technicolor cameras photographed doubles for the characters of Rhett and Scarlett in medium and long shots against the controlled-fire background. That night, Selznick met Vivien Leigh for the first time.

Whereas there was relative agreement on the ideal actor to portray Rhett Butler, there were considerable differences of opinion regarding the choice for Scarlett O'Hara. Casting the part of Scarlett fascinated the world; 31 women were actually screen-tested--including a good many unknowns and amateurs--from September 1936 until December 1938. Among the better-known personalities were Tallulah Bankhead, Paulette Goddard, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, and Susan Hayward. But Selznick had always favored finding a relative newcomer for the role--someone fresh who would not be identified with previous performances.

Other well-known actresses who were high in the running at one time or another, but who for various reasons did not test, include Margaret Sullavan, Miriam Hopkins, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Loretta Young, and Katharine Hepburn. In November 1938 Selznick stated in a memo that Hepburn has "yet to demonstrate that she possesses the sex qualities which are probably the most important of all the many requisites of Scarlett."

Selznick wrote for a 1941 magazine piece that "Before my brother, Myron, Hollywood's leading agent, brought Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh over to the set to see the shooting of the burning of Atlanta, I had never seen her (except in British-made films). When he introduced me to her, the flames were lighting up her face, and Myron said: 'I want you to meet Scarlett O'Hara.' I took one look and knew that she was right--at least as far as her appearance went....Later on, her tests, made under George Cukor's brilliant direction, showed that she could act the part right down to the ground." Sounds like a press agent's dream, but it's basically true.

Olivier was working in Hollywood on Samuel Goldwyn's Wuthering Heights, and Vivien Leigh, with whom he was romantically involved, had come from England to visit him.

By December 12, 1938, the choice for Scarlett had narrowed down to Paulette Goddard, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh. Paulette Goddard was a very strong possibility, but she could not produce a license proving that she and Charlie Chaplin were married. Selznick was afraid of negative public opinion, since she and Chaplin had been living together for some time. Shortly thereafter Vivien Leigh signed a contact to play the role.

For the part of Ashley, Leslie Howard had been considered early on, but Selznick's main concern was that he was considerably older--mid-forties--than the young man in his twenties depicted in the novel. Melvyn Douglas gave what Selznick described as "the first intelligent reading of Ashley we've had, but I think he's entirely wrong in type." Regarding Ray Milland, Selznick stated that he was "very definitely a sensitive actor, possessing the enormous attractiveness and at the same time the weakness that are the requirements of Ashley." Before signing Leslie Howard to the role, Selznick had also considered Robert Young, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jeffrey Lynn, and Lew Ayres.

Olivia de Havilland became the number one choice for the role of Melanie (other possibilities were Janet Gaynor, Andrea Leeds, and Julie Haydon). Warner Bros. was unwilling to loan her to Selznick except as part of the previously discussed package deal but finally relented in late 1938.

Neither Gable nor Howard wanted to be in the film, and only after much coaxing and persuading (and money) did they relent. Gable felt he could never live up to the public's advance expectations of the role, and he was not drawn to the character or the period. He said, "Miss Mitchell had etched Rhett into the minds of millions of people....It would be impossible to satisfy them all....Rhett was simply too big an order....I didn't want any part of him."

Gable was persuaded by M-G-M's offer of a $50,000 bonus, which he would use in divorcing his second wife so that he could marry Carole Lombard. The studio also promised to assist him in the divorce proceedings. M-G-M insisted that Selznick pay one-third of the bonus in addition to Gable's salary of $4,500 per week.

Leslie Howard had no desire to play yet another weak and sensitive soul and didn't even bother to read the novel. After several months of shooting, Selznick sent Howard a semi tongue-in-cheek memo:

To: Mr. Leslie Howard
May 27, 1939

Dear Leslie:

I send you herewith a copy of that book you ought to get around to reading some time, called Gone With The Wind. I think the book has a great future and might make a very good picture ....

I'll check up on you!

Cordially,
DOS

Principal photography had begun at Selznick International on January 26, 1939, under George Cukor's direction. Immediately there were problems. Within two-and-a-half weeks Cukor was off the picture and the production shut down. Selznick was quoted in 1947 as saying: "We couldn't see eye to eye on anything. I felt that while Cukor was simply unbeatable in directing intimate scenes of the Scarlett O'Hara story, he lacked the big feel, the scope, the breadth of the production."

Cukor had objected to the revisions of Sidney Howard's script and changes in the dialogue by Selznick being delivered on the set continuously. Also, the scenes weren't playing properly. And there was speculation regarding Clark Gable's unhappiness over Cukor's supposed preoccupation and fastidiousness with the characters portrayed by Leigh and de Havilland.

Cukor was quoted by Gwen Robyns in 1968 as saying:

"It is nonsense to say that I was giving too much attention to Vivien and Olivia. It is the text that dictates where the emphasis should go, and the director does not do it. Clark Gable did not have a great deal of confidence in himself as an actor, although he was a gr eat screen personality; and maybe he thought that I did not understand that. My own theory after all these years is that for David Selznick Gone With The Wind was the supreme effort of his career; he was enormously nervous about the whole thing ....For the first time he wanted to come down on the set and watch me direct something that we had worked out together."

Vivien Leigh, in correspondence at the time with her husband, Leigh Holman, mentioned that Cukor was "a very intelligent and imaginative man and seems to understand the subject perfectly." After Cukor left the film, she wrote, "He was my last hope of ever enjoying the picture."

Shortly after Cukor's exit, Victor Fleming, a highly regarded professional and a good friend of Gable's, was taken off the completion of The Wizard Of Oz at M-G-M and signed to direct Gone With The Wind. Two of Gable's biggest hits at M-G-M had been directed by Fleming--Red Dust (1932) and Test Pilot (1938). Other major productions of the director's include The Virginian (1929), Treasure Island(1934), and Captains Courageous (1937). Fleming was the antithesis of Cukor, and the leading ladies were unhappy. Then writer Ben Hecht was brought in. Selznick, Fleming, and Hecht--virtually working around the clock--tried to get a workable script. Finally, one of them resurrected the original Sidney Howard adaptation. Yes, it needed some work, but they agreed that it was considerably better than the heavily rewritten version. Hecht worked for a while on revisions, and production resumed after a two-and-a-half-week hiatus.

There were tensions and disagreements throughout the filming. At one point Fleming, in a state of exhaustion, his nerves at the breaking point, walked off the set and veteran Sam Wood (Goodbye, Mr. Chips, etc.) replaced him. When Fleming returned in 16 days, Selznick kept both directors--in addition to second-unit directors, including William Cameron Menzies--shooting different scenes concurrently. This was possible due to Menzies' carefully detailed production design.

Some material showing Scarlett's father galloping his horse across the fields of Tara and background shots of the devastated Tara following the war eventually was shot by another second unit directed by Chester Franklin in Bidwell Park in Chico, California. And producer James A. FitzPatrick (of Traveltalks short subjects) went with a unit to the South to shoot some atmospheric footage to be used behind titles and in montages. B. Reeves ("Breezy") Eason directed some horse action segments.

Fleming came back in time to direct the famous scene at the Atlanta railroad depot showing Scarlett amid scores of wounded Confederate soldiers (800 extra players interspersed with dummies) as the camera pulls up and back on a construction crane. No camera crane extant would go high enough, and helicopter rigs were decades away.

Selznick also changed the first cameraman, Lee Garmes, because he was unhappy with the photographic results. Ernest Haller shot the rest of the film's first-unit work along with Ray Rennahan, Technicolor's photographic representative.

The exteriors of the Wilkes barbecue were filmed at the lovely Busch Gardens in Pasadena--long since gone.

In April Selznick was able to lure the recalcitrant Sidney Howard away from his farm in Massachusetts to the studio for two more weeks on the script. Howard said in a letter at the time that "Fleming takes four shots of something a day to keep him going and another shot or so to fix him so he can sleep after the day's stimulation. Selznick is bent double with permanent, and, I should think, chronic indigestion. Half the staff look, talk, and behave as though they were on the verge of breakdowns." Selznick had been existing on Benzedrine and thyroid extract for a long time--which allowed him to push on with very little sleep but at a considerable toll, in the long run, with regard to his health.

Vivien Leigh continued to be at odds with Fleming over the interpretation. He wanted her to play Scarlett tougher. The conflicts intensified. At one point Selznick flew Laurence Olivier, who by now was starring in the play No Time For Comedy in New York, back to Los Angeles for a weekend with Vivien. Another time during the shoot it was arranged for the lovers to meet in Kansas City for a weekend.

Selznick was still rewriting on a daily basis, but whenever possible doggedly sticking to Margaret Mitchell's dialogue.

Marcella Rabwin, Selznick's executive assistant, said:

"It was a case of utter chaos....I have never known so much hatred....Leigh hated Fleming. With a passion. Fleming hated her. Clark Gable hated David....Everybody hated David. He interfered in everything....Everything had to be done and redone."

To add yet another crisis, money was running out. M-G-M refused any more funding and so did the small group of Selznick International stockholders, except for Jock Whitney, the chairman of the board, and his sister, who put up some additional money. Finally, the Bank of America came through with a $1 million loan. The collateral was Selznick's personal stake in the film.

At last, following five months of arduous filming, it was over on June 27. Over, that is, with the exception of editing, retakes, matte shots, montages, titles, music, dubbing, previews, etc. So the crash program continued. Due to earlier commitments, it was necessary to hold the world premiere in Atlanta on December 15, 1939.

Jack Cosgrove's numerous matte paintings presented a remarkable added production value and made the film appear to be more elaborate and opulent than it actually is.

Selznick intensely participated in the editing along with supervising editor Hal Kern and his associate, James Newcom. Kern said that "Selznick...truly believed that a picture could be ruined or made great in the editing." The first rough cut was around 5 hours; this was trimmed to 4 hours and 27 minutes by mid-July. At the end of August the film ran about 3 hours and 42 minutes--the length of the final version. Many scenes were sacrificed.

Gone With The Wind expert Ron Haver has described these cuts:

"(First) a section of the O'Hara family on their way to the barbecue....Also deleted was a scene showing Twelve Oaks and its guests and servants slumbering after the barbecue; and Scarlett's wedding night with Charles Hamilton, which she made him spend in a chair. The sequences showing the evacuation of Atlanta and the scenes in the hospital were all considerably shortened, as was Scarlett's search for Dr. Meade at the railway station, including her encounter with John Wilkes, Ashley's father, who dies in her arms as she tells him of his impending grandchild. Also cut was a scene of Belle Watling nursing the wounded soldiers, which was not in the novel. A conversation between Scarlett's two sisters was removed in which they discuss what the South will be like after the war....Also deleted was a sequence showing Belle Watling and her 'girls' testifying at the inquest into Frank Kennedy's death and a sequence between Bonnie and Scarlett the morning after Rhett's 'rape.'"

There was a sneak preview on September 9 at the Fox Theatre in Riverside, California. The picture was still in rough form. Even the music was made up of stock tracks from older Selznick and M-G-M films. For example, Alfred Newman's music from Selznick's 1937 The Prisoner Of Zenda was well-represented. Max Steiner had just started to compose his score, so naturally there was nothing of his to contribute (at least nothing new). The preview presentation was overwhelmingly well-received. There was only one more preview in Santa Barbara at the Arlington Theatre on October 18. It had the same extremely positive response.

But there still were some retakes, montages, titles--to say nothing of the music--to worry about. And the "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" problem. More specifically the "damn" problem. (The word frankly was added to Margaret Mitchell's final line for Rhett by Sidney Howard and/or David O. Selznick.) The Production Code Administration, the industry's self-regulatory body of the time (the Hays Office), prohibited profanity of any kind. Selznick appealed to Will Hays in an eloquent letter in which he stated "that this word as used in the picture is not an oath or a curse." Permission was granted to use "damn," and the picture was given a Code seal--but a $5,000 fine was imposed for violation of a Code provision. This victory was a big deal in those days.

Additions and changes were still being made to sections of the film. Finally, at the last minute, according to Hal Kern, "I'd say, 'David, unless you let me have this sequence to cut for the lab, we'll never make the premiere date.' I'd literally have to pull it out of his hands..."

The final cost of the production was a record $4.25 million. Following the various gala premieres in December of 1939, Gone With The Wind was immediately a monumental success and a motion picture phenomenon, as the book was a literary phenomenon. The film's profits over the years and decades dwarfed those of other films, and in terms of uninflated and adjusted dollars it remained the biggest money-making film for decades .

In addition to being voted the best film of 1939 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Gone With The Wind was the unprecedented recipient of nine other Academy Award^®s--including Best Actress, best director, and best screenplay. A special Oscar^® went to William Cameron Menzies for his "outstanding achievement in the use of color." Also that year the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for consistent excellence of production went to the film's producer.

David O. Selznick without question was the dominant force behind the film version of Gone With The Wind. He was involved in every single detail, and in every sense it is primarily his baby--not a committee film, not a director's film, and not a star's film, but a spectacular example of a creative producer's vision. But--a big but--he certainly had a lot of high-caliber professional help.

When finally shown in Europe after World War II, Gone With The Wind had tremendous impact (for the French, it represented a story about surviving defeat). And Japan has been particularly addicted to the picture over the years.

Extraordinarily successful full-scale theatrical reissues in America in 1947, 1954, 1961, and 1967 followed. For the 1967 run it was blown up optically to 70mm. However, Gone With The Wind is at its best in the format originally photographed and shown. That format was retained for its network television debut on NBC in November 1976, where it promptly drew the biggest TV audience to view a theatrical FEATURE on one network in television's history .

Then in March 1986 Turner Broadcasting System acquired the M-G-M library of films--including Gone With The Wind, Selznick and his partner Jock Whitney having sold their interest in the film to M-G-M in the 1940s. In 1988 the picture had its debut on Turner Network Television (TNT), created by and for the cable industry . For the 50th anniversary in 1989 Turner authorized a full, meticulous restoration of the picture and sound of Gone With The Wind with striking results.

Gone With The Wind represents the high-water mark and quintessence of the big super-attraction of Hollywood's golden age. The mosaic is composed of an "epic" narrative, varied and rounded characters enduring overwhelming obstacles, family crises, unrequited and idealized love stories, war, turmoil, nostalgia, and the most primal of our instinctive drives--the will to survive.

After six decades people still get extremely involved in the story--particularly the drama that takes place during the last quarter of the film--where, because of the need to telescope drastically a great many chapters of the book, tragedy and climax seem to pour forth without relief--Scarlett's miscarriage, Bonnie's death, Melanie's death, and Rhett's leaving Scarlett.

The remarkable and enduring performance of Vivien Leigh makes every scene she is in come alive. She brings dimension and magnetism to the role of Scarlett O'Hara along with beauty, tenacity, fire, humor, intelligence, and--above all--great charm. Gable, despite his fears, superimposed his disarming screen presence and personality on the novelist's Rhett Butler for a colorful and believable blend. Leslie Howard's Ashley is exactly right (his age not a problem after all), and Olivia de Havilland's performance underlines the inherent sweet and altruistic characteristics of Melanie.

There is a good deal with which audiences can or wish to identify. Scarlett is both self-centered and realistic. She can stand on her own; she is resourceful, aggressive, and passionate. Scarlett realizes too late that she has loved the wrong man far too long. Rhett is the personification of the free spirit who flouts public opinion and knows what he wants and goes after it. He is a man's man and a lover: shrewd, realistic, earthy--but capable of tenderness, compassion, and tears.

To further dissect and analyze the myriad ingredients that have made Gone With The Wind the most popular film over the decades would be useless. It is enough to say that it has that rare quality after 60 years of still being able to capture the imagination of a great many people everywhere.

And what about Margaret Mitchell, the person who started it all? She never wrote another book after Gone With The Wind. Her only other published fiction was the short story "Matrimonial Bonds" printed in Open Door (a local Atlanta house organ) for March 1926. But then in 1995 a 13,000-word novella called Lost Laysen, written when she was 16, surfaced and was published in 1996.

Fatally injured when hit by a speeding taxicab near her home in Atlanta, Margaret Mitchell died August 16, 1949.

What did she think of the film version of her book? This, in part, is what she wrote to David O. Selznick on August 31, 1942:

"I have seen the picture five-and-a-half times now and have examined it from many angles--musical score, costumes, bit players, et cetera, and I like it better each time....I forget in watching that I was the author of the book and am able to view the film with fresh eyes.... "

Yes, I have always thought myself fortunate that Selznick International produced Gone With The Wind.

Return to Contents

The Composer: Max Steiner

When sound was introduced to motion pictures in the late 1920s, background music for dramatic films all but ceased. During the heyday of the silent screen every kind of accompaniment--from a full symphony orchestra in the pit of huge theatrical palaces to a single piano in small movie houses--provided audiences with musical support for the mute images on the screen. Some of the more pretentious FEATURE productions had scores composed especially for them consisting of atmospheric music and theme songs for the principal players. Most film music, however, consisted of bits and pieces lifted from classical and popular works mixed with musical clichés from stock catalogs of "mood music."

But in 1929 dialogue issuing forth from the screen was the primary novelty. Producers felt that background scoring was unnecessary and, indeed, would even be confusing to audiences. "But where is the music coming from?" was the usual cry whenever the subject was brought up at the studios.

Max Steiner changed that policy. After an impressive musical career in Europe and New York, he arrived in Hollywood in 1929 during the first musical-comedy cycle in films and was one of the few composer-conductor-arrangers to stay on after film music had a temporary eclipse in late 1930. It was Steiner more than any other composer who pioneered the use of original composition as background scoring under dialogue for films.

Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner was born in Vienna on May 10, 1888, into a family steeped in Viennese music. His grandfather was the famous impresario of the Theater an der Wien, the city's leading showplace for operetta performances. One of his many distinctions was persuading Johann Strauss Jr. to write for the theatre. Steiner's father continued in the tradition and at one time operated five of the best known theatres in Vienna.

Young Max Steiner attended the Vienna School of Technology and received his formal musical education at the Imperial Academy of Music. At the age of 14 he wrote the music, lyrics, and book for an operetta.

After spending several years conducting in London and then in various European cities, he left for America in 1914 to work in New York as a conductor, arranger, orchestrator, and music director. A few of the names with whom he was associated for a period of 15 years include George Gershwin, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, and Florenz Ziegfeld.

Following the introduction of sound in motion pictures, Hollywood turned to musicals and promptly lured many top people working in that field from New York in 1928-1929. Steiner had orchestrated and conducted Harry Tierney's score for the 1927 stage production of Rio Rita, and when Tierney contracted with RKO to do the film version, he asked the studio to hire Steiner.

RKO's head of production, William LeBaron, went to the theatre to see Steiner conduct and was greatly impressed with the fact that Steiner's 35 musicians each played several instruments, which made his elaborate orchestrations sound even richer. Steiner was quickly signed to a contract and arrived in Hollywood on Christmas Day, 1929. He began his film career by arranging the scores for two musical pictures-- Rio Rita (1929) and Dixiana (1930).

After becoming head of RKO's music department, Steiner wrote scores for the studio's 1930-1931 nonmusicals, which consisted mostly of a few bars to accompany a film's opening and closing titles and perhaps some brief incidental music behind a primarily visual sequence elsewhere in the film.

When David O. Selznick came to RKO in charge of production in late 1931, he soon encouraged Steiner to add more music to films--even behind dialogue. Symphony Of Six Million, released early in 1932, was historic: 35 percent of the picture contained background music composed and orchestrated in a symphonic manner. A few months later Bird Of Paradise carried a Steiner score that ran virtually throughout the entire film. This was followed by the composer's milestone score for King Kong (1933). With the evolution of the rerecording process (whereby the music is recorded following the completion of the film and is then mixed with the dialogue and sound effects tracks for a proper balance), and the awareness throughout the studios that incidental music in dramatic films increased the emotional impact, original symphonic scores gradually increased and became relatively standard by 1935. Apparently audiences did not "wonder where the music was coming from."

From 1929 to 1936 Steiner provided music for approximately 70 pictures at RKO. He also functioned during this period as musical director on the earliest Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films: Flying Down To Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), and Follow The Fleet (1936).

In 1936 Steiner, having been refused his request for more money, the right to broadcast, and opportunities to do films on loan to other studios, left RKO and joined David O. Selznick's newly formed independent production company, Selznick International. During this period he composed the music for Selznick's Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), The Garden Of Allah (1936), and A Star Is Born (1937).

Steiner also was loaned by Selznick to Warner Bros. for three pictures beginning with The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936), and in April of 1937 he went with that studio on a full-time basis. Warners had been wooing him since The Charge Of The Light Brigade; they were producing a great many pictures a year with varied subject matter, while Selznick personally produced only two or three per year--merely a warm-up for the indefatigable Steiner. In one year--1939--he worked on 12 films! Also, the composer was unhappy about Selznick's demands to revise the score for A Star Is Born. They mutually agreed to part, but Selznick continued to regard him as the master. Two-and-a-half years later he insisted that Steiner be borrowed from Warners to do Gone With The Wind.

Steiner's career with Warners spanned almost 30 years and included the scores for 161 films--an incredible output. He perfected many of the techniques and procedures involved in putting music in a systematic, carefully timed and calculated way to sound motion pictures. Steiner virtually introduced the symphonic score to American FEATURE films. He knew the potential impact of music to heighten, clarify, or sustain dramatic situations and character transitions on the screen.

By his own choice, Steiner rarely read scripts, preferring to wait until the picture was completely edited before being exposed to it. Following two screenings, while his music editor was breaking down the sequences into exact footage, minutes, and seconds, Steiner went through a gestation period, creating themes in his mind. After a few days he would sit down and start work at the piano in his home--constantly referring to a stopwatch. He was a staunch advocate of exact synchronization with the action on-screen and had an uncanny knack of "catching things" musically. He also was partial to working in the orchestrally colorful late 19th and early 20th century German Romantic idiom and from that heritage and his own innate characteristics produced music that was warm, passionate, and richly melodic.

Steiner would write a complete orchestra sketch on four staves. It was not only carefully annotated, but prominent melodic lines were indicated in differently colored pencils. His music was based on a thick harmonic background, with the melody and sometimes as many as three auxiliary lines moving through it. His orchestrators (primarily Hugo Friedhofer during the early years at Warners and Murray Cutter from 1947 to 1965) would then work from these detailed sketches.

Steiner's scores for Warner Bros.--including the fanfare behind the opening trademark (first used in Tovarichin 1937)--contributed strongly to the Warner flavor and style. His characteristic music admirably served the full range of films produced at that studio in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.

During that period he won three Academy Awards. The first was for John Ford's RKO picture, The Informer (1935), which gave Steiner the opportunity to create a psychological score emphasizing an ambient atmosphere of impending doom.

In 1942 Steiner composed a lush, romantic score for a particularly well-received Bette Davis film, Now, Voyager for Warner Bros., for which he won his second Academy Award. The picture contains as its primary theme what was to become the popular song "It Can't Be Wrong." It ascended to as high as #3 on the Hit Parade during spring and summer of 1943.

Selznick borrowed Steiner from Warners for the last time to score his sentimental, idealized epic of the American home front during World War II, Since You Went Away(1944). The distinguished composer Alexandre Tansman wrote the first score for Since You Went Away, but Selznick for some reason called in Steiner at the last minute to create an entirely different music treatment, for which Steiner received his third Academy Award.

Steiner once told writer Tony T homas:

"The hardest thing in scoring is to know when to start and when to stop--the location of your music. Music can slow up an action that should not be slowed up and quicken a scene that shouldn't be. Knowing the difference is what makes a film composer. I've always tried to subordinate myself to the picture....Some composers get carried away with their own skill....If you get too decorative, you lose your appeal to the emotions. My theory is that music should be felt rather than heard. They always used to say that a good score was one you didn't notice; and I always asked, 'What good is it if you don't notice it?'"

Return to Contents

The Score

In a memo to John Hay ("Jock") Whitney, chairman of the board of Selznick International Pictures, on December 5, 1935, Selznick stated that he "considered the right score a major element in the success of the picture--an infinitely greater element than it is considered by most people. I can think of no better way of spending several thousand dollars to improve a picture than on the right score, and there is, in my opinion, no one in the entire field within miles of Max (Steiner)." Two months later Steiner was signed as musical director of Selznick International. Steiner had worked with Selznick at RKO Radio Pictures, but when Selznick went to M-G-M as a producer in March of 1933, Steiner stayed on at RKO until he left to join Selznick's newly formed independent production company early in 1936.

Then in April of 1937 Steiner signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. Two years later, about halfway through shooting on Gone With The Wind, Selznick sent a memo to his general manager, Henry Ginsberg, mentioning that film's music for the first time: "I think that whoever is going to do the score on Gone With The Wind ought to know about it now so that he can be spending whatever time he has free in study of the music of the period and generally doing preparatory work....My first choice for the job is Max Steiner, and I am sure that Max would give anything in the world to do it..."

Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros. and had three months to compose an enormous amount of music for the marathon-length Gone With The Wind, while at the same time writing scores for Warners' We Are Not Alone and Four Wives, plus incidental music for Selznick's Intermezzo!

Almost immediately Steiner was bombarded by notes or memos from Selznick:

(10/9/39) "...would like to get the feeling of the Old South in the whole score. Perhaps score should be based to a large extent upon the strains and songs and compositions of that period--instead of two or three houses of original music..."

(11/6/39) "(For) The Search for Dr. Meade...use old Southern songs dramatically. Score the square with a pathetic medley of Southern songs to give the impression of the South bleeding to death--as dead and wounded as the men are. Suggest off-key 'Dixie' in funereal tempo with 'Taps,' etc., and perhaps 'Maryland, My Maryland,' 'My Old Kentucky Home,' 'Swanee River,' etc....No original music at all."

(11/15/39) "...crazy about the Melanie theme, the Mammy theme, and the Tara theme, but Max has failed terribly with the Scarlett theme and the Rhett theme..."

(11/23/39) "We ought to try, in all music (in Reel Three), to use underscoring for the barbecue instead of the realistic music because I feel we have lost something...in the mood of the scene as a whole, which is romantic and nostalgic--particularly in relation to Melanie's first scene and Rhett's first scenes....We can still use some of the (Stephen) Foster music but with more discretion and with differences of tempo and orchestration, changing the mood..."

(11/23/39) "...the London Hotel. I told Steiner a dozen times that we needed clearly and unmistakably to hear 'London Bridge' to cure the obscurity in continuity and to save us the necessity of a title stating it was London..."

As time went on, Selznick became increasingly concerned about the deadline for the score. He had that scheduled premiere date staring him in the face and no time to spare. In a teletype to John Hay "Jock" Whitney on November 9, 1939, he related in part that "Steiner has again told us he cannot meet the date. We discount this very largely because Steiner is notorious for such statements and works well under pressure, and I am inclined to take the chance that we can drive him through, particularly with the precautionary measures we are taking with (composer Franz) Waxman and others....

"Tomorrow he is recording the first several reels. If quality is disappointing, this, together with his pessimistic statements, would warrant pulling him off, particularly in view of the fact (M-G-M composer) Herbert Stothart is dying to do the job and guarantees he would get it through on time, and from intimate knowledge of Stothart I know his statements can be relied upon. Stothart was my second choice for the job..."

Then four days later in a memo to Whitney: "Stothart had a few drinks on Saturday night, apparently, and did a lot of loose talking about how he was going to have to fix up Max's work. In case you don't know it, the musicians out here are even more jealous of each other, and there are even more cliques among them than is true about producers, directors, actors, etc. The result was that within ten minutes it was back to Max, and he was in a rage....However, Max, spurred on by the Stothart episode, really went to town, and the result is that by tomorrow we will have considerably more than half the picture scored. And it looks as though we're going to be okay without Stothart. I am sure that in any case we can credit all our attempts to get Stothart with leading Max to faster and greater efforts."

Four days later Selznick wrote Steiner: "I think the score is coming along fine, and if you will just go mad with schmaltz in the last three reels, I will undoubtedly be as happy through the years with the memory of a great Steiner score as has always been the case in the past."

But as late as November 31, two weeks before the premiere, Selznick was still ordering music changes! For the Melanie-Mammy scene after Bonnie's death and Melanie's death scene: "... would like to rescore this reel using the emotional Rhett theme in the Melanie-Mammy scene as originally requested; scoring the scene of Melanie's collapse more dramatically; and using the Melanie theme in Melanie's death scene..." And: "The music for Rhett going downstairs suddenly goes blah where it should be emotional. And then we get into 'Mickey Mouse' treatment for the very emotional spot of Scarlett running down the stairs..." And on December 1: "Stop throwing music off-key and doing tricks with it....Stop having the music try to tell the dialogue, and use music for what it's supposed to be used for, which is mood....Stop 'Mickey Mousing' except where especially asked for" and on and on.

The term "Mickey Mousing" derived from the way animated cartoons were scored, with each bit of action being accented and reinforced by the music in perfect synchronization with the visuals. Often this technique was utilized with live-action scoring--sometimes to extremes. Bette Davis, when told by the director at one time that the next shot was of her walking up the stairs, reportedly asked: "Do I walk up the stairs or does Max (Steiner)?"

Steiner composed and arranged the 11 primary themes in addition to most of the subsidiary descriptive music. He arranged the bulk of the material based on melodies of Stephen Foster and other composers, and, as was his custom, wrote complete, carefully annotated orchestra sketches on four staves for his orchestrators--Hugo Friedhofer, Maurice de Packh, Bernhard Kaun, Adolph Deutsch, and Reginald Bassett. Because of the length and scope of his score and the incredible time pressures, Hugo Friedhofer, Adolph Deutsch, and Heinz Roemheld composed a relatively small amount of material in the Steiner manner, which, for the most part, utilized Steiner's thematic creations.

Hugo Friedhofer recalled in the early '70s:

"I started (on the picture) as Max's arranger-orchestrator, and the pressure was so great that Max finally decided that we'd better call in some other people to orchestrate. And he put me on the job of sort of supervising these guys and writing some of the score, based on his material, of course. I remember two scenes very distinctly. There's the Yankee deserter, who gets shot by Scarlett. That was mine. And also the famous seduction scene, which started with Rhett standing behind Scarlett. I remember his hands around her neck. He ultimately picks her up and carries her upstairs, and fade out, fade in, to next morning, with Scarlett sitting up in bed, with this complacent, pussycat smile on her face. And there were some other, minor things that I did throughout.

"Heinz Roemheld did one or two sequences. And Adolph Deutsch did one very striking sequence--the whole thing--the siege of Atlanta, with all the wounded lying around, and the fire....¹ But the material was all Max's really. And even what I wrote, with a few minor exceptions, was based on Max's material, because after all, if you are pulled in in that capacity, you forget your own personality and you try to forge a little Steiner--or whoever you're working for.

"The copying was all done over at Warner Bros. It was kind of a nice interrelationship there. They'd borrowed Max from Warner Bros., so they also borrowed their copying department. That was largely owing to the fact--you can call it nepotism if you like--that Lou Forbes, who was (Warners' music department head) Leo Forbstein's brother, was sort of musical overseer for activities for Selznick."

¹ Other sources say that Heinz Roemheld composed all the music for the escape from Atlanta and the fire.

There are two cues, "The Prayer" and "Charley's Death," totaling 53 seconds, by Franz Waxman, and a 14-second cue, "The Locked Door," by William Axt, all listed as the property of Loew's, Inc., the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. These bits were selected from the M-G-M library and had been written for and used in earlier M-G-M films. The Waxman cues were composed for His Brother's Wife(1936); the Axt cue for David Copperfield (1935).

There is also a cue of 40 seconds written by Steiner and called "Prayer In Despair," which had been used earlier in Selznick's The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer (1938). For Gone With The Wind it accompanied a scene showing the O'Hara family in their home at evening prayer. Waxman's two cues, which follow one another, were used when Scarlett discovers her mother is dead, after returning to Tara in ruins. William Axt's cue was interpolated following Bonnie's death in the latter part of the film. These cues were most likely in the temp track used for the previews and retained because of Selznick's fondness for them.

Although Selznick had engaged Franz Waxman to write a so-called "insurance score" against the possibility that Steiner could not complete a first-rate score on time, none of Waxman's relatively small amount of material written for this purpose (before being halted) was ultimately used. Herbert Stothart, although ready to begin, wrote nothing for the score.

The music recordings were all done at the United Artists Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood (later called the Samuel Goldwyn Studios; now Warner Hollywood). The music stage was generally considered the finest at that time. It had been designed to the specifications of Alfred Newman, the head of the studio's music department (before he went to 20th Century-Fox).

Friedhofer recalled:

"We were recording and dubbing practically simultaneously. Max put in a certain amount of time in dubbing. I know we recorded over on Stage 7 at Goldwyn (United Artists)....

"But that whole thing had a nightmare quality, because we were really under pressure. We never started recording until after dinner, and we'd record until two, sometimes three in the morning...then we would go home, grab a couple of hour's sleep, get up, and write, with orchestrators and copyists breathing down our necks, and grab a bite before recording, and then start the whole thing all over again. And this went on for I don't know how many weeks--not many, because it was touch and go as far as making the Atlanta premiere was concerned."

Writing in a full symphonic idiom, Max Steiner had composed over three hours of music--some of which was left behind in the final released version. All of the principal characters had their own motifs--Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, and Melanie--as well as the main supporting characters--Mammy (Hattie McDaniel); Scarlett's father, Gerald (Thomas Mitchell); Scarlett and Rhett's daughter, Bonnie (Cammie King); and Belle Watling (Ona Munson). There are two dominant love themes, one associated with the spiritual, sensitive love of Ashley and Melanie, the other with a subtle depiction of Scarlett's continuous passion for Ashley and his wavering feelings toward her. Melanie's theme was lifted intact by Steiner from a 1934 RKO score he had composed for The Fountain, a vehicle for Ann Harding.

"More important than all these individuals is Tara, the O'Hara family plantation," said Steiner in 1939. "I can grasp that feeling for Tara, which moved Scarlett's father and which is one of the finest instincts in her, that love for the soil where she had been born, love of the life before her own which had been founded so strongly. That is why the Tara theme begins and ends the picture and permeates the entire score."

The now famous Tara strain is unmistakable in its sweeping, nostalgic mood; powerfully appealing in its warm touch that suggests love of home, ground, and tradition.

As Steiner said, "Tara is more than a plantation, more than a fine old house, saturated with proud, and sad, and always loving memories. Tara is a living thing giving and demanding life. Tara is an idea which keeps Scarlett on her unrelenting quest to preserve the spiritual heritage of the O'Haras and of the Old South."

In addition to his character motifs, love themes, and dances, Steiner composed 26 descriptive music pieces. Typical of the titles he attached to them are "Driving Home," "Proposal," "Unrequited Love," "Warriors Return," "Nightmare," etc.

Patriotic tunes of the time, Southern songs, and military pieces were quoted extensively in a dramatic, imaginative manner, per Selznick's request, although it is likely that Steiner would have done this anyway--at least to some degree. Steiner interwove this musical heritage using his own variations and often ironic interpretations. But there is nothing anachronistic, tasteless, or arbitrary about the inclusions. The composer (and/or his associates) did extensive research on the music of the period, and Steiner's carefully selected excerpts help re-create and support the times, the atmosphere, and the drama. Every traditional theme is historically and geographically justified. Such tunes as "Dixie," "Bonnie Blue Flag," and "Maryland, My Maryland" serve to denote the cause of the Confederates. Northern soldiers are hardly seen on the screen, and songs referring to them are very sparingly used. However, at the beginning of the second part of the film, when special effects and a terse Ben Hecht title denote Sherman's march to the Atlantic coast, Steiner uses the strains of "Marching Through Georgia."

Stephen Foster's songs (again, per Selznick's request) provide apt material for a score so carefully aimed at the emotion of the period. Quoted at least in part throughout the score are "Katie Belle," "Under The Willow," "Louisiana Belle," "Dolly Day," "Ring De Banjo," "Massa's In De Cold, Cold Ground," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Old Folks At Home" (aka "Swanee River"), and "Camptown Races."

On December 6, 1939, Selznick wrote to his friend William S. Paley, president of CBS, which included Columbia Records and other labels, and said, "The thought occurs to me that you might like to have one of your record companies get out one or more records of the musical score of Gone With The Wind. I know that under ordinary circumstances the musical score of a picture couldn't be expected to sell records, but everything in connection with Gone With The Wind is apparently attracting such unprecedented attention that this may be the exception. And incidentally, the score is quite beautiful."

Mr. Paley and the record company executives declined. Soundtrack music from films (other than Walt Disney songs) were not made available on records in the U.S. until later in the 1940s. The first recording of excerpts from Gone With The Wind (other than Al Goodman's, Victor Young's, and others' renditions of the Tara theme) appeared in 1954, 14 years after the film came out! For a 10" RCA album, Max Steiner recorded his published suite, which was based on the orchestrations used for the film but resequenced and adjusted by Steiner (originally for a 1943 New York concert at Lewisohn Stadium) to effect an uninterrupted approximately 30-minute work. Also in 1954 the Tara theme was supplied with a lyric by Mack David and a title, "My Own True Love." A particularly good 1937 popular song called "Gone With The Wind" by Allie Wrubel and Herb Magidson had no direct connection to the novel or the film. "Southern Scandal," Stan Kenton's 1945 composition for his big band, is clearly based on the Tara theme.

Max Steiner's score has retained its popularity through the years and, of course, is a major factor in the film's dramatic texture, connective tissue, and full realization.

Margaret Mitchell wrote to David O. Selznick in August of 1942:

"At the Grand Theatre here in Atlanta, they play the theme music from Gone With The Wind in the interludes between pictures and when the last performances of the night are over. Frequently John and I and many other Atlantans remain in our seats to listen to it, not only because it is beautiful but because we want to recapture the sensations of the first time we heard it at the premiere. I never hear this music without feeling again the strange mixture of emotions that I experienced on that night nearly three years ago when I sat in this same theatre and saw the film for the first time. I doubt if I could describe those emotions but they did not include fear that it would not be a great picture."

--Rudy Behlmer
Rudy Behlmer is the author of several books, including Memo From Darryl F. Zanuck, Inside Warner Bros., Behind The Scenes: The Making Of..., and Memo From David O. Selznick.

Return to Contents

David O. Selznick's Production Of
MARGARET MITCHELL'S GONE WITH THE WIND

CLARK GABLE * VIVIEN LEIGH
LESLIE HOWARD * OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND

THE CAST
in the order of their appearance

AT TARA, THE O'HARA PLANTATION IN GEORGIA

Brent Tarleton: Fred Crane
Stuart Tarleton: George Reeves
Scarlett O'Hara: Vivien Leigh
Mammy: Hattie McDaniel
Big Sam: Everett Brown
Elijah: Zack Williams
Gerald O'Hara: Thomas Mitchel
Pork: Oscar Polk
Ellen O'Hara: Barbara O'Neil
Jonas Wilkerson: Victor Jory
Suellen O'Hara: Evelyn Keyes
Carreen O'Hara: Ann Rutherford
Prissy: Butterfly McQueen

AT TWELVE OAKS, THE NEARBY WILKES PLANTATION

John Wilkes: Howard Hickman
India Wilkes: Alicia Rhett
Ashley Wilkes: Leslie Howard
Melanie Hamilton: Olivia de Havilland
Charles Hamilton Rand Brooks
Frank Kennedy: Carroll Nye
Cathleen Calvert: Marcella Martin
Rhett Butler: Clark Gable

AT THE BAZAAR IN ATLANTA

Aunt "Pittypat" Hamilton: Laura Hope Crews
Doctor Meade: Harry Davenport
Mrs. Meade: Leona Roberts
Mrs. Merriwether: Jane Darwell
Rene Picard: Albert Morin
Maybelle Merriwether: Mary Anderson
Fanny Elsing: Terry Shero
Old Levi: William McClain

IN AUNT "PITTYPAT'S" HOME

Uncle Peter: Eddie Anderson

OUTSIDE THE EXAMINER OFFICE

Phil Meade: Jackie Moran

AT THE HOSPITAL

Reminiscent Soldier: Cliff Edwards
Belle Watling: Ona Munson
The Sergeant: Ed Chandler
A Wounded Soldier in Pain: George Hackathorne
A Convalescent Soldier: Roscoe Ates
An Amputation Case: Eric Linden
A Dying Soldier: John Arledge

DURING THE EVACUATION

A Commanding Officer: Tom Tyler

DURING THE SIEGE

A Mounted Officer: William Bakewell
The Bartender: Lee Phelps

GEORGIA AFTER SHERMAN

A Yankee Deserter: Paul Hurst
The Carpetbagger's Friend: Ernest Whitman
A Returning Veteran: William Stelling
A Hungry Soldier: Louis Jean Heydt
Emmie Slattery: Isabel Jewell

DURING RECONSTRUCTION

The Yankee Major: Robert Elliott
His Poker-Playing Captains: George Meeker, Wallis Clark
The Corporal: Irving Bacon
A Carpetbagger Orator: Adrian Morris
Johnny Gallegher: J.M. Kerrigan
A Yankee Business Man: Olin Howland
A Renegade: Yakima Canutt
His Companion: Blue Washington
Tom, A Yankee Captain: Ward Bond
Bonnie Blue Butler: Cammie King
Beau Wilkes: Mickey Kuhn
Bonnie's Nurse: Lillian Kemble Cooper

A Selznick International Picture
Directed by Victor Fleming * Screenplay by Sidney Howard * Music by Max Steiner
Production Designed by William Cameron Menzies
Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Return to Contents

Track List

Music Composed, Conducted, and Arranged by MAX STEINER (unless otherwise noted)

Recorded November and December 1939 at United Artists Studios, Hollywood, California

Music Published by Warner Bros. Music (unless otherwise noted)

Composers other than Max Steiner are identified at the first occurrence of a selection and not thereafter

Steiner's orchestra (primarily the Warner Bros. Orchestra) was basically a standard symphonic grouping with the addition of chorus (mostly female) and organ. Also, "color" instruments such as banjo and harmonica were used on occasion to suggest the period.

DISC ONE

(TT 74:22)

1. MAIN TITLE (4:06)

The music behind the Selznick International trademark showing the front of the Southern-styled building, which, in fact, was the front of the Selznick International Studio on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, was written by Alfred Newman in 1937.

This leads directly into the Steiner music for the "Main Title," which begins with a brief, arresting variation on "Dixie" and is followed by a short statement of the theme written for "Mammy" and then a rich, powerful rendition of the "Tara" theme. Toward the end of the "Main Title" a heavy brass passage announces the first part of Rhett Butler's motif, then back to the "Tara" melody and a muted chorus singing a wordless "Dixie."

AT TARA, THE O'HARA PLANTATION IN GEORGIA

2. TARA (2:13)

THE TWINS
KATIE BELLE
Composed by STEPHEN FOSTER
Public Domain
ASHLEY
MAMMY

3. THE O'HARA FAMILY(6:17)

DRIVING HOME
GERALD O'HARA
TARA
GRAZIOSO
MAMMY
UNDER THE WILLOW
Composed by STEPHEN FOSTER
Public Domain
KATIE BELLE
PRAYER IN DESPAIR

4. SCARLETT PREPARES FOR THE BARBECUE (2:20)

DRESSING SCENE
MAMMY
EXPECTANCY

The opening sequence of the film, as in the novel, takes place on Tara's front porch, where we are introduced to Scarlett O'Hara--the personification of the Southern belle--and her two suitors, the Tarleton twins. The music accompanying this flirtatious, prewar banter is represented by a somewhat obscure Stephen Foster melody, "Katie Belle," interwoven with the Steiner motif "The Twins." Ashley's rather pensive and quiet descending motif is touched on, and there is a bit of the lilting tune associated with "Mammy."

Gerald O'Hara, Scarlett's father, is represented by a theme in an Irish vein. "Prayer In Despair," depicting the entire Tara household at evening prayer, is a lift from Steiner's score for Selznick's 1938 The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer. A full syncopated statement of the theme for "Mammy" is heard during the dressing scene.

AT TWELVE OAKS, THE NEARBY WILKES PLANTATION

5. TWELVE OAKS (1:17)

LOUISIANA BELLE
DOLLY DAY
RING DE BANJO
All Composed by STEPHEN FOSTER
All Public Domain

6. THE BARBECUE (EXTENDED VERSION) (5:23)

THE TWINS
MELANIE
KATIE BELLE
SCARLETT
RHETT
MELANIE AND ASHLEY

7. AFTERNOON NAP (1:58)

SWEET AND LOW
Composed by JAY BARNBY
Public Domain
ANXIETY

8. CHARLES HAMILTON CHALLENGES RHETT (1:07)

CAVALIERS OF DIXIE
Composer Unknown
Public Domain ANXIETY

9. IN THE LIBRARY (2:31)

ASHLEY AND SCARLETT

At Twelve Oaks we hear some charming atmospheric Stephen Foster tunes--augmented with banjo for flavoring. Melanie's lovely motif is introduced along with Rhett's heroic and purposeful martial-sounding theme.

The "Melanie And Ashley" love theme is serene, tender, and spiritual as opposed to the intricate melody with which Scarlett throws herself at Ashley in the Wilkes library and the complex response elicited from the man she cannot have. This "Ashley And Scarlett" music recurs often in yearning, tormented developments.

10. WAR IS DECLARED/THE DEATH OF CHARLES(4:03)

DIXIE
Composed by D. EMMET
Public Domain
PROPOSAL
UNREQUITED LOVE
TAPS
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
MASSA'S IN DE COLD, COLD GROUND
Composed by STEPHEN FOSTER
Public Domain

For spite, Scarlett marries Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton ("Unrequited Love"), whose death during the war from pneumonia following an attack of measles is ironically commented on musically by Steiner's quotation from "Massa's In De Cold, Cold Ground."

IN ATLANTA

11. AT THE BAZAAR (1:03)

CHARLESTON HEEL AND TOE POLKA

12. MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND (1:42)

Composer Unknown
Public Domain

13. DANCES (1:51)

IRISH WASHERWOMAN
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
GARY OWEN
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
SOUTHERN BELLE WALTZ
RHETT
SCARLETT

The "Charleston Heel And Toe Polka," "Southern Belle Waltz," etc., are heard during the bazaar at the Atlanta armory, where Rhett dances with Scarlett, who has recently lost her first husband and supposedly is in mourning.

14. GETTYSBURG (:55)

WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME
Composed by L. LAMBERT
Public Domain

15. OUTSIDE THE EXAMINER NEWSPAPER OFFICE (2:12)

DIXIE
WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER
Composed by H. TUCKER
Public Domain
WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME

ASHLEY'S CHRISTMAS LEAVE

16. AT THE DEPOT (1:06)

BONNIE BLUE FLAG
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
WARRIORS RETURN

17. CHRISTMAS AT AUNT PITTY'S (4:56)

HARK, THE HERALD ANGELS SING
Composed by F. MENDELSSOHN
Public Domain
MELANIE AND ASHLEY
MELANIE
CAVALIERS OF DIXIE
TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP Composed by G.F. ROOT
Public Domain
ASHLEY AND SCARLETT

THE SIEGE

18. MELANIE AND SCARLETT TEND THE WOUNDED (1:21)

FALL OF THE SOUTH

19. SCARLETT'S PROMISE (3:37)

MELANIE AND ASHLEY
DIXIE
TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP

20. TRAIN DEPOT (2:08)

DIXIE
MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND
OLD FOLKS AT HOME (SWANEE RIVER)
Composed by STEPHEN FOSTER
Public Domain
TAPS
BONNIE BLUE FLAG

Scarlett had promised Ashley during his Christmas leave to look after Melanie, who is now about to give birth and cannot be moved. Scarlett then seeks out Doctor Meade, which brings her to the train depot, where seemingly thousands of wounded soldiers are sprawled on the ground as far as the eye can see. The camera pulls up and back, ending on the Confederate flag in the foreground of this tragic panorama.

THE BIRTH OF MELANIE'S BABY

21. MELANIE IN LABOR (:35)

SCARLETT
MELANIE
MELANIE AND ASHLEY

22. RHETT RETURNS (2:59)

GOING HOME
TARA
MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME
Composed by STEPHEN FOSTER
Public Domain
MELANIE

THE BURNING OF ATLANTA

23. ESCAPE FROM ATLANTA(2:46)

THE ESCAPE
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
Composed by H. C. WORK
Public Domain
DIXIE
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
Composer Unknown
Public Domain

Rhett rescues Scarlett, Melanie, Prissy, and Melanie's baby to take them away from Atlanta during the devastating fire and destruction of the city.

24. SOLDIERS IN RETREAT (1:22)

DIXIE
CAVALIERS OF DIXIE
MELANIE
RHETT
SCARLETT

25. RHETT AND SCARLETT ON McDONOUGH ROAD (3:13)

RHETT
SCARLETT
McDONOUGH ROAD
TAPS
TARA

Outside Atlanta, on McDonough Road, Rhett feels shame and remorse and decides to join the decimated Southern army for its last stand. He leaves the wagon with Scarlett and the others.

RETURN TO TARA

26. TWELVE OAKS IN RUIN/SCARLETT COMES HOME (4:40)

SILHOUETTES
MELANIE AND ASHLEY
SCARLETT
TARA
GERALD O'HARA
MAMMY

27. I'LL NEVER BE HUNGRY AGAIN! (6:06)

TARA
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
GERALD O'HARA
DIXIE
MAMMY

Desolate fields, charred buildings, mangled and trampled cotton--this is the Tara that Scarlett returns to. The "Scarlett Comes Home" music cue is somewhat different from the one used in the film, which under scored Scarlett discovering her mother is dead and incorporated, per Selznick's request, music written by Franz Waxman for a 1936 M-G-M picture, His Brother's Wife. The version on this CD represents Steiner's original intent.

Desperately hungry, Scarlett goes into the fields, digs up a radish, chokes on it, and vows, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" Music up; fade out.

DISC TWO

(TT 73:21)

OPENING ACT II

1. ALTERNATE ENTR'ACTE(1:48)

The "Alternate Entr'acte" (not used in the film) was similar to the music treatment and mood in the preceding train depot sequence. For the "Entr'acte" eventually included Steiner drew upon "Dixie," "The Escape," and "Battle Hymn Of The Republic."

2. BATTLE MONTAGE (2:55)

MAESTOSO TRAGICO
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
TARA
GERALD O'HARA
MELANIE

3. THE DESERTER (1:33)

THE YANKEE

4. MELANIE AND SCARLETT (EXTENDED VERSION) (3:14)

THE YANKEE
TARA
MELANIE

At Tara, Scarlett has forced her two sisters and the remaining house servants to work in the fields picking cotton. After Scarlett kills a Yankee scavenger and, with the help of the recuperating Melanie, hides the body, the contents of his wallet provide them with some money for food.

THE WAR ENDS

5. IT'S OVER! (EXTENDED VERSION) (3:04)

GERALD O'HARA
DIXIE
WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
MAMMY
DIXIE
TARA

6. FRANK KENNEDY ASKS FOR SUELLEN'S HAND (EXTENDED VERSION) (3:07)

TRUE LOVE
MELANIE AND ASHLEY
TARA

Frank Kennedy, Scarlett's sister Suellen's suitor, has returned from the war and has approached Scarlett, who is now the head of Tara following her father's mental breakdown, to ask for Suellen's hand. Scarlett gives her consent. This original Steiner music, "True Love," has an unmistakable Stephen Foster aura. Immediately afterward, up the driveway, a solitary soldier walks from the road toward the house. Melanie recognizes the figure as Ashley. Her arms outstretched, Melanie dashes closer to the approaching figure returning from the war. Scarlett also starts to run down the steps, but is stopped by Mammy's grip. "He's her husband, ain't he?" Fade out.

7. PADDOCK SCENE (5:26)

WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME
TARA
ASHLEY
ASHLEY AND SCARLETT
MELANIE
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
YANKEE DOODLE
Composer Unknown
Public Domain

8. GERALD'S DEATH (EXTENDED VERSION) (2:26)

GERALD O'HARA
TARA

Some time later, Ashley is splitting rails in the paddock at Tara when Scarlett goes to him for advice about tax money owed on Tara. Ashley has no solution, but admits that he loves Scarlett, even though he will never leave Melanie.

RETURN TO ATLANTA/RECONSTRUCTION

9. OLD FOLKS AT HOME (SWANEE RIVER) (:17)
10. THE NEW STORE (:52)

NEW STORE
SCARLETT
THE GOSSIPS

During the rigors of the Reconstruction, Scarlett again meets Frank Kennedy, now engaged to her sister Suellen, and learns that he has begun to make money running a store and a lumber mill in Atlanta. Using a full battery of lies and wiles, she marries him and pays the taxes on Tara with his savings. Scarlett gives Ashley a job--still hopelessly in love with him.

11. SCARLETT IN SHANTYTOWN (2:30)

THE ATTACK
SCARLETT

12. ASHLEY AND DR. MEADE/FRANK'S DEATH (1:57)

VIGILANTES
MASSA'S IN DE COLD, COLD GROUND
BELLE WATLING
ASHLEY AND MELANIE
MELANIE

13. BELLE WATLING AND MELANIE(2:42)

BELLE WATLING
MELANIE

Belle Watling is the gaudy prostitute with flaming red hair and a heart of gold who is a genuinely good friend of Rhett Butler. Her theme is warm and compassionate. Celesta and vibraphone articulate the melodic line. Then Belle secretly pays a call on Melanie.

14. SCARLETT GETS TIPSY (:45)
    

    SCARLETT

    Scarlett drinks heavily after her husband Frank's death, which is a result of his avenging an attack on her by scavengers.

    SCARLETT AND RHETT'S MARRIAGE

15. NEW ORLEANS HONEYMOON (:30)

STARS OF THE SUMMER NIGHT
Composed by I.B. WOODBURY
Public Domain

16. CAN-CAN (:34)
17. SCARLETT'S NEW WARDROBE(:47)

DRESS SHOP
MAMMY

After Frank's death, Scarlett marries Rhett. The "Can-Can," a Steiner pastiche of Offenbach, occurs during Scarlett and Rhett's honeymoon in a New Orleans café, where Creole dancing girls are entertaining.

18. SCARLETT'S NIGHTMARE (2:24)

NIGHTMARE
TARA
SCARLETT
RHETT
BRIDAL CHORUS
From Lohengrin
Composed by ROBERT WAGNER
Public Domain
MAMMY

19. BONNIE'S BIRTH (1:20)

SCARLETT
RHETT

In New Orleans, Scarlett has a recurring nightmare during which she is cold and hungry and seeking something in the mist--but not finding it. She asks Rhett to take her to see Tara again, and later he offers to help her restore the plantation to the way it was before the war. Eventually they have a baby girl and name her Bonnie.

CONFLICT

20. TWENTY INCHES! (4:43)

DRESSING SCENE
MAMMY
ASHLEY
RHETT
BONNIE
BELLE WATLING

Still longing for Ashley and desiring to have an 18-1/2" waist rather than 20", Scarlett tells Rhett that she no longer wants him to share her bedroom and doesn't want any more children.

21. THE LUMBER MILL (2:11)

DEEP RIVER
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
SCARLETT
ASHLEY

22. AFTER THE PARTY (2:52)

FOR HE'S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
MELANIE
SCARLETT
THE HANDS
BONNIE
ASHLEY

Following a surprise birthday party for Ashley, Scarlett and Rhett have a violent quarrel. Steiner's "The Hands" music cue refers to Rhett, in a drunken state, pressing his hands around Scarlett's head saying that he would like to remove Ashley from her mind forever. Then Rhett picks up Scarlett and carries her upstairs to the bedroom.

LONDON NIGHT SCENE

23. LONDON (2:35)

BONNIE BLUE FLAG
LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN
Composer Unknown
Public Domain
RHETT
BONNIE

Rhett leaves for an extended trip to London and takes their young child, Bonnie, with him. Beginning with the London interlude, Rhett's theme undergoes a transformation into a tender, sad, and haunting music treatment.

RHETT AND BONNIE RETURN

24. RHETT AND SCARLETT'S FIGHT (3:31)

THE ACCIDENT
BONNIE
MAMMY
RHETT

25. THE DEATH OF BONNIE (2:27)

RHETT
BONNIE
SCARLETT
GERALD O'HARA

Scarlett and Rhett have a series of misunderstandings. She has a miscarriage after an altercation with Rhett, and then Bonnie is killed in an accident while riding her pony--echoing Gerald O'Hara's death.

TRAGEDY

26. MELANIE AND MAMMY (3:49)

BONNIE
SCARLETT
THE LOCKED DOOR
Composed by WILLIAM AXT
Published by Loewe's Inc.
MELANIE
ASHLEY

Steiner's music underscores a scene between Melanie and Mammy, when the latter tearfully tells of the terrible affects on Scarlett and Rhett of losing Bonnie.

27. THE DEATH OF MELANIE (5:19)

MELANIE
ASHLEY
SCARLETT
MELANIE AND ASHLEY

The tragedies multiply. Melanie dies and here Steiner's treatment of his "Melanie" theme is exceptionally moving. Scarlett has one last scene with Ashley, who says Melanie was the only dream he ever had that "didn't die in the face of reality." Scarlett now sees him as a tired, weak, middle-aged man with no particular glamour.

FINALE

28. SCARLETT IN THE MIST/RHETT LEAVES (5:54)

BONNIE
MELANIE
SCARLETT
RHETT

29. FLASHBACK/FINALE (1:20)
    

    GERALD O'HARA
    TARA

    Scarlett realizes it is Rhett she really loves. But it is too late. He won't put himself in jeopardy after losing to Ashley for years and then losing Bonnie. As he leaves, Scarlett cries out, "What shall I do? Where shall I go?" And Rhett gives his classic answer: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

    Scarlett is momentarily stunned and defeated, but she gains renewed strength in deciding that her salvation is in Tara--the only thing that really matters, the only thing that lasts, and the one thing she loves more than any other. She vows, "I'll go home--and I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day!" The "Tara" theme and coda, accompanied by a full choir, majestically carry the final scene to the fade out.

--Annotations by Rudy Behlmer

Return to Contents

Selected Bibliography

Compiled by Rudy Behlmer

BOOKS:

Behlmer, Rudy (editor and annotator). Memo From David O. Selznick. Viking, 1972.

Darby, William, and Jack Du Bois. American Film Music. McFarland, 1990.

D'Arc, James V., and John N. Gillespie (editors). The Max Steiner Collection. Brigham Young University, 1996.

Farr, Finis. Margaret Mitchell Of Atlanta. William Morrow, 1965.

Hanson, Patricia King (executive editor). The American Film Institute Catalog: FEATURE Films. 1931-1940. University of California Press.

Harwell, Richard (editor). Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With The Wind" Letters 1936-1949. Macmillan, 1976.

Haver, Ronald. David O. Selznick's Gone With The Wind. Bonanza Books, 1986.

Magill, Frank (editor). Magill's Survey Of Cinema. First Series; Volume 2. (Gone With The Wind entry by Rudy Behlmer.) Salem Press, 1980.

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With The Wind. Macmillan, 1936.

------ Lost Laysen. Edited by Debra Freer. Scribner, 1996.

Naumburg, Nancy (editor). We Make The Movies. (Chapter on film scoring by Max Steiner.) W. W. Norton, 1937.

Pratt, William (with Herb Bridges). Scarlett Fever: The Ultimate Pictorial History Of Gone With The Wind. Macmillan, 1977.

Pyron, Darden Asbury. Southern Daughter: The Life Of Margaret Mitchell. Oxford University Press, 1991.

Thomas, Tony. Music For The Movies. A. S. Barnes, 1973.

Thomson, David. Showman: The Life Of David O. Selznick. Knopf, 1992.

Turner, Adrian. A Celebration Of Gone With The Wind. Gallery Books, 1990.

BOOKLETS, PAMPHLETS, PRESS KITS:

Harwell, Richard. "The Big Book: Fifty Years Of Gone With The Wind." Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, Georgia, 1986.

Ussher, Bruno David. "Max Steiner Establishes Another Film Music Record." Cinemusic And Its Meaning, 1939.

"Gone With The Wind 50th Anniversary Press Kit." Turner Entertainment Co., Atlanta, Georgia, 1989.

PERIODICALS:

Behlmer, Rudy. "Another Gone With The Wind Album?" The Cue Sheet (newsletter of The Society for the Preservation of Film Music). Clifford McCarty (editor). Volume 1, No. 1; January, 1984.

Behlmer, Rudy, and Henry Hart. "David O. Selznick." Films In Review. June-July 1963.

Bryden, Ronald. "Epic." The Observer. London, England. January 7, 1968.

Morgan, John W. "Steiner's Epic Score For Gone With The Wind." The Max Steiner Annual. The Max Steiner Music Society. 1976 Issue, No. 10.

ARCHIVES:

David O. Selznick Archive: The University of Texas at Austin.

Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Center for Motion Picture Study: Beverly Hills, California.

Warner Bros. Archive: University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Cinema-Television Library: University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

ORAL HISTORIES:

Hugo Friedhofer Oral History. Conducted by Irene Kahn Atkins. American Film Institute. 1974.

MUSIC RECORDINGS:

Behlmer, Rudy. LINER NOTES for "Max Steiner's Classic Film Score: Gone With The Wind." RCA recording. 1974.

Behlmer, Rudy. LINER NOTES for "Now, Voyager: The Classic Film Scores Of Max Steiner ." RCA recording. 1973.

Haver, Ronald. LINER NOTES for "Gone With The Wind." PolyGram Records. 1983.

OTHER:

Gone With The Wind music cue sheets. (27 pages.) Selznick International Pictures, Inc. 1939.

Howard, Sidney (et al). Gone With The Wind screenplay (final edited version). Selznick International Pictures, Inc. 1939.

Return to Contents

Production Credits

Produced by George Feltenstein and Bradley Flanagan

Project Supervisor Julie D'Angelo

Art Direction by Coco Shinomiya and Tornado Design

Design by Tornado Design

LINER NOTES by Rudy H. Behlmer

Engineering by Doug Schwartz, Audio Mechanics, Los Angeles, CA

Transfer by Chace Productions, Los Angeles, CA

Project Consultant Allan Fisch

Photographs courtesy of Turner Entertainment Co., George Feltenstein, Rudy and Stacey Behlmer, and the Academy of Motion Piture Arts and Sciences

Production Assistance: Woolsey Ackerman, Jayne Blume, Tom Eckmier, Norma "Big Red" Edwards, and Julee Stover

Special Thanks to Maggie Adams, Bruce Baggot, Stacey Behlmer, Scott Benson, Tom Burke, Ned Comstock, James D'Arc and the Brigham Young University Special Collections, Bob Heiber, Gina Henschen, Andrea Kinloch, Richard May, Roger Mayer, Stuart Ng, Michael Nieves, Susan Sennett, Charles Shultz, Mary Beth Verhunce, and Bill Whittington

Very special thanks to Messrs. L. Jeffrey and Daniel Selznick

Return to Contents

::Back To Product