a first of many book reviews.

I just finished reading Frankly, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited by Molly Haskell, and I found it very interesting. This book is fairly short at just over 220 pages, but it manages to cover a lot of ground. It includes the basic biographies (and a peek into the psyche of) Vivian Leigh, Margaret Mitchell and David Selznick, as well as a history of how the book came to be, behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the movie, and some very interesting comments on social and racial climates before, during, and since the book and movie were released.

Some interesting facts I learned from the book:

Mammy's character wasn't intended to be a realistic portrait of what a mature female house slave would actually say and do in those days. She is meant to be the steady force that we can rely on throughout the movie. While the other characters come and go, and change dramatically in their personalities and situations, Mammy remains the same as always. She is meant to be a mother figure to Rhett, Scarlett, and the audience.

Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Mammy, but because she was black, she was not allowed to sit in the front with the rest of the cast. Instead, she was assigned a small table in the very back of the room, with only room for herself and one guest. That made me :(

The censors seemed to have little problem allowing the scene where Rhett Butler sweeps Scarlett off her feet, carrying her up the stairs - determined to have his way with his wife, in comparison to the terrible time they gave the production about using the word "damn". They author even included an excerpt of a letter sent from Selznick to the censorship office in which he told them that even the Oxford Dictionary did not classify "damn" as a curse.

As part of a marketing and PR campaign, agents were sent from Hollywood to go through the South, pretending to be scouting for potential Scarletts. Thousands of southern women showed up to these phony auditions, convinced they were perfect for the part. One of the people in charge of these "auditions" wrote a letter to a friend, complaining that "every Miss Atlanta from the last 20 years was there". Eventually the South caught on, and published stories saying that Hollywood was just doing it to promote interest in the film. The producers quickly tried to save face by casting several southern girls to play extras in the barbecue scene.

Margaret Mitchell was a would-be Southern Belle raised in Atlanta. She got invited to debut with the other young ladies in Atlanta society, but proceeded to shock everyone at the debutante ball by performing some of her risque flapper dance moves. The Junior League was shocked and offended, and refused to allow her to join their ranks. Later, after Mitchell had written and published the book, the movie had been made, and Atlanta was to be the host of the big movie premiere, the Junior League threw a big bash (almost as expensive as the premiere party) to celebrate the cast and crew. Margaret Mitchell finally got her revenge by refusing to attend.

If you love the Civil War, old Hollywood, or the GWTW book or movie, you'll love this book. If none of these things interest you, skip it. There's little there for anyone that isn't a fan of at least one of the three. Since I am a fan of all three of those things, I give this book 3 out of 4 Waxflowers.