“The Making of Gone With The Wind”, by Steve Wilson, forward by Robert Osborne

 

352 pages, University of Texas Press, ISBN-13: 978-0292761261

So, I was walking the aisles of the Fraser Public Library all out-of-sorts: I wanted to read something but didn’t know what; oh, I could have started on the next two books for my book clubs, but I wasn’t in the mood – and besides, we wouldn’t be discussing them for another three months, anyway. Which is when I came across The Making of Gone With The Wind by Steve Wilson, a coffee table book about the making of one of early Hollywood’s masterpieces. And, seeing as I wasn’t in the mood for anything taxing, I checked it out and dove right in, just wanting a book to while away my time with that wouldn’t challenge me too much.

The Making of Gone With The Wind was first published in 2014 in commemoration of the film’s 75^th anniversary and features over 600 items from the archives of David O. Selznick, the film’s producer, and his business partner John Hay “Jock” Whitney, which are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin (I wondered why the University of Texas published this thing). As histories go its…okay; I mean, nothing earth-shattering or deep-delving, as it proceeds at a brisk pace describing the making of this glory of classic cinema, with most of the text a paragraph or two besides splashy pictures.

But it’s not for the text that one buys this book, it’s for those pictures: hundreds of photos from behind-the-scenes of the making of Gone With The Wind, along with production art, concept paintings, costume shots and so on. The pictures bring to life what it must have been like to have been a part of this epic, this piece of celluloid history in which a beloved book was transformed into a just-as-beloved film that has captivated millions since its release so long ago. That is why one buys The Making of Gone With The Wind; to try and be a part of something special, or at least imagine that one was.

But the history cannot be ignored, either, as Wilson chronicles the many controversies that involved the making of GWTW: from Southern Whites fearful that their heritage would be mocked by a bunch of Yankees, to African Americans – and, especially, the NAACP – concerned with how their race would be portrayed (and especially if a certain ‘N’ word would be in use), to the controversy of casting some English girl as Katie Scarlett O’Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler…it’s all chronicled by Wilson in all its faded controversy. The fights surrounding the picture may seem like small beans to us today, but at the time they were so important and all-consuming.

The Making of Gone With The Wind is, then, a look into the past at a film classic that was withstood the test of time and serves as a beacon of culture and refinement that modern-day political tempests cannot shake loose.