If you’re a fan of the 1939 classic film Gone With the Wind, you’ll want to pick up a copy of Gone With the Wind: 1939 Day by Day by Pauline Bartel.

Pauline Bartel has more than four decades of experience as an award-winning professional writer. She is the author of nine nonfiction books, including Gone With the Wind: 1939 Day by Day and The Complete GONE WITH THE WIND Trivia Book (2nd edition). I had a chance to talk to Pauline about her book and her love for the movie.

Lisa: This book is so interesting, and I have to be totally transparent that I’ve never seen Gone With the Wind. You said that you watched it for the first time when you were 16. What was it about the movie that pulled you in to become a lifelong fan?

Pauline: It was December 1968, and I was living in Poughkeepsie, New York. My mother saw in The Poughkeepsie Journal that the local theater was going to play Gone With the Wind, and she insisted that we see this film. 

I was a teenager. I was 16. It was Christmas vacation from school, and I knew nothing about the plot of the movie. I knew nothing about the players. And when my mother told me it was an almost four-hour movie, I thought, Well, that’s a colossal waste of time. However, my mother had an irresistible offer. She knew that I needed practice driving time because I was going after my driver’s license. So she said if we go together, I could drive. I took her up on the offer. 

When we arrived at the theater, a line of people stretched from the box office all the way down the sidewalk into the back of the parking lot. That was unheard of in those days. We inched our way toward the box office, and I spotted a showcase with a poster that I subsequently learned was called ‘The Flaming Embrace.’ The poster showed Vivien Leigh in a red gown, and she’s in the arms of Clark Gable. “Who are they?” I asked my mother. Cryptically, she said, “You’ll find out.” 

The curtains opened. The title Gone With the Wind swept across the screen, and I was mesmerized. I hadn’t ever seen anything like it. The moment Clark Gable appeared as Rhett Butler at the foot of the staircase, I absolutely fell in love. Now at this point, I identified with Scarlett O’Hara. She’s in love with Ashley Wilkes. I was 16, as was Scarlett, and I, too, was a 16-year-old in love with somebody who didn’t love me. So I completely identified with her. There was such drama, visuals, and costumes. I was totally besotted with this picture. And I became a fan that very day. That first viewing led to my lifelong passion for Gone With the Wind.

How would you convince someone to give the movie a try?  

Pauline: Long movies, in my view, are luxurious, cinematic experiences. So consider the number of three-plus-hour movies you may have seen recently. Avatar: The Way of Water is a long movie (3h 12m). Babylon is a long movie (3h 9m). Next, consider the number of three-hour-plus movies that have received the Best Picture Academy Award. Titanic, Schindler’s List, Gandhi, Lawrence of Arabia, then Gone With the Wind.

Let me clue you into what you have been missing. You’re missing a sprawling drama from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Margaret Mitchell translated to the silver screen by one of America’s greatest playwrights Sidney Howard. 

Also, you’re missing one of the greatest ensemble casts – Vivien Leigh as Scarlett, Clark Gable as Rhett, Leslie Howard as Ashley, and Olivia de Havilland as Melanie. You’re missing the exquisite costuming by Walter Plunkett, from Scarlett’s white ruffled gown on the porch of Tara as the movie opens all the way through the green sprigged barbecue dress she wears to Twelve Oaks, the burgundy velvet gown she wears to Ashley’s party. At the beginning of the film, she’s virginal. She’s in white. At the end of the movie, she’s almost broken and wearing black. The costumes tell the changing fortunes of Scarlett O’Hara. 

You’re missing glorious music composed by Max Steiner, who’s often called the “father of film music.” Steiner’s beautiful “Tara’s Theme” heightens the emotional impact of the film’s main title sequence, during which each word of Gone With the Wind moves across the screen from right to left. That effect was created by painting each word on a glass plate, photographing each plate and putting them together through movie magic, so the title sweeps across the screen. That was enough to captivate me when I saw the title for the first time. It was just magnificent. 

You’re missing the fire sequence. The way the scene is set, Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie and her newborn son, and Prissy are escaping in a wagon from the advancing Union army. The Confederate Army, in the meantime, has set fire to the munitions warehouses. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but seeing that sequence is going to make you catch your breath. It is just spectacular. 

You’re also missing perhaps one of the most poignant scenes in Gone With the Wind, and it’s called the pullback scene. In this scene, Melanie is having her baby. Scarlett has to find Dr. Meade, and she goes to the rail yard seeking him. She is gingerly walking among hundreds of wounded men. They’re stretched out under a blazing sun, writhing in pain. She finally finds Dr. Meade, and she tells them that Melanie is having her baby and he has to come with her. He’s enraged and he says: “Are you crazy? I can’t leave these men for a baby. They’re dying – hundreds of them. Get some woman to help you.” 

Scarlett, at this point, has nobody to help her to deliver this baby. Then the camera pulls back, slowly showing a field of bodies under a broiling sun. The camera comes to rest on a tattered Confederate flag flapping in the breeze. It’s just so poignant. 

You’re also missing the garden scene that completes the first part of the film. Scarlett comes home and finds her father is addled by grief. Her mother has died. Tara is in ruins. The family is starving. She goes into the backyard garden to see if there’s anything for her to eat. She finds a radish and devours it. Her stomach recoils. She stands up and with a raised fist, says – I know these lines by heart: 

“As God is my witness…As God is my witness…They’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this, and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”

That ends Part One. When I first saw Gone With the Wind, at that point, I started putting my coat on, and Mom said, “There’s so much more to come.” 

You will also miss performances that garnered Gone With the Wind an unprecedented 13 Academy Award nominations in 12 categories. It earned a double nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category with Olivia de Havilland as Melanie and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy. The award for Best Supporting Actress went to McDaniel, the first African American to win an Academy Award. So look at the other long movies you’ve enjoyed through the years and give Gone With the Wind a try because of what you’ve been missing all this time.

There is recent controversy about the movie’s racial stereotypes. And the book had been called to be banned. How did you react to this? 

Pauline: That’s a great question. In June 2020, The New York Times published an article that provided background about the calls for banning Gone With the Wind. That controversy has continued. However, those calls to ban Gone With the Wind don’t affect my love for the movie or for the books that I’ve written. I acknowledge the racial stereotyping in Gone With the Wind. And I also understand that it presents a rosy view of the conditions under which slavery existed.

In handling the controversy, I agree with the position of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who published an op ed in The Hollywood Reporter in response to the calls for banning the film. He suggests that Gone With the Wind should not be banned because it’s presented within its historical context. And he suggests that the presentation of the movie should include some kind of an introductory explanation that states that the film’s racial stereotypes once were acceptable but are considered harmful today. So I like his approach. 

Here’s why the controversy hasn’t affected my love for this film: I harken to what Gone With the Wind has taught me every time I’ve seen the film. Whether it’s about love or home or survival, whatever it might be, I see a different lesson each time I view the film. There’s no reason Gone With the Wind can’t continue teaching those potent lessons today, as well as teaching other lessons around diversity and inclusion. So that’s why I don’t believe Gone With the Wind should be banned.

How did you come up with this day-by-day format of the book, and how long did it take you to put it together?

Pauline: The genesis of the book was back in 2014, the 75th anniversary of the film, when The Complete GONE WITH THE WIND Trivia Book, second edition, was published. To promote that book, I wrote a year-long series of blog posts that celebrated significant dates in the film’s history. For example, we always celebrate the announcement of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett on January 13, 1939. We note that the first director, George Cukor, was fired on February 12. Toward the end of the year, as I wrote a post that celebrated the December 15th Atlanta premiere, I wondered: What happened in Gone With the Wind world the next day? That sparked an idea: Wouldn’t it be fun to write a book that chronicled what was happening with Gone With the Wind every day of its 1939 production year?

I also realized that the 2023 calendar is a duplicate of the 1939 calendar. I thought it would be fun for fans – we call ourselves “Windies” – to have a daily snapshot of what was happening on and off the set that fans could follow on the exact day and date it occurred.  

So in Gone With the Wind: 1939 Day by Day, I share the birthdays of the cast and crew and other people associated with the film behind the scenes. I detailed the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of Gable, Leigh, de Havilland, Leslie Howard, producer David O. Selznick and others before, during and after principal filming. I also have a “Slap Happy Scarlett” sidebar, detailing the many times Scarlett is angry and slaps people, including Ashley, Prissy, Rhett and her sister Suellen. 

Have you done any traveling to the filming sites or to the Gone With the Wind Museums? 

Pauline: The one that I long to visit is the Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum at Historic Brumby Hall. I’ve done a virtual tour of it, and some of the collectibles that fans will see include Scarlett’s mourning bonnet, the one that she wears to the Atlanta Bazaar. She’s all in black in that scene because she’s been widowed. However, the bonnet she wears was meant to be worn on the street during the day, not worn inside at an evening party. Fans will get a kick out of knowing that this movie costuming decision was made for pictorial purposes, even though wearing a bonnet and veil at a social gathering was considered a social faux pas in the 1860s.

The dress Scarlett wears on the Shantytown Bridge is also at the museum. Six original costume sketches, including the sketch of the barbecue dress, are also on display.

Another must-see stop is the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where producer David O. Selznick and all of the stars stayed during the Atlanta premiere festivities. I visited the hotel in 1989 with my significant other. We were taken through the hotel, and the tour guide indicated the stairs that the stars used at that time. I was overjoyed to be holding onto a banister that Clark Gable might have touched. I like to believe that he did.

Then there’s the Atlanta Fulton County Public Library, which Margaret Mitchell used for checking facts when she was writing her novel. The library houses one of the largest collections of Margaret Mitchell’s personal effects. They include her library card, photographs, books, awards, and the Remington typewriter she used to write her novel. When I visited the library, that typewriter was enclosed in a plexiglass display case. I was just in awe standing in front of that typewriter and imagining Margaret Mitchell using it. Then there’s the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro that displays original film props, and costumes, a library of foreign editions of the novel, a photo gallery, plate and doll collection. That museum is another must-see for any Gone With the Wind fan.

How long did the book take you to write? 

It took me almost two years. We signed the contract in September 2019, and I had a due date of a
year, so I was going to deliver the manuscript in September 2020. What I didn’t count on was
COVID-19. I had plans to go to Texas to do research at the Selznick Archives at the University
of Texas at Austin. That avenue was cut off to me because everything was shut down during the
pandemic. I obtained an extension on the deadline, and I delivered the manuscript in April 2021.

When I hit that button, I thought: Thank heavens I’ve finished this book! So it was a
long, long project.

Is your Gone With the Wind Trivia Book still available?

Yes. The second edition of The Complete GONE WITH THE WIND Trivia Book is available at any brick-and-mortar bookstore or through any online bookseller. This revised edition shares the inside stories of the writing and publishing of the novel; the Hollywood frenzy of transforming the book into film; the Atlanta premiere; the Academy Awards; the post-GWTW lives of cast members; GWTW as an enduring phenomenon through the decades including the 75th anniversary of the film; and much, much more.

For more information on Pauline Bartel and her Gone With the Wind: 1939 Day by Day and The Complete GONE WITH THE WIND Trivia Book (2nd edition), visit https://paulinebartel.com.