The next day, Brown sends another message:
May 21, 1936 TO DOS FROM KB |
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John Hay (Jock) Whitney was Chairman of the Board of SIP. He was also president of his own independent production company, Pioneer Pictures, which specialized in making films in color, a relatively new and unproven process at that time. Whitney was a wealthy New York socialite who was attracted to the excitement and glamor of the motion picture business but his friendship with Selznick was close and genuine. His support of Selznick and of Gone With The Wind would later prove to be essential to the completion of the picture.
Selznick was also close friends with Merian Cooper whom he had met at RKO when Cooper was directing King Kong. Cooper was Vice President at SIP and was also associated with Pioneer.
Brown's job involved aquiring properties for Pioneer as well as for SIP.
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Brown again suggests Miriam Hopkins for the role of Scarlett. But now she adds Bette Davis to the list. Davis's forceful personality showed in the roles she was playing at Warners, notably in Of Human Bondage, 1934, Dangerous, which won her her first Oscar in 1935, and The Petrified Forest, 1936. She won her second Academy Award in 1938 for Jezebel, a Civil War story, which was released while Gone With The Wind was still in production. Selznick worried that Jezebel would damage Gone With The Wind's chances for success.
Ronald Colman was a firmly established and very popular leading man in 1936. His films included Arrowsmith, 1931, Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back, 1934, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, and Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities, 1935. Selznick also cast Colman in The Prisoner of Zenda in 1937.
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Clark Gable was MGM's top leading man. He had been a proven box office draw for several years, starring in such films as Red Dust and Strange Interlude 1932. In 1934, Louis B. Mayer, Selznick's father-in-law, loaned Gable to Columbia for It Happened One Night as a disciplinary action for Gable's complaining about being typecast. He reluctantly took the part then went on to win the Academy Award. Gable was also reluctant to take the part of Rhett in Gone With The Wind though it proved to be the most important role of his career. Other recent films were Mutiny on the Bounty,1935, San Francisco, 1936, and Saratoga, 1937.
Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category for her cumulative work in the masterpiece Sunrise,1927, Seventh Heaven also 1927, and Street Angel 1928. By 1934, her wholesome appeal made her Hollywood's top boxoffice draw. She starred in two Selznick films, A Star Is Born, 1937, and The Young in Heart, 1938, then suddenly retired from films.
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Franchot Tone was under contract to MGM at the time and was rising in popularity. He was nominated for Best Actor in Mutiny on the Bounty,1935, in which he starred with Clark Gable. He was also in Dangerous, with Bette Davis, and Lives of a Bengal Lancer in 1935.
Later that day, Thursday, May 21, Brown sends another message:
May 21,1936 TO SS FROM KB |
The "Sylvia" mentioned in the previous message and the "SS" to whom this message is directed is Sylvia Schulman, Selznick's secretary at the time. She would later play an important role in this process as she carried Brown's frantic messages to Selznick who was busy on the set of his film The Garden of Allah. Schulman later married Ring Lardner, Jr., a writer at SIP who worked on another Selznick picture, A Star is Born.
Selznick replies the next day, Friday, May 22, 1936:
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May 22, 1936 TO KB FROM DOS |
Brown's reply:
MAY 22, 1936 TO DOS FROM KB |
The teletype operator here is Lydia Schiller who was secretary to William H. Wright, Selznick's production assistant. She would later be pressed into service keeping track of continuity during the filming of the "Burning of Atlanta" scene.
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| Film Collection |
Exhibit design by Steve L. Wilson
Learn how you can save the Green Curtain Dress and other costumes from Gone With The Wind.
