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      Premiere

      The inaugural showing of Gone With the Wind was the biggest event in Atlanta since Sherman burned down the city.

      BY JOHN WILEY, JR.

      In March 1937, eight months after David O. Selznick purchased the movie rights to Gone With the Wind — and almost two years before filming began — Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield wrote to the producer, encouraging him to hold the premiere in Atlanta and to bring cast members along for the unveiling. Hartsfield said he had the backing of a large number of local leaders and businessmen and promised the city’s full cooperation to make the event “of nationwide importance.” He also noted it was the city’s intention to invite “leading citizens from all over the country ... and to give to it a vast amount of publicity, far more than the ordinary Premiere, on account of the great interest of Atlanta therein and the historical sentiment involved.”

      Atlanta was, after all, author Margaret Mitchell’s hometown, and the entire story was set in and around the city. Local residents felt certain that the movie ought to premiere in the Gate City of the South.

      WINNING THE PREMIERE

      Over the next two years, as the search for Scarlett kept movie fans stirred up, Atlantans never lost sight of their goal. Filming on Gone With the Wind finally got under way in January 1939, and the interest in holding the first showing only increased. Thousands of her fellow Atlantans wrote and called Mitchell, certain she was their inside track to getting the premiere to Atlanta. The author patiently reminded them that she had no connection with the movie, and that Selznick, who had just begun to make the film, had not yet officially committed to an Atlanta opening. But that didn’t stop several civic groups from going ahead with their plans for a citywide extravaganza. The Atlanta Junior League discussed holding a costume ball, and the Atlanta Women’s Press Club wanted to host a party for the author and any visiting celebrities.

      The bulk of filming on Gone With the Wind was completed by the end of June. The following month, a rumor swept the city that Selznick had decided to open the film in New York. Atlantans were outraged. Fuming Junior Leaguers — “a pack of well dressed Eumenides,” as Mitchell described them — stormed the mayor’s office, demanding that he do something. “They can’t do that to Atlanta,” he declared to the press. “We’ve been expecting the premiere. We’re making plans for it. Atlanta is the logical place. ... In a large sense, the entire story belongs to all of us.”

      Hartsfield, true to his word, sprang to the ramparts in full battle gear. He wired Selznick, warning that if the premiere were not held in Atlanta: “DISAPPOINTMENT WOULD BE KEENLY FELT AND THIS PICTURE ABOUT WHICH ALL ATLANTA AND THE SOUTH IS INTERESTED WOULD THEN BE JUST ANOTHER WEEK’S ENTERTAINMENT.”

      That night, the city council passed a resolution asking the studio to make a public announcement to put the rumors to rest. The mayor also urged “every civic-minded person” to write or telegram Selznick and MGM “and let them know we really are anxious to have this premiere and that we will be extremely distressed if it goes anywhere else.”

      The producer, who knew the South’s approval was vital to the film’s success, moved quickly to squelch the unrest. He fired off a telegram declaring that the mayor’s worries were unfounded, and followed up with a letter in which he noted that neither he nor Loew’s, which was distributing the film, “have ever given any thought to opening in any place but Atlanta.” It is “not merely our intention but our earnest desire” that the film be launched there, he added.