Well I'm back from seeing Gone with the Wind in just about the best way imaginable:
in Atlanta, in the Fox Theater and in the company of almost 5,000 die-hard fans (the
majority of whom were, of course, southerners
).After 70 years, Scarlett is still the cutest little trick in shoe leather.
The Fox Theater really lives up to the name "movie palace" and we were treated
to a little taste of what seeing a movie like GWTW must have been like back in the
day. The theater was built to mimic an Egyptian palace, complete with all the trimmings
including a ceiling that really does look like the deep, velvety night sky over Cairo filled
with twinkling stars and floating gossamer clouds. Being designed for live performances
as well as film showings, there is a real proscinium stage and a full size orchestra pit. I
got a sneak peak back stage and I swear it gave me chills---the smell of the old wood,
seeing the curtain pulls and the ropes hanging and then a spot light---I almost felt
like Ginger Rogers for a whole minute!
The theater also boasts a beautiful, custom made and ornately gilded Moller organ they
affectionately dubbed "Mighty Mo" and before the movie started, it rose from the orchestra
pit and was played by Larry Douglas Embury who is their organist "in residence". It was a
lot of fun and all very theatrical, even the audience members go in the act: there were three
couples dressed in Southern attire of the period. They were seated in the row just in front
of mine so I got a close look at the costumes and they looked very authentic, right
down to the ear-bobs and shoe buttons.
Then, Robert Osborne came on stage where he was joined by authors Molly Haskell
(Frankly My Dear) and Michael Sragow (Victor Fleming: An American
Master) and they proceeded to answer previously submitted audience questions
about the epic. Robert Osborne finished up by relating a telephone conversation
he had just shared with Olivia de Havilland, who asked he extend her pleasure
at knowing the movie still attracted so much love and attention (and box office), which she
added was a testament to the talents of Margaret Mitchell and David O. Selznick.
As you can imgine, that went down very well with us in the audience!
Still, as fun as the preliminaries were, you just can't compare them to the goose
pimples I think many of us felt as that ornately embroidered curtain was raised in
state to the opening bells tolling their fanfare to the Selznick logo. It sparked the first of
MANY bursts of applause and cheers. (To say Atlanta is receptive to this movie
after 70 years is an understatement of almost offensive proportions.) I thought
NYC was vocal and excited at the screening I saw recently, but after all, this
was HOME for Scarlett and Rhett.
I've never seen this film on such an enormous screen, and together with the
unique acoustics of such a theater it made for a heady experience I'll never
forget. People were taking photos of the movie screen during certain scenes,
which was a little excessive, ha! I think one of the biggest rounds of
applause came for the scene when Scarlett shoots the Yankee! It
was Atlanta, after all.
Outside the theater there were parked two cars: a beautiful creme colored
sedan and a navy blue roadster, both circa 1939 and which were
in the Atlanta motorcade for the movie premiere (the cream one
charioted Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, as well as one of the last living
Confederate veterans). Those were pretty cool. I almost expected
to see Norma Desmond step right out of one of them.
All in all, it was a glorious way to personally cap off one of
the most exciting and meaningful of weeks, and for which I'm
extremely grateful to have participated.
P.S. Here is a link to the website for the theater, which tells a little
about its history and has a few pictures. This was not the
theater that hosted the premiere for Gone with the Wind. That
was the Loews Grand (pictured below), which sadly was torn down.
The Fox nearly suffered the same fate.
http://www.foxtheatre.org/history.htm
