Happy 75th Anniversary, Gone With The Wind!

Gone With The Wind premiered seventy-five years ago, today, on December 15th, 1939, in Atlanta, Georgia. This premiere event was followed by two more: one in New York City and another one in Hollywood.

Ann Rutherford was the first star to arrive in Atlanta for the three day premiere. Ann played Carreen O'Hara, Scarlett's youngest sister. Among the other arrivals were: Evelyn Keyes, who played Suellen; Alicia Rhett, whose character was India Wilkes; Laura Hope Crewes as Aunt Pittypat; and Ona Munson, who played Belle Watling.

Olivia de Havilland and Vivien Leigh arrive in Atlanta

David O. Selznick, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier arrived on the same flight in Atlanta on December 13th. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard arrived the following day on December 14th.

Olivia de Havilland, David Selznick, Vivien Leigh and Irene Selznick

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

Some of the activities scheduled for the stars to participate in were a parade, the Junior League ball, a press party at the Georgian Terrace Hotel and of course, the premiere.

The press party was held at the Georgian Terrace Hotel in Atlanta. The hotel would also play host to the cast of Gone With The Wind, while they were in town, with the exception of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Vivien and Olivier stayed at a private residence, since they were both still married to other people at this time. Selznick didn't want the gossip mills to start grinding over the couple's lifestyle and adversely affect Gone With The Wind's potential ticket sales and earnings.


Ona Munson, the film's Belle Watling, poses with Wilbur Kurtz, Sr. Kurtz was a historian and technical advisor hired to work on Gone With The Wind by Selznick.

At a tea, held by the Atlanta Women's Press Club, Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, David O. Selznick and Olivia de Havilland pose with author, Margaret Mitchell (center), whom they were meeting for the first time in person.

Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and Olivia de Havilland are pictured with the city parks manager, George Simmons. George took them on a tour of the Cyclorama, which is a 400 ft long, 18,000 pound painting of the battle of Atlanta.

In the car, with Vivien Leigh, are Governor Ed Rivers of Georgia, David O. Selznick- the producer of GWTW, and Jock Whitney- financial backer of GWTW.

David Selznick stands behind Vivien, as Laurence Olivier helps her from the car, as they arrive for the Junior League Ball. Willard George designed Vivien's fur cape, made from ermine and their black tails.

Vivien's dress, for the Junior League Ball, was specifically designed by Walter Plunkett for this event. Her black evening gown was made from lyons velvet, a stiff and thick velvet fabric fashionable at the time of the premiere. The dress featured a fitted bodice, trimmed in white ermine, and sleeves capped off by ermine and ermine tails. From Vivien's waist, the dress flared out into a wide, full skirt. Paul Flato designed Vivien's jewelry for the evening, which featured a diamond butterfly clip for her hair, a diamond & ruby bracelet and a diamond bow ring.

Ann Rutherford says a few words before the premiere. Before Gone With The Wind, Ann was best known as Polly, from the Andy Hardy movies.


Alicia Rhett, who played India Wilkes in the film, attends the premiere. Alicia was discovered in Selznick's famous Search for Scarlett.  

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard attend the movie premiere of Gone With The Wind. Carole wore a medieval cape of blush satin with a train.

This is Margaret Mitchell's night and Atlanta's night, Clark said. I want to see the picture just as you see it. Please Atlanta, allow me to see "Gone With The Wind" tonight just as a spectator.

Vivien Leigh posed for these two publicity shots, showing off her movie premiere gown. Her gorgeous gown was designed by Walter Plunkett, the costume designer for the movie.

The gown is of gold lame, draped in Oriental fashion, with harem hem line and draped girdle accenting the small waist. Girdle and the short sleeves are quilted in rose pattern and studded with gold sequins. Worn with the gown is jewelry of topaz and diamonds set in gold. Necklace and bracelet are of acorn and leaf design. (from GWTW: The Three Day Premiere in Atlanta, by Herb Bridges)

Needless to say, the premiere of Gone With The Wind was wildly successful. The biggest downside to the premiere was the fact that Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly Mcqueen, Oscar Polk and Everett Brown were not allowed to attend due to segregation laws in effect at that time.

Gone With The Wind premiered at the Loew's Grand theater in downtown Atlanta. The theater boasted a false front made to look like Tara, Scarlett's antebellum home. Kleig lights and magnolia tress surrounded the columned front. Tickets to the premiere were $10 each with some ticket scalpers netting up to $200 for each ticket.

For, by any and all standards, Mr. Selznick's film is a handsome, scrupulous and unstinting version of the 1,037-page novel, matching it almost scene for scene with a literalness that not even Shakespeare or Dickens were accorded in Hollywood, casting it so brilliantly one would have to know the history of the production not to suspect that Miss Mitchell had written her story just to provide a vehicle for the stars already assembled under Mr. Selznick's hospitable roof. To have treated so long a book with such astonishing fidelity required courage—the courage of a producer's convictions and of his pocketbook, and yet, so great a hold has Miss Mitchell on her public, it might have taken more courage still to have changed a line or scene of it. -NYT

 Happy Anniversay, GWTW!

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Fashion Friday: The GWTW premiere in Atlanta

The Vintage Bride: Jill Esmond

On July 25th, 1930, Jill Esmond officially became the first Mrs. Laurence Olivier. Jill, a British actress, was 22 years old and her bridgegroom, Larry, was 23. Jill Esmond came from acting royalty. Her mother was the famous stage actress and suffragette, Eva Moore. Her father was the actor, playwright and manager, Henry V. Esmond. Together, Eva and Henry were the royal couple of the British stage.

The bride's parents, Eva Moore and Henry Esmond

Jill and Larry first met in 1928 when they co-starred in the play, Bird in Hand: Olivier played a squire's son and Jill played an innkeeper's daughter, his romantic counterpart. In 1929, the couple found themselves separated by an ocean. Jill had traveled to New York City with the play, Bird in Hand, while Olivier remained in London.

After being separated for a few months, Olivier was given the opportunity of starring in a play called Murder On The Second Floor, to be produced in New York City. Olivier recalled,  I managed to find a chance to play in New York and I jumped at it. The show- Murder On The Second Floor- only lasted five weeks. But I got to see Jill.  Once reunited in NYC, the couple decided to select Jill's engagement ring together and purchased the ring from Tiffany's.

In 1932, Silver Screen magazine ran a super sweet article on Jill and Larry (whom they referred to as Lorry). They included the following details on the Oliviers' wedding, which is basically one of the fluffiest things I've ever read. Here's the excerpt:

On or about July 11, 1930, A.D., Jill and Lorry were sitting on a river bank at the country estate of some friends. There were birds in the trees. The grass was green. The river whispered lazily by them. The sun was at its zenith and all was tranquil. Lorry suddenly turned to Jill.

"All this gadding about," said he, "is silly. We've got to be married."

"That's a noble idea," replied Jill. "When?"

Lorry counted the days on his fingers. There was work in the offing, and it looked as if their honeymoon would be molested by the fall openings.

"Say two weeks," said Lorry.

"Two weeks," said Jill.

They were married on July 25 and there were TWO bishops on hand- the wedding was very fashionable- and the guests were notable. Followed the honeymoon.

"No more being separated," said Lorry.

"Right'o," said Jill

And two very brave young people, both in a profession which is legendary for keeping people apart, made a pledge. 

Jill and Larry were married at All Saints, located on Margaret Street in London. The ceremony was officiated by Bishop Perrin. Jill's brother, Jack Esmond, drove her to the church, but it was her mother, Eva Moore, who walked her down the aisle. Jill's father had sadly passed away in 1922.

Jill's floor-length wedding gown was made from parchment satin and featured an embroidered sweetheart neckline with side ruching and long, fitted sleeves. Her tulle veil flowed from her art deco headdress, made in part from cream-colored pearls. For Jill's formal wedding portrait (above), she's photographed with a small bouquet of lilies secured with ribbon. For the actual wedding, she carried a larger bouquet of what appears to be daisies accented with fern leaves and wrapped in tulle.

Laurence Olivier rented his morning suit for the wedding, which featured striped pants, a dark colored jacket with a lighter shade for the vest. ...He looked a complete Charley in hired morning clothes: sleeves too short and trousers failing to hide his actor's love of costume: white spats [black and white shoes]. A button hole marched with a pointed pocket handkerchief- gaudy but not neat. He was the proudest of grooms, his brow nobly plucked by Jill, and his Ronald Colman moustache his hour consuming pride, and the bride he had first proposed to almost two years before was his for ever. -Tarquin Olivier on his parents' wedding, from My Father Laurence Olivier

Eileen Clark had the distinction of being maid of honor. She and the little girl, who attended to Jill's train, both wore short-sleeved dresses, leaf green in color, with matching necklaces. The best man was Denys Blakelock.

Newspaper clipping

The happy couple greeting guests at their reception

After the ceremony, the reception was held in the garden at Eva Moore's home at Whitehead's Grove. The couple were to honeymoon at the house of a friend of Eva's at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, right on the sea.

Larry and Jill had only one son together, Tarquin, born in August, 1936. The Oliviers' marriage came to an end, in 1937, when Larry left Jill and moved into Durham Cottage, in London, with Vivien Leigh. The couple later divorced, in 1940. This was Jill's only marriage, but the first of three for Olivier.

The Vintage Bride: Suzanne Holman Farrington

Wedding bells rang for Suzanne Holman, the only child of Vivien Leigh and her first husband, Leigh Holman, on Friday, December 6th, 1957. The lucky groom was Robin Farrington, a 29 year old insurance executive.

The couple, reunited after Suzanne's vacation with her parents, discuss engagement rings.

Robin, on meeting Vivien Leigh for the first time, said,  "I was very nervous, and as she came into the drawing room I walked forward to shake her hand. Unfortunately, the cat inserted itself onto my toe and I have never done such a good rugger conversion. The cat flew across the room. It was a very bad beginning."


Suzanne and Robin's wedding invitation. Photo courtesy of Kendra Bean at VivandLarry.com

Hundreds of wedding invitations were sent out to family, friends and colleagues. The invites read:
Mr. Leigh Holman and Lady Olivier request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their daughter Suzanne Mary Holman to Mr. Robin Neville Farrington, at Holy Trinity, Brompton, on Friday, December 6th at 3pm and afterward at [the Hyde Park Hotel for the reception].

Recipients were asked to RSVP to Lady Olivier at her Lowndes Cottage, in London.


Suzanne arrives at Holy Trinity

The wedding took place at Holy Trinity, Brompton, in London. Suzanne arrived with her father, Mr. Leigh Holman, while Vivien arrived separately with Sir Laurence Olivier.

The bride wore a long-sleeved, chapel train wedding gown, with a slight V-neck. The dress featured bows on both the right and left sides. Her short, curly hair was topped with a small circular crown, trimmed in white flowers, with a long veil attached. Suzanne's father walked her down the aisle as approximately five hundred wedding guests looked on; the bride's face covered by her veil.

Mr. and Mrs. Robin Farrington

Suzanne carried a cascading bouquet and what appears to be a small bible during the ceremony.

The Happy Bride

After the wedding, guests were invited to attend the reception at the Hyde Park Hotel. Since this was an afternoon wedding, only champagne was served at the reception, and of course, wedding cake.

Vivien Leigh with her first husband, Leigh Holman

Vivien wore a leopard-pattern coat, topped with a fur scarf. The pattern had been hand-painted onto the silk coat. One newspaper said that Vivien's outfit put all the mink coats and smart costumes in the shade. The gentlemen were dressed in morning suits with striped pants, light colored vests and dark jackets.

First couple unknown (probably relatives of the Holmans or Farringtons), Leigh Holman, Vivien Leigh, Gertrude and Ernest Hartley and partial side view of Laurence Olivier

The newspaper reporters made quite a fuss over the fact that Sir Laurence attended. At the reception, Olivier stayed in the background and was quoted as saying, "I'm staying out of the limelight on this occasion. This is Suzanne's day. She and her mother and her father are what you might call 'on-stage.' I'm just taking it quietly in the wings."

Suzanne and Vivien at the wedding reception

Suzanne was quite happy that Sir Larry attended, "I'm so glad that both my father and stepfather came. I don't find it at all unusual, just very good fun."

Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh

Suzanne and Robin enjoyed a long union and remained married until Robin's death in June, 2002, leaving Suzanne a widow. Together, they raised three sons and were grandparents several times over.



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The Vintage Bride: Vivien Leigh, Part Two

When Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier first met, they were both married to other people: Vivien had married Leigh Holman, a barrister, in 1932 and Olivier had married Jill Esmond, an actress, in 1930. After carrying on an affair for some time, Vivien and Larry finally decided to leave their respective spouses and move in together, in 1937. However, they weren't able to obtain divorces from Leigh Holman and Jill Esmond for another three years.

Marriage rumours started following the couple around as early as September, 1939. Photoplay jumped on the wedding train, too, with this imaginative drawing of what Vivien Leigh should wear for the ceremony. They called it a navy blue with pink accents, dinner costume of faille taffeta that will be a stunning addition to any trousseau after the ceremony. 

"I feel that when a man loves a woman and vice-versa, there isn't much sense in keeping it quiet," Vivien Leigh said in a newspaper interview. In January, while Vivien was vacationing at Lake Arrowhead, the divorce proceedings finally began.

Vivien's mother, Gertrude Hartley, weighed in on the future Oliviers, "After the divorces, they will be happy as larks. They adore each other. After all, that's all that anyone can demand from life."  Olivier and Leigh's respective divorces became absolute later that year in August.

"To us it is apparent that we are planning to marry fairly soon," said Olivier.

Now that they were officially divorced, they could, at last, become Mr. and Mrs. Olivier. Vivien and Larry decided to keep their upcoming marriage, and all of its details, a secret. The only people who knew in advance were Ronald Colman and his wife, Benita Hume. Benita even went to her jeweller and purchased Vivien's wedding ring, as a ring for herself, so as to not arouse suspicion for the happy couple. Garson Kanin was then drafted as best man and Katharine Hepburn as maid of honor.

On Thursday night, August 29, Vivien, Larry, Garson Kanin and Katharine Hepburn drove to Santa Barbara. The ceremony was held at the San Ysidro resort ranch belonging to Ronald Colman and/or Mr. and Mrs. Al Weingand (I've never looked into the ownership of the ranch, so depending on which newspaper article or biography you read, the owner somewhat varies).

As soon as Thursday became Friday, at 12:01 am on August 30, 1940, the couple were married by Judge Fred Harsh. They exchanged wedding vows outside, in the garden, facing east toward England.

"Larry and I sat talking about whether or not we really should get married and then we arrived and stood outside in the open air facing England and it was one minute past midnight and we were married. The service was cut so short by the judge that all we did was to say the 'I do's,'  I wanted to say 'I love, honour and obey' and I kept complaining that the judge was cutting my best lines but all he said was 'I now pronounce you man and wife. Bingo!’" -Vivien Leigh

Apparently, Olivier had told Judge Harsh that they wanted a very short ceremony. "Okay. I'll give you the shortest ceremony you ever saw," the Judge reportedly replied.

According to Katharine Hepburn's biographer, Christopher Andersen (An Affair to Remember), the ceremony itself lasted for only three minutes. "The justice of the peace, by now thoroughly sloshed, kept calling Vivien 'Lay' and the groom 'Oliver.'" 

Strangely enough, though they'd been part of the wedding planning, the Colmans didn't attend the nuptials. Instead, they went out on their yacht and waited for the newly married Oliviers to join them. The happy couple didn't arrive until after 3:00 am and then celebrated with a small white cake and champagne. Vivien and Larry spent their honeymoon on the Colmans' yacht before returning to Hollywood.

One reason, that Vivien and Larry snuck away from Hollywood for their wedding, was to avoid the hoopla they thought the press would bring to the ceremony. However, they did such a great job of hiding their elopement, they began to fear that no one would discover their secret.

In 1960, Ronald Colman recalled the events of that weekend. He reported that the newlyweds were slightly anxious that their nuptials had yet to be reported on the radio.

“By 9 o’clock (in the evening on August 31st) we might have been described as definitely fidgety. After all, there’s not much point in having a secret the other fellow doesn’t want to know.

‘We certainly pulled it off, didn’t we?’ I said.

‘We certainly did,’ said Larry gloomily, downing some apple pie.

“At 10 o’clock, thank goodness, the story broke and thinly disguised relief was plain on every face.

‘Too bad,’ said Larry heartily.

‘Too good to last,’ sighed Vivien, with an incandescent smile.

‘Well, that’s the way it goes,’ remarked Benita wittily. After that, we had a very happy ending.”

The Oliviers had nothing to worry about as word of their nuptials had been reported earlier in the day in the newspapers. By the time the couple returned to Hollywood, they had made headlines around the world and were greeted with a press conference, from which these pictures originate. The caption on the above picture reads: Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh having won freedom from former mates say it with smiles as Mr. and Mrs. O. Honeymoon is now over.

Read about Vivien's wedding to Leigh Holman here.
Read about Olivier's wedding to Jill Esmond here.

Next Sunday's vintage bride will be Vivien's daughter, Suzanne Holman Farrington.


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On Top of the World

Vintage Article from April 1940

(Author's name not given)

During those long months when "Gone with the Wind" was in production, the film colony never got to know Vivien Leigh. She led the life of a recluse. Then she conquered the screen as Scarlett O'Hara; and became free to make a second conquest of Hollywood.

I watched Vivien enter the Trocadero with a dinner party this week- and heard the gasp go round the room. For her beauty is lit by a brilliant vitality that puts all your blonde beauties in the shade.

Vivien trailing her scarlet chiffons, with sprigs of white lilac tucked into that black upswept hair, and her slanting green eyes glittering against her magnolia-white skin puts a new emphasis upon glamour.

Today she radiates success- in her shining eyes and glowing smile. Small wonder that she bewitches the hardest people in the world. For she is the heroine of romance-- romance in her film triumph: romance in her colorful private life.

Now that "Gone with the Wind" is released, the story of Vivien's initial discouragement can be told. She created Scarlett O'Hara in an atmosphere of exacting work, work and then more work. Energetic and impatient, she was at the studio at 7 o'clock every day and drove herself home to her modest apartment every evening. Producer David O. Selznick and director Victor Fleming were marvellous to her, she says, but she was thoroughly homesick.

The demands of her work may have a good deal to do with this- she had no chance to visit old friends or make new ones: no chance to enjoy the many pastimes to be found in or near the film town.

Occasionally she dined with Ronald Colman and his wife (Benita Hume). Her sole recreation was swimming at the George Cukor home on Sunday afternoons; she was most upset when Cukor, who had directed the opening scenes of "Gone with the Wind," was replaced by Fleming. She takes every opportunity of stressing the debt that Scarlett owes to Mr. Cukor.

On the set she lunched in her dressing-room - rarely having a guest. And constantly there was the pressure of outside opinion- the doubts and criticisms of the people who had waited three years already to see "Gone with the Wind"-and who wondered if she could make it.

It was a tremendous responsibility- carrying- largely on her shoulders the burden of success- or failure. Money problems are not supposed to worry stars. But Vivien, shrewd, intelligent, knew that a fortune- a fortune of a million pounds sterling- was sunk into the picture.

Her private life was complicated by her love for Laurence Olivier -the English star whom she had followed to Hollywood to see. If Vivien had never made that romantic visit- she would not have become Scarlett O'Hara. But she left her home, and her small daughter, Suzanne, in London. Vivien's husband, Leigh Holman from whom she was separated, was still her husband. Olivier's wife, Jill Esmond, was in London too.

Then both tremendous problems were resolved. "Gone with the Wind," as I have already told you, is the biggest success in screen history. And two divorce suits begun in London have left the way open for marriage between Vivien and Laurence Olivier.

Now Vivien is embarked upon her MGM drama, "Waterloo Bridge." Laurence is in the same studio, making "Pride and Prejudice” with Greer Garson.

Success as Scarlett; happiness as Vivien Leigh: the English star is now on top of the world.

 

A Tribute to Larry: May 22, 1907 - July 11, 1989

Today is the 25th anniversary of the passing of Sir Laurence Olivier. Many have called him the world's greatest actor. Indeed, he mesmerized theatregoers and movie audiences alike, for six decades with his stellar performances.

Whether on stage or in a movie, from breaking the rules on Romeo and Juliet, from capturing every woman's imagination as Heathcliff, to his Academy Award winning Hamlet, to alternating nights between Shaw and Shakespeare, Caesar and Antony, Laurence Olivier gave himself fully to each role and inhabited those characters he played. 

Peggy Ashcroft and Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet

"Larry's Romeo was denigrated by every critic but one- St John Ervine- was proof of their blindness to the challenging and original road he was taking, and was to make his own, in the classics. Happy Days indeed!" --Peggy Ashcroft

Wuthering Heights

"But an actor was there, an actor one had never seen on the screen before. The embers took fire; light blazed; with delighted astonishment one saw a new Olivier. The role of Heathcliff might have been made for him." --Dilys Powell


Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice

"Good looks are not sufficient, or even great talent. Laurence Olivier has both. Tall, dark, and handsome, he is a splendid actor. But, in addition, that certain magic spark in a player's personality must have the power to bring out all the sweet yearnings of an adolescent and to make older women behave in a very silly fashion." --John Davies


While in costume for Hamlet, Olivier receives his Oscar for Henry V from fellow actor Ray Milland

"He was a brilliant runner of theatres, a brilliant man of the theatre, a brilliant impresario, a very great film director, and remains the greatest actor of his generation." --Peter Hall

Olivier with his second wife, Vivien Leigh; photo by Angus McBean

"I believe Laurence Olivier to be the greatest actor of our time."

"To have seen her [Vivien] and Larry together in their prime was to have glimpsed a kind of divinity." --Noel Coward (1974, 1967)

Olivier and Vivien Leigh as the title characters in
 Antony and Cleopatra

"There are at least three qualities which explain the Olivier phenomenon. The first, of course, is sheer talent. The next quality is sheer animal magnetism. Third, I suppose, is ambition. No question but that Larry has had colossal ambition." --Anthony Quayle

As Archie Rice in The Entertainer

"No man has graced his profession better than Larry Olivier has graced ours. He represents the ultimate in acting. He's the actor's most admired actor." -- Cary Grant 

"In an interview with the Daily Telegraph Magazine, Joan Plowright recalled one night when Ingmar Bergman and Olivier 'talked about both having ministers for fathers and what effect that had on them. A certain amount of guilt complex. And maybe this compulsive need to work. An ingrained need to work. An ingrained sense of service.'" --from Olivier by Logan Gourlay

Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman

"It is difficult for me to believe that he is gone- what a rich legacy he leaves behind- not only of his brilliant talents and extraordinary range of achievement, but the memory of his own vital, courageous personality, his determination and power as performer, manager, director and defier of lightning, the originality of his approach to every new and challenging venture, his physical bravery, not only on the stage but in the valiant way in which he faced his few failures and defeats, and above all his refusal to give up when he became so ill." --John Gielgud

Larry was married three times during his lifetime, all actresses: Jill Esmond (1930 to 1940), Vivien Leigh (1940 to 1960) and Joan Plowright (1961 to 1989 (his death)). He fathered four children, sadly none with Vivien, though she did suffer two miscarriages during their marriage. Olivier won multiple awards for his acting and directing, including two special Oscars.

In Hollywood, he has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In London, there is a life sized statue of Olivier outside the Royal National Theatre and a commemorative stone for him at Westminster Abbey. Additionally, the Laurence Olivier Awards for acting are given out annually in his name.