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Community Corner

Get Swept Away with GWTW's 75th Anniversary

The Margaret Mitchell House will be the locale of Saturday's celebration—plus another huge celebration is planned for June 10 and 11 at the GWTW museum in Marietta.

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A knee injury forced Margaret Mitchell to give up her career as a writer with The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine. Instead, she wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gone With the Wind, celebrating its 75th year of publication this year.

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An Atlanta native who was born on Peachtree Street, Mitchell wrote her novel in her Peachtree Street basement apartment—now owned by the Atlanta History Center and open for tours. Also on Peachtree Street, she presented her manuscript to an official with Macmillan Publishing at the Georgian Terrace Hotel, celebrating its 100th birthday this year.

Saturday's Gone With the Wind Celebration: 75th Anniversary
10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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Among the events at the Margaret Mitchell House this Saturday will be:

• Guided tours of apartment no. 1 where Mitchell lived when she wrote Gone With the Wind.

• A discussion by local historian Tommy Jones about the restoration of the Margaret Mitchell House and Mitchell’s local influences on Gone With the Wind.

• A discussion by Dr. Matthew Bernstein, Emory University professor of Film and Media Studies, about depictions of slavery in GWTW and the book’s legacy in cinema and segregation in the South. 

• Interaction with living history interpreters representing Civil War soldiers in the heart of Atlanta.

• A performance by Cathy Kaemmerlen as Margaret "Peggy" Mitchell when she was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal.

• Dance clinics teaching the Virginia Reel, Charleston and other popular dances from both the Civil War and Margaret Mitchell’s era.

• Gone With the Wind trivia.

• Betty Ann Wiley presenting the popular word game known as Spoonerism.

• Musical performances by The Musselwhite Family Bluegrass Band.

• Children's activities.

• Photo opportunities.

This program is included with the price of general admission. Members will be admitted free. Purchase tickets or call 404-814-4000 for more information.  

June 4 - September 5

Atlanta's Book: The Lost Gone With the Wind Manuscript

A rare piece of Margaret Mitchell's manuscript, once thought to be destroyed, will find its way back to Atlanta. The Atlanta History Center is one of only two venues to display chapters of the original Gone With the Wind manuscript. On loan from the Pequot Library in Southport Connecticut, these pages are “considered a precious literary artifact,” according to Chris Coover, head of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s.

Atlanta’s Book: The Lost Gone With the Wind Manuscript will feature the last four chapters of the book with the individual sheets of chapter 63, the final chapter, mounted on the wall for visitors to view and read. Some of the pages feature handwritten changes by Mitchell and her husband John Marsh.

The manuscript was given to the Pequot Library in the 1950s by George P. Brett Jr., president of the library's Board of Trustees at the time who served as chairman of the American division of Macmillan Publishing and secured publishing rights to Gone With the Wind. The display also will feature foreign and first-edition copies of Gone With the Wind, the desk used by Margaret Mitchell while writing her novel and select images.

For a complete Gone With the Wind experience, guests can save 20 percent when purchasing dual tickets to the Atlanta History Center and Margaret Mitchell House, birthplace of Gone With the Wind. Atlanta’s Book: The Lost Gone With the Wind Manuscript, Turning Point: The American Civil War and War in Our Backyards: Discovering Atlanta, 1861-1865 are all included with Atlanta History Center general admission.

June 9-12

Margaret Mitchell House visitors will receive two-for-one admission to tour the museum and explore her basement apartment where she wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

 

Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square  

June 10-11 

Scarlett is still swooning in Marietta through the Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square. 

Owned by the city of Marietta, this museum, promoting the novel and 1939 movie "Gone With the Wind," opened in April 2003 near the city's downtown square in the Old Thomas Warehouse building that was built around 1880. Adjacent to the railroad tracks, the museum is one block from the historic Marietta Square on Whitlock Avenue.

GWTW cast members Ann Rutherford, Mickey Kuhn, and Patrick Curtis will return to Scarlett and Rhett country on June 10-11 when the museum hosts "A Tribute to Margaret Mitchell: The Book That Touched The World." This two-day event will celebrate the book’s 75th birthday in style with interviews, Q&A sessions, autograph signings with the celebrities, an author’s panel discussion, breakfast with the stars, dinner and a program and more. 

Supporting partner Georgia Public Broadcasting has plans to release the long-awaited documentary about Margaret Mitchell on June 30 on GPB (Channel 8) at 8 p.m. Many of the scenes were filmed in and around Marietta and feature a few familiar faces from the immediate area. 

With limited seating, the Tribute package may be booked by calling the museum at 770-794-5145 or emailing the museum's director Connie Sutherland at csutherland@mariettaga.gov. This Tribute package includes: 

  • An in-depth interview ("The Golden Age of Hollywood") with Ann Rutherford ("Carreen O’Hara" in GWTW);
  • a talk-fest ("Here’s Looking at You, Kid") with Mickey Kuhn ("Young Beau Wilkes" in GWTW), Patrick Curtis ("Baby Beau" in GWTW), Karolyn Grimes ("Zuzu" in "It’s A Wonderful Life") and Morgan Brittany ("Baby June" in "Gypsy");
  • a panel discussion with authors Anne Edwards (Road to Tara, The Life of Margaret Mitchell), Susan Lindsley (Susan Myrick of Gone With the Wind, An Autobiographical Biography), Marianne Walker (Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh, The Love Story Behind GWTW) and John Wiley (Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood);
  • dinner with all the celebrities at Hamilton’s at the Hilton in Marietta;
  • after dinner, fortunate fans will be selected randomly to act out scenes with the actual stars from various movies;
  • also after dinner, an interview by Chris Sullivan, owner of the museum's collection, with Anne Edwards about her interesting life and first-hand accounts of Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland and other major Hollywood stars about whom she has written biographies; 
  • an autograph signing, a fan swap-meet and museum tours.

Renowned artist Joseph Yakovetic will render a "live" Gone With the Wind painting to be auctioned on the final day of the event.  

An extensive collection of memorabilia of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Academy Award-winning movie has been provided in the museum by Dr. Christopher Sullivan. Among the highlights are the:

  • Original Bengaline honeymoon gown worn by Vivien Leigh in her Oscar-winning portrayal of "Scarlett O'Hara";
  • several of "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell's personal volumes of the novel;
  • an educational display dedicated to the African-American cast members;
  • foreign editions of the novel;
  • rare press and publicity books, costume pieces and contracts; and
  • the personal script of Ona Munson, "Belle Watling" in the film.

Promotional pieces include foreign film posters, premiere programs, conceptual artworks and advertisements. 

Another grand event was held on Nov. 13 and 14, 2009, when the museum hosted "70 Years of Gone With the Wind: A Re-Premiere." Sadly, a remembrance service took place at the museum in the fall of 2010 to commemorate Cammie King Conlon (Aug. 5, 1934-Sept. 1, 2010). She portrayed "Bonnie Blue Butler," Rhett and Scarlett's daughter, in the movie.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays; closed on Sundays.

Admission: $7, adults; $6, seniors; students, $5 for groups of 15 or more; and $4 for student groups of 15 or more.

Free public parking is available across the train tracks from the museum off Mill Street.

 

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