Below is my article I wrote for the Philadelphia Bulletin. A direct link to the article is: http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/11/24/arts_culture/doc4b0c3509ac96d229312739.txt.

Fans Celebrate 70 Years Of Gone With The Wind

By LEIGH ANDERSON MILLS, For The Bulletin

MARIETTA, Ga. — Five surviving castmates of the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind commemorated the 70th anniversary of the film with a “re-premiere” celebration, complete with a lavish ball and creation of the “Guinness World Record for the Largest Virginia Reel.”

Nearly 300 fans, commonly referred to as “Windies,” descended upon the Atlanta suburb Nov. 13 and 14 for Marietta’s “70 Years of GWTW : A Re-Premiere” celebration. The movie first premiered in Atlanta on Dec. 15, 1939.

“Everything in the world has changed. Everything. The way we think, our morals, our behavior, the way we judge things, the way we communicate. And yet that movie is frozen in time,” Turner Classic Movies host and master of ceremonies Robert Osborne told the audience before a special screening of the film Saturday night. “But we still react to it the way that people did 70 years ago which I think is an amazing tribute to Margaret Mitchell and David O. Selznick and Vivien Leigh and all the people involved in making this movie.”

The big-screen showing of Gone with the Wind at the newly restored Earl Smith Strand Theater was preceded by an audio introduction by 93-year-old Olivia de Havilland (Melanie Wilkes).  De Havilland, who resides in Paris, was unable to attend but sent her regrets to the fans. She  is amazed by enthusiasm the film generates 70 years after its premiere, “I never dreamed it would endure until the next century and millennium. And that people all around the globe would embrace it as their own.”

The Gone with the Wind castmates Ann Rutherford (Carreen O’Hara), Mickey Kuhn (Beau Wilkes), Patrick Curtis (baby Beau Wilkes), Greg Geise (infant Bonnie and infant Beau) and Geneva Miller Roberts (extra from the Barbecue scene) arrived at the theater by vintage car and the red carpet unfurled at their feet.

The group was on hand for the weekend’s festivities to sign autographs and answer fans’ questions.

During a Q&A on Friday, Kendra Bean, a fan from California, asked Rutherford how Gone with the Wind would have been different had George Cukor directed it instead of Victor Fleming. Rutherford stated that because Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland secretly sought coaching from Cukor, his thumbprint is in evident in the film.

Another fan, Tennessee resident Angela Danovi, questioned Mickey Kuhn about his experience working with Vivien Leigh (‘Scarlett O’Hara’) again in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire. When Miss Leigh discovered that the 18-year-old Kuhn performed in Gone with the Wind as 7-year-old Beau, she invited him into her dressing room to discuss his career. He revealed that “Every time I think or talk about that meeting I kind of get chills.”

Cammie King Conlon (Bonnie Blue Butler) and Mary Anderson (Maybelle Merriwether) were scheduled to attend, but canceled at the last minute due to illness.

As part of the weekend’s festivities, costumed Beaus and Belles gathered in the historic Marietta square on Friday to create the “Guinness World Record for the Largest Virginia Reel.” Women wearing Scarlett O’Hara and Belle Watling inspired gowns, Confederate soldiers, Rhett Butler look-a-likes, and even a Carol Burnett curtain rod copy lined up and danced in front of hundreds of spectators, including Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway and Ann Rutherford.

Rutherford told the crowd that her role as Scarlett O’Hara’s little sister “was a nothing part. But that nothing part has turned my golden years into platinum.”

In the evening, a large, formal ball was held at the Marietta Hilton where fans had an opportunity wine and dine in the presence of the Gone with the Wind celebrities.

The weekend celebration was the brain-child of Connie Sutherland, the director of the Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square. The Museum opened in April 2003 and features the extensive Gone with the Wind collection of Dr. Christopher Sullivan. His collection includes thousands of items including the original Bengaline honeymoon gown Scarlett O’Hara wore in the film.

Warner Home Videos and TCM partnered with the museum to promote the event and the Gone with the Wind 70th anniversary limited edition DVD, which was released Nov. 17. Attendees of the Re-Premiere had the opportunity to be one of the first to purchase the standard or Blu-Ray version of the film.

Countless book have been written about Gone with the Wind and many authors attended the event including Kathy Witt, author of “The Secret of the Belles.” When asked what Gone with the Wind meant to her, she replied, “To have museums dedicated to this single book and the movie is incredible and to be able to visit these museums and see the costume pieces, scripts, handwritten notes, etc. – it’s like touching history. To get to meet the people, like Chris Sullivan, who have amassed these wonderful and important collections and hear their stories and meet and talk to the stars of the movie – for me it is a dream come true. Gone With the Wind has truly enriched my life.”