"Gone With The Wind" and the Civil War
Although the movie premiered more than 65 years ago, "Gone With The Wind" the movie and the novel, still inspire curiosity about Atlanta and the Southern way of life. One of the best ways to get an up-close look at "Gone With The Wind" (GWTW) is to purchase the Premiere Pass that packages the five must-see GWTW attractions for a combined group rate. Complete your itinerary with a Victorian tea or plantation dinner with evening entertainment. Go to www.visitscarlett.com/adons.html for details. Vouchers for FIT travel also can be purchased on-line.
The five attractions include:
- Road To Tara Museum & Gift Shop
Original props, costume reproductions, complete collectible plate and doll collections, a foreign edition library and an extensive photo gallery.
- Stately Oaks Historic Home & Plantation Community
Antebellum ladies and gents guide tours of this 1839 home and its grounds in Jonesboro, including a one-room schoolhouse, log kitchen and country store.
- "Gone With The Wind" — The Tour
A 60-minute tour of the Gone With the Wind Historic District, featuring the "real" stories behind the South's most famous epic romance, including costumed step-on guides. For individuals, tours begin at the Jonesboro Depot Welcome Center, Monday-Saturday at 1 p.m.
- Atlanta Cyclorama
Only three cycloramas (a 360-degree view of a story as a painting) survive, and Atlanta's, built in 1921, is considered the best. This painting depicts the Civil War's Battle of Atlanta. Civil War museum on-site.
- Margaret Mitchell House and Museum
Tour the apartment in Midtown Atlanta where Margaret Mitchell penned her world-famous novel. The Gone With The Wind Movie Museum features the original front door from the Tara movie set.
Other sites of interest in and around Atlanta:
- Underground Atlanta (Downtown)
This shopping and entertainment complex has added several new guided history tours to its lineup. In addition to "From Civil War to Civil Rights," Underground now is offering "Phoenix Rising-An African American Tour of Distinction;" "Gone With the Wind- Margaret Mitchell's Atlanta (in Atlanta);" Gone With the Wind-The Story behind the Story (in Jonesboro);" and "Gone With the Wind-The Red Earth Trail (Atlanta to Jonesboro and beyond)." All of these new tours can be booked though the attraction's group sales office. Visit Web Site
- Patrick R. Cleburne Confederate Memorial Cemetery (Clayton County)
The final resting place of Confederate soldiers who fell during the Battle of Jonesboro. The defeat resulted in the capture of Atlanta by Gen. W.T. Sherman.
- Stone Mountain Park (DeKalb County)
Carved on the world's largest exposed piece of granite are the faces of Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson and Jefferson Davis. Also in the park is the antebellum plantation, comprised of original buildings built between 1790 and 1845, and representing an authentic, pre-Civil War Georgia plantation. Visit Web Site
- Historic Oakland Cemetery (Downtown)
Some of Georgia's most famous legends are laid to rest in the city's oldest and most scenic cemetery. Visit the grave site of author Margaret Mitchell and golf legend Bobby Jones. More than 3,000 Confederate soldiers also are buried here. Walking tours and group tours are available. Visit Web Site
- Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library (Downtown)
Has a permanent Margaret Mitchell exhibit on the fifth floor. Across the street is a monument dedicated to Atlanta's most famous author. Visit Web Site
- Georgian Terrace (Midtown)
Margaret Mitchell handed over her completed manuscript at this Atlanta landmark hotel, and the party after the movie's premiere was held in the ballroom. Visit Web Site
- Rhodes Hall (Midtown)
Nine stained-glass windows are called "The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy." Visit Web Site
- Atlanta History Center (Buckhead)
Houses one of the nation's largest and most-comprehensive exhibits about the Civil War. Visit Web Site
- Roswell (North Fulton)
- Bulloch Hall is an example of pre-Civil War Greek revival architecture. Built in 1840, this was the childhood home of Mittie Bulloch, the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt. Visit Web Site
- Smith Plantation Home is an 1845 antebellum home with still-working outbuildings including a cookhouse, carriage house, springhouse, barn and slave cabin. Visit Web Site
- The Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square (Cobb)
Housing Dr. Christopher Sullivan's privately owned collection of book and movie memorabilia. While in Marietta, you can visit the Marietta National Cemetery where more than 10,000 Union soldiers are buried. Visit Web Site
- Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park (Cobb)
The Confederate Army soundly defeated the Union Army here on June 27, 1864. Visit Web Site
- Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History (Cobb)
A Confederate conductor's chase of the stolen "General" locomotive almost to Chattanooga is a highlight of this museum, which also has more than 50,000 Civil War and railroad artifacts. Its affiliation with the Smithsonian allows for traveling exhibits throughout the year. Visit Web Site
Gone with the Wind Trivia
- The best picture Oscar for "Gone With the Wind" is in Ted Turner's Atlanta office. The statue came to him when he acquired MGM Studios in 1986.
- "Gone With the Wind" was not filmed in Atlanta, but the premiere was held at Atlanta's Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street. The theater was made to look like the Twelve Oaks mansion and featured a two-story photo of Gable and Leigh. The Georgia-Pacific building now is on the site of the Loew's Theater.
- Nearly 1 million people visited Atlanta for the premiere.
- Margaret Mitchell was apparently black-balled by the Atlanta Junior League when she danced "outrageously" at a party. She subsequently declined to attend their ball the night before the movie's premiere.
- Margaret Mitchell's original name for her heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, was Pansy. She never expected "Gone With the Wind" to be published.
- Although constantly hounded by the publishing and film communities, Mitchell refused to write a sequel to her novel. She never published another book.
- While crossing the intersection of Peachtree and 13th streets, Margaret Mitchell was struck by a speeding taxi. She died five days later.
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