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The Harry Ransom Centre is currently hosting an online exhibition on the making of Gone With The Wind (1939). The interesting thing is that it gives access to numerous original documents from the HRC's David O. Selznick collection, including a large searchable database of letters Selznick received from the public, which gives some idea of just how many were received and responded to.

I helped process these papers, and GWTW took up one room by itself. It had hundreds of manuscript boxes; the collection totals 1000s.

I attended the exhibition a week ago when I was in Austin. I had assumed it would be one of those simple "lobby" exhibits, a 15 minute breeze-through. I was amazed at the cornucopia of material and spent at least 90 minutes there. It's a veritable history of the production. It's great that they've put the exhibit online, but it can't match the experience of seeing in person the actual items on display.

Very interesting. The dresses that Leigh wears in the film are all in remarkably good shape still. When I went to Orlando in July of this year, and visited Universal Studio's Florida there was a ride called "The Great Movie Ride", and whilst you wait in the queue to get on the ride you pass the dress that Scarlett wears to the barbecue at "Twelve Oaks". It was in amazing condition, and was behind glass! It looked brand new! I thought to myself, "Hmmm is this a copy?" But it wasn't, it was the real thing. Vivien Leigh's waistline was tiny.

As far as I have read the costume designer Walter Plunkett was approached to recreate the GWTW barbecue dress in the 1970's for an exhibition. He still owned a bolt of the original fabric-which was silk organza.By the 1970's the dress was no longer in existence. I believe that the replica dress was part of a touring train of US historical & cultural items that toured the country during our Bicentennial in 1976.Also on that train was one of Dorothy's dresses from the Wizard of OZ and I think it was the brown and yellow check that was used for the black and white sequences.

BGM wrote:As far as I have read the costume designer Walter Plunkett was approached to recreate the GWTW barbecue dress in the 1970's for an exhibition. He still owned a bolt of the original fabric-which was silk organza.By the 1970's the dress was no longer in existence. I believe that the replica dress was part of a touring train of US historical & cultural items that toured the country during our Bicentennial in 1976.Also on that train was one of Dorothy's dresses from the Wizard of OZ and I think it was the brown and yellow check that was used for the black and white sequences.

One of the dresses was a recreation - I believe you're correct that it was the "green wrapper" that Scarlett wears to the barbeque. My daughter and I were disappointed that it wasn't an original. Sadly the "Curtain Dress" that Scarlett wears when she visits Rhett in jail is faded to a dull brown.