10 Fascinating Facts About 'Gone With the Wind': 'The Heroine Was Initially Named Pansy – and Gable Hated the Whole Thing'
'Gone With the Wind' facts reveal Gable's dislike and that the heroine was first named Pansy.
May 2 2025, Published 7:30 a.m. ET
Since hitting theaters in 1939, Gone with the Wind has become a movie classic that – even compared to today's computer-magic films – withstands the test of time.
Here are 10 things you probably didn't know about the film based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel.
1. There were only seven Technicolor cameras in existence at the time, and all of them were used for the Burning of Atlanta sequence, in which a fire soared 500 feet in the air and covered a whopping 40 acres.
2. Scarlett O'Hara was named "Pansy" until the book's editor requested a change, the Tara plantation was "Fountenoy Hall" in the first drafts, and one working title for the movie was Baa! Baa! Black Sheep.
3. Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to be invited to the Academy Awards. But she and the film's other black actors were banned from the premiere.
Hattie McDaniel made history at the Oscars, yet was barred from the film's own premiere.
4. Clark Gable triggered a scandal by taking a two-day break from his role as Rhett Butler to elope with Carole Lombard to Kingman, Ariz. Their "reception" consisted of coffee and sandwiches.
5. It's rumored that the author based the character of Ashley Wilkes on her own real-life cousin, famed Old West gunslinger Doc Holliday.
6. Tough guy Clark hated even being in the film, because he considered it a "woman's picture," and nearly quit over the scene calling for Rhett to cry.
Carole Lombard and Clark Gable eloped mid-shoot, scandalizing 1939 Hollywood.
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7. For the scene of wounded Confederate soldiers in Atlanta, producer David O. Selznick wanted 2,500 extras to lie in the dirt, but the Screen Actors Guild had only 1,500 to offer, so they added 1,000 dummies.
8. The final cut was 20,000 feet of film edited down from over 500,000 feet.
9. What ultimately happened to Scarlett and Rhett? No one knows, not even the author, who left the conclusion ambiguous and had no "real" ending in mind.
10. Vivien Leigh's blue eyes were changed to Scarlett's green in post-production.
