The film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel premiered at Atlanta's Loew's Grand Theatre before a crowd of 300,000 lining the streets. Georgia's governor declared a state holiday. Hattie McDaniel, who would win an Academy Award for her role, was barred from attending because of Jim Crow segregation laws, a stark contradiction that shadowed the film's celebrated legacy.
The premiere was less a movie opening than a civic event. Atlanta shut down for three days of parades, costume balls, and a torchlight procession featuring actors dressed as Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler riding through downtown streets. Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and producer David O. Selznick flew in for the spectacle, greeted by crowds that dwarfed anything the city had seen before.
Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy, could not attend the Atlanta premiere or stay in the same hotels as her white co-stars because Georgia's segregation laws barred Black patrons from the whites-only theater. Her Oscar win months later, the first for a Black performer, took place at a ceremony where she was seated at a segregated table at the back of the room.
Adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind remains the highest-grossing film in box office history. Its romanticized depiction of the antebellum South and slavery has made it one of American cinema's most enduringly controversial masterpieces, admired for its craft and increasingly scrutinized for its politics.
Key people: Hattie McDaniel, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, David O. Selznick