'Windy' city: Tara fans flock to Atlanta

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'Windy' city: Tara fans flock to Atlanta
November 15, 2009
BY BETSA MARSH
The Miami Herald

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Wherever you are in the world, you could run into a ``Windy.''

``Windy'' is affectionate code for fans of Gone with the Wind, and they are legion.

Windies are even more avid this year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the film premiere. Many are heading to Georgia, where Atlanta's Margaret Mitchell unleashed one of the world's best-selling novels in 1936.

They long to discover Mitchell's Georgia of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and they arrive with questions. Here are some of the Windies' most enduring quests.

WHERE'S TARA?

Every Windy longs for the towering white pillars of Tara, but the mansion we love was basically a confection whipped up by producer David O. Selznick.

The native Pittsburgher, who called Gone with the Wind ``the American Bible,'' envisioned a plantation house like the antebellum mansions lining the Mississippi. Mitchell's Tara, however, was modeled after her great-grandparents' farmstead in Clayton County, a two-story frame house with a comfy porch. The family called it ``Rural Home.''

``When Margaret Mitchell saw the film, she said `That's not the house I wrote about,' '' said Ted Key, a costumed docent at Stately Oaks in Jonesboro, Clayton County.

Rural Home, built about 1831 by Mitchell's Irish ancestor Philip Fitzgerald, is now in ruins. Instead, head down Carriage Lane to Stately Oaks, an 1839 home in the Plantation Plain style of Rural Home.

``Windies always ask, `Is this Tara?' '' Key said. ``It's as close to Tara as you're going to get.''

Stately Oaks reflects a prosperous farm life, with a piano and lovely china on the dining table. The Fitzgeralds, according to the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, were once the wealthiest family in Clayton County.

It was on the Fitzgeralds' front porch that young Margaret heard tales of the war.

``I heard about fighting and wounds ladies nursed in the hospitals; the way gangrene smelled. I heard about the burning and looting of Atlanta. I heard everything in the world except that the Confederates lost the war. When I was 10 years old,'' Mitchell recalled, her words immortalized in a display at the Road to Tara Museum. ``It was a violent shock to learn that General Lee had been licked.''

Hollywood may not have gotten Rural Home right, but it did create an indelible illusion beloved around the world.

In 1979, Georgia's First Lady, Betty Talmadge, bought the studio façade of Tara's doorway and it's now in pride of place at Atlanta's Margaret Mitchell House and Gone with the Wind Museum.

THE MANUSCRIPT

Travelers would love to see the original pages of the best-selling novel, but Margaret Mitchell was having none of it.

Her second husband, John Marsh, who'd urged Mitchell to write, said her will placed upon him ``the duty of destroying her papers.'' She believed, Marsh is quoted in an exhibit at the Margaret Mitchell House and Gone With the Wind Museum, ``that an author should stand or fall before the public on the basis of the author's published work.''

Only 20 or so pages survive, and if you really want to see them, there's only one thing to do.

Sue.

``There are a few pages in the Sun Trust Bank, where they will remain unless someone challenges her authorship,'' said Richard Cruce, the librarian who handles the Mitchell collection at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.

But you won't leave the library disappointed. Fans from 38 states and 13 countries came last year to see the Remington typewriter that Mitchell wrote GWTW on -- last chapter first. She wrote out of chronology from 1926 on, eventually weaving the chapters together about 1935.

The library was important to Mitchell throughout her life -- some people remember her and her brother riding up to check out books on their ponies. Marsh and Mitchell gave money to buy books about Atlanta and Georgia, and she haunted the place when she did exhaustive research for Gone with the Wind.

So it was natural for Marsh to leave her typewriter, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award to the library, as well as her galley pages and foreign editions. The display has her Red Cross uniform from World War II and the bottle of champagne she used to christen the USS Atlanta in 1944.

The manuscript may be out of reach, but the Margaret Mitchell House has the clipboard she corrected it on. And the suitcase that Harold Latham of Macmillan Publishing bought to carry away the manuscript.

He'd come from New York to scout for new writers when he met Mitchell at a writers' conference and asked if she had work to show. Mitchell said, ``No, I have nothing.''

A friend urged her on, and Mitchell finally went to the Georgia Terrace Hotel just as Latham was leaving. She handed over 70 bulging envelopes, and said ``Take the damn thing before I change my mind.''

THE LOEW'S GRAND

Gone with the Wind was a sensation, even at an astronomical $3 a book. It's sold more than 28 million copies worldwide.

When the movie was made, Atlanta, of course, was determined to host the world premiere, and the lavish Loew's Grand was the place.

``The premiere was like a snowflake in Atlanta,'' said Beth Bailey of the Clayton County Convention and Visitors Bureau. ``We shut down everything for one snowflake. People didn't go to work, didn't do anything but try to see actors from Gone with the Wind.''

The city dolled up the Grand, built in 1893, with faux Tara pillars and raked the night with search lights on Dec. 15, 1939. All the stars arrived, somehow dwarfed by the 4-foot-11-inch figure of Margaret Mitchell.

Segregated Atlanta did not invite Hattie McDaniels (Mammy) or Butterfly McQueen (Prissy), and the mayor insisted McDaniels' photo be removed from the souvenir program. You can see a rare copy bearing her picture in the Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square. Gable was so outraged he threatened to boycott, but McDaniels urged him to go. He and Carole Lombard were hits as 150,000 people greeted the motorcade.

Sadly, the Grand burned in 1978 and only fragments remain. The Road to Tara museum has three of its red plush seats, a playbill, a railing and a scrap of Art Deco carpet.

COSTUMES

Walter Plunkett created some of film's most iconic costumes. Who can forget Scarlett's green velvet drapery gown?

He took the costumes after filming and willed most to the University of Texas, where they're in storage. Only one of Scarlett's original gowns is on display: her ivory bengaline silk gown that Rhett bought her on their honeymoon in New Orleans. It's at Marietta's Scarlett on the Square.

At the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, creative seamstresses have devoted thousands of hours replicating GWTW gowns. They had the green-sprig fabric for Scarlett's barbecue dress specially milled, and sent plumes to Las Vegas to be dyed just the right burgundy for the gown Scarlett wears to Ashley Wilkes' birthday party.

And when they replicated the green drapery gown and hat, they added a real chicken's foot to the cording on the hat, just as Scarlett wore it. For true Windies, no detail is too small or too bizarre.




'Gone with the Wind' info

• Marietta Welcome Center and Visitors Bureau (with information on Marietta's Scarlett on the Square), 800-835-0445; www.mariettaga.gov.

• GWTW travel in Atlanta, 800-285-2682 or

www.atlanta.net.

• For Stately Oaks and the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, contact the Clayton County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 800-662-7829; www.visitscarlett.com.

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Going to Atlanta

• Getting there: A number of airlines fly nonstop from South Florida to Atlanta, a trip just over two hours. Roundtrip airfare starts around $170.

• Getting around: You can walk or take the MARTA rail system (404-848-5000; www.itsmarta.com) to some of the venues, but you'll need a vehicle to visit most of them.

• Information: The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau can help you plan your vacation, and offer more ideas for free or low-cost entertainment. 404-521-6600 or www.atlanta.net.

WHERE TO STAY

• The Georgian Terrace: A recently renovated historic 326-room hotel in Midtown Atlanta (new bedding, flat-screen TVs, Wi-Fi Internet); its rooftop swimming pool has commanding views of Atlanta. Full kitchens and washer/dryers in all king and double rooms and in one- two- and three-bedroom suites. 659 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta; 800-651-2316; www.thegeorgianterrace.com. Rooms $119-$649.

• Sheraton Atlanta: 165 Courtland St. NE, Atlanta; 404-659-6500; www.sheratonatlantahotel.com. A retractable roof on a large indoor/outdoor pool lets kids swim anytime, plus pets under 80 pounds are welcome, too. A Thursday-Sunday family package starts at $140 per night, with complimentary self-parking; pay a one-time fee of $15 for a refrigerator for the duration of your stay.

• Microtel Inn and Suites, Atlanta/Buckhead: A good choice for families on a budget, though less centrally located; free high-speed Internet, microwave and refrigerator in room; free continental breakfast. 1840 Corporate Blvd., Atlanta; 404-325-4446; www.microtelinn.com. Rates $67-$84.

WHERE TO EAT

• Colonnade: This meat-and-three Southern-cooking restaurant has operated more than 80 years and still packs in the crowds. 1879 Cheshire Bridge Road, Atlanta; 404-874- 5642; www.colonnadeatl.com; entrees $9-$22; Early Bird Menu, $11-$13.

• Highland Bakery: Come hungry to this bakery and café specializing in big Southern breakfasts and lunches with a twist (Cowboy Benedict is two quesadillas with black beans, poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce and spicy corn relish). Save room for dessert. 655 Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.highlandbakery.com; 404-586-0772; breakfast entrees $3.95-$12.95 (kids 8 and under, $3.95).

• Pittypat's Porch: Sit in a rocker, enjoy iced tea or something stronger, and pretend you're a guest of Aunt Pittypat, of Gone With the Wind, as the film plays on a flat-screen TV. Then dine on Southern cooking -- Twelve Oaks BBQ Ribs, Aunt Pittypat's Fried Chicken, South Georgia Gumbo, Blackeyed Pea Cakes, Georgia Peach Cobbler and the like. 25 Andrew Young International Blvd., Atlanta. 404-525-8228; www.pittypatsrestaurant.com; entrees $17.95-$26.95 (children under 10, $7.95).

• R. Thomas Deluxe Grill: Dine on healthy food amid an eclectic décor; say hello to the parrot that greets you at the door, and to the 15 birds outside in the gardens. 1812 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta; 404-872-2942; www.rthomasdeluxegrill.net; entrees $15.50-$18.95.

• The Varsity: The hotdogs, hamburgers and fries aren't all that memorable, but the atmosphere at this Atlanta original, in business 81 years, makes a stop worthwhile. And fried pie for dessert is not to be missed. 61 North Ave. NW, Atlanta; 404-881-1706; www.thevarsity.com; $1.24-$6.59.

-- AMANDA MILLER ALLEN