Honoring a Great Actress, a Great Book and a Great Movie...

Greetings 1000 Bookies!!! 

I want to wish a Happy Birthday to screen legend Olivia De Havilland!!  The actress turned 103 yesterday.  Her iconic role was that of Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in the 1939 epic movie, Gone With the Wind.  While she would win the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role twice in 1946 and 1949, her supporting role as Melanie will be the defining role of her career, the one she will be most remembered.  The seemingly meek yet supremely strong Melanie Wilkes is really the only character in the book and movie who loves the miserable Scarlett O'Hara.  Olivia De Havilland many years later appeared in the Civil War miniseries--North & South, Book II.

Gone With the Wind was one of the most popular books of all time.  Written by Atlanta native, Margaret "Peggy" Mitchell, the book was semi-autobiographical.  According to Malcolm Forbes book, They Went That-a-way, Mitchell, "Born in Atlanta and raised on its fashionable Peachtree Street, Mitchell could remember her grandmother recounting the actual burning of the city by Sherman and describing how Confederate troops retreated through her backyard.  And though she would never admit it, Mitchell based the recalcitrant Rhett Butler on her husband from her failed first marriage."  

My mother-in-law once gave me an article about Bulloch Hall which is located in Roswell, Georgia.  Bulloch Hall was the home of the Bulloch Family.  In 1923, Margaret Mitchell interviewed a woman who was a bridesmaid in the wedding of Martha Bulloch to Theodore Roosevelt Sr, in December 1853.  Martha and Theodore were the parents of future US President, Theodore Roosevelt and the grandparents of future First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.  According to legend, Margaret Mitchell used Bulloch Hall as the model for Tara, the O'Hara's plantation in the story.  Gone With the Wind features prominently into Presidential History.  The film was released when Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States.

One of my favorite scenes in Gone With the Wind features Melanie at her strongest, welcoming Scarlett into her home after earlier walking in on Scarlett embracing Melanie's husband, Ashley Wilkes.  Melanie embraces and kisses Scarlett and introduces her around.  Gone With the Wind has phenomenal characters and is listed as one of the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die.  I cannot wait to do so.  Keep Reading My Friends!!