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GONE WITH THE WIND Casting Part One: Scarlett and Rhett

© Jenny Lynn Higgins

From the start, Clark Gable was the number one choice for Rhett Butler. When David Selznik bought the rights to GONE WITH THE WIND from Margaret Mitchell, letters poured into the studio with casting suggestions. Ninety-eight percent of the people who wrote in pictured Clark Gable as the scandalous, devilishly handsome blockade runner. But Gable wasn't interested.

"It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the compliment the public was paying me," he later said, "It was simply that Rhett was too big an order. I didn't want any part of him....Rhett was too much for any actor to tackle in his right mind."

Selznick tried to convince him otherwise, saying that no actor had ever been offered a chance like this, and that there had never been a more talked of role than Rhett Butler. Gable commented, "That was my exact reason for turning him down."

At first, it seemed that Gable would have his way. He had a contract with MGM and the studio wasn't letting him out of it. But Selznik had an advantage- Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM, was his father-in-law. Eventually, MGM agreed to loan Gable out, in return for the right to distribute the film and fifty percent of the box-office sales. Gable, although very reluctant at first, didn't resist, partly because he really didn't have a say in the matter. Also, MGM gave him a bonus that supplied him with the funds he needed to divorce his wife and marry a woman whom he was crazy about: Carole Lombard. In August 1938, Clark Gable signed on to play the part of Rhett Butler in GONE WITH THE WIND.

But Scarlett O'Hara was yet to be found. This time, the letters that poured in with suggestions all had different actresses in mind. Casting directors were sent all over the country in search of Scarlett. Actresses such as Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer tested for the role. But Selznick didn't feel that any of them were right for the part. Their images were already entrenched in the public eye, and furthermore, none of them had the magical essence essential to becoming Scarlett O'Hara. Eventually the search was called off, and the studio focused its attention on the screenplay.

Although Scarlett still evaded the casting directors, her first scene, "The Burning of Atlanta" was scheduled to be filmed on a frosty night in December 1938. The scene called for Scarlett and Rhett to navigate a dilapadated wagon carrying Melanie Wilkes and her newborn son through the flaming streets of Atlanta. The studio back lot was actually set on fire, and new false fronts were attached to old sets to achieve the desired effect.

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