Literary Atlanta: Part 1

After months of passing by and never noticing it, we finally paid a visit to the Margaret Mitchell House.  Margaret Mitchell authored Gone With the Wind which was made into a moderately successful film.  Just kidding - when adjusted for inflation it was the highest grossing film ever made!*

The Margaret Mitchell House was in the 1930s an apartment house where Margaret Mitchell and her husband John Marsh resided when she wrote her novel.  The tour of the Margaret Mitchell house took us through the small basement apartment that they lived in.  Though none of the furniture is the original, you can still envision their living arrangement during the period in which she wrote.

We also learned some interesting facts, including the similarities between Margaret Mitchell's life and that of Scarlett, her heroine. Also, the character for Scarlett O'Hara was originally named PANSY.  Why was that ever a good idea?  Most inappropriate character name I've ever heard of.

The annex of the Margaret Mitchell House has large photos of some of the costumes from the movie as well as a documentary of the making of.  The video was pretty amazing - we found out just how crazy the filming was, with a constantly changing script, a revolving door of directors, and no final script when it was done.  And the insane budget, and the ridiculous editing marathon, and the blow-out for the Atlanta premiere, and the awards!

The annex also had screenplays so visitors could reenact their favorite scenes.   Look how much fun we're having!

All in all, a very fascinating historic site and a great way to reconnect with a bit of Atlanta's literary and cinematic history.

Margaret Mitchell.  What a fox! (and I'm not referring to the cat)

*according to wikipedia