Essay on Gone with the Wind: Book Versus Movie

In the United States, there has been a series of entertainment mediums since its conception. As technology and ideas grow and evolve, more things are created. Thus in the boom of industry, the technology in entertainment did not fall behind. As the United States rolled into recovery from WWI the film industry kept a steady pace for the previous two decades.

The film industry came into the United States like wildfire. The appeal of film was the access that people could have to these movies. Unlike plays on Broadway that could be only shown once at a time for a limited amount of people, movies could be should simultaneously to many different people at a time. The exciting and difficult part of creating these films where the fact that each script and actor had to be able to touch the hearts of everyone viewing the movie so that the film company could see a type of financial success. A great movie that was being thought of at the time was Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Mitchell wrote the book to future movie not even thinking that the book was going to be her big break. Finally, in 1935 a publishing house, Macmillan, located in New York signed a deal with Mitchell for the rights to her book. Once published the book made sky breaking records and sold a grand amount of 50,000 copies (Srinivasan pg. 337). Not many books had seen such great numbers, and this caught the eye of a director, David Selznick. Selznick immediate took flight and began trying to put every single piece of equipment and persons needed to get this book on the big screen. At the time of its conception, there wasn’t many film companies, thus the film industry was being controlled my big names such as Walt Disney, Frank Chopra, and Alfred Hitchcock. Because the system of movie-making was a very risky one (Srinivasan pg. 338). As these companies had to invest great amounts of money that did not guarantee that regular people would go out of their way to pay to see that movie. As people searched for that financial formula, more and more companies came to light. A director Marcus Loew looked for something that he could do in advance out of plays and musicals. He began dabbling into silent movies, but Loew felt like it was not enough. By the 1920s Loew had grown his theater chain in New York, with his biggest theater seating about 3,200 guests; these great theaters exhibited the trend and success of films at the time. Loew noticed that if he wanted to keep his theater, he would need a constant intake and outtake of product, and the best way that he could guarantee constant distribution was by owning his own studio; and that was the birth of Metro Studios (Srinivasan pg. 340). After a while Loew was offered Goldwyn Pictures, the owner of a big studio in Los Angeles. When the companies merged Loew was acquainted with Louis B. Major, a Jewish immigrant from Russia. Loew then decided to acquire Major’s company and then the final company was built – MGM Studios (Muse pg.165).

No studio at the time had invested great money into producing a movie. Until Warner Brothers came along. Warner Brothers took a great risk as they decided to produce a movie called The Jazz Singer, which cost 500,000 dollars to produce (Srinivasan pg. 340). The company felt that they needed a something that would make them stand out in the face of others, thus they decided to add sound to their movie. Since audio was something new and exiting the film grossed about 3 million dollars in profit. In turn the audience was in high demand for films with sound, thus Warner Brothers pushed for the instalment of speakers in all of their theaters, and the rest of the film industry quickly followed.

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By 1929 America was at the lowest economical point in history, for the U.S. had entered the Great Depression. In the beginning since sound was in such high demand, the box office was practically unaffected. That all changed in 1931 when revenue declined (Muse pg. 178). Theater owners then had trouble paying back their loans with led them to crash with the rest of the country The only film company that was left from the ruins was Warner Brothers. In 1935 the companies that joined WB were Twentieth Century-Fox, MGM, Paramount, and RKO; and companies without theaters such as Universal, Columbia, and United Artist. A way that they made this possible was by having famous actresses and actors on strict contract. Fox had Shirley Temple, MGM had Clark Gable and Norma Shearer, and Warner Brothers had Errol Flynn. The studios made sure to feed the major cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston (Srinivasan pg. 341).

The United States felt a major shift in the film industry at the appearance of Walt Disney in 1937 “the Horatio Alger of Cinema” (Srinivasan pg. 344). Disney had a star that was recognized by everyone – Mickey Mouse. On the road to economic recovery Mickey Mouse was at every stop. He appeared on toys, backpacks, clothes, etc. In a span of two years Walt Disney had collected a revenue of 5 million dollars just in retail. Mickey Mouse was sought out around the world as Soviet officials came to see the seven-minute cartoon Steamboat Willie, staring Mickey Mouse. By the ag of 33, Walt Disney was just as famous as his cartoons, Mickey, Minnie, and Donald. The total films that Disney released were a package of short films, thus after some time, Disney decided to push the envelope. Walt Disney decided to begin to create Snow White. Animators began to experiment with all types of animation and possible ways to creating these moving pictures. Disney originated that the price of the project would be 250,000 dollars. He then realized that it would not be enough and turned to Bank of America for loans. After taking out several loans the ending estimated price of production was 1.5 million dollars. When the film finally premiered in January had a total audience of 800,000 people in the first four weeks. Snow White set a grand record in the new film industry, but this record did not stand for long, as Gone with the Wind would premier the year after.

Gone with the Wind had been in the hands of David Selznick for many years. Finally, MGM Studios decided to take the plunge and start the making of the movie. Selznick decided to take a different approach to the distribution of the movie. When movies would premiere, typically the price of the ticket varied by film, while the film would make its rounds prices would drop accordingly. Other tactics were to stage major openings in big cities, then they would commence the “road show” (Srinivasan pg. 346). For Gone with the Wind, MGM decided to have ticket prices vary by day and time. This set precedence for modern-day movie theaters. The film was massive in the United States, but it raised a problem that Selznick did not expect. The actress Hattie McDaniel who portrayed Mammy in the movie received backlash. McDaniel was not welcomed to many premiers, hotels, and other public places which led many people stood in protest for McDaniel and civil rights.

The United States has experienced many changes through the decades, those changes of ideas are reflected in the art that was produces at that time. Film is a massive part of worlds cultures. As a people, we have come a long way in the film industry, changes that celebrate various different identities and opinions. While we thank these people who worked to set the precedent for the film industry, we must also be better than them so that the generations that come after us will be better than us.