Movie-A-Day #349: Gone With the Wind (1939).

If there’s one thing Hollywood has managed to do consistently well since the early days, it’s the hyped up, colossal movie event. And David O. Selznick’s “Gone With the Wind” is still one of the standard bearers, even more than seven decades after its release. The biggest film of its generation, it had its premiere in Atlanta on this day in 1939. It was the culmination of three days of star-studded festivities which included, among other things, recreations of Confederate balls and a state-wide holiday declared by the governor of Georgia. By every account a good time was had by all — except for the film’s black actors, who were prevented from attending by the South’s Jim Crow laws.