Scarlett O'Hara's Dresses In Need Of Repair

[honeychile]

Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses in bad shape, need repairs

Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses in bad shape, need repairs
(Associated Press)

"AUSTIN, Texas — It’s time to find out if fans of "Gone With the Wind" frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the multiple Oscar-winning Civil War drama.

"The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O’Hara’s now tattered gowns from the 1939 film.

"The Ransom Center is planning an exhibit to mark the movie’s 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of them are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, the center’s collection assistant for costumes and personal effects...."

(Be sure to read the comment, or at least the first one!)

[AlphaFrog]

No link.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

No link.

Sorry - I've added it now.

[Drolefille]

Honestly, never seen it, not interested in seeing it, and frankly I don't care. (Sorry you thought I was going somewhere else with that.)

But really, I don't get the glamor of the "Old South" and can't separate it from the system that allowed it to exist.

[sceniczip]

Gone with the Wind is possibly my favorite movie of all time (tied with Wizard of Oz) but I still don't know if I'd donate money to have the dresses repaired...

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

But really, I don't get the glamor of the "Old South" and can't separate it from the system that allowed it to exist.

Loved that you wrote this! I don't get it either but I don't have the tact to say it nicely.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

Loved that you wrote this! I don't get it either but I don't have the tact to say it nicely.

Heh, I rarely manage to say things nicely, it seems. But it's kind of like the thread about what TV show you'd like to live in. All those past time periods really sucked for women, and when they got better for white women they still sucked for non-white women and men. Not that things are peachy keen now, but I really can't think of any other time period I'd actually want to live in and romanticizing it, whether through a movie or a TV show ignores a lot of the real issues.

With GWTW, and the romanticizing of the Old South, it pretends that everyone (usually just the person writing) was white, rich, and lived the life of luxury on a plantation sipping lemonade on the porch and going to society events. That was the experience of a tiny tiny number of people and it happened on the backs and pain of far too many to ignore.

A bit much for a GwtW thread? Maybe. But the movie's tied up in this selective memory all the way through.

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Heh, I rarely manage to say things nicely, it seems. But it's kind of like the thread about what TV show you'd like to live in. All those past time periods really sucked for women, and when they got better for white women they still sucked for non-white women and men. Not that things are peachy keen now, but I really can't think of any other time period I'd actually want to live in and romanticizing it, whether through a movie or a TV show ignores a lot of the real issues.

With GWTW, and the romanticizing of the Old South, it pretends that everyone (usually just the person writing) was white, rich, and lived the life of luxury on a plantation sipping lemonade on the porch and going to society events. That was the experience of a tiny tiny number of people and it happened on the backs and pain of far too many to ignore.

A bit much for a GwtW thread? Maybe. But the movie's tied up in this selective memory all the way through.

Were I one of my ancestors I'd be at best popping out babies on a tiny family farm, picking lice out of my one dress every night, and plowing the field every morning while the menfolk were shooting each other on the battlefield. No one we know of was sipping lemonade in our family tree. But it's a movie that a lot of people grew up on, and it's nice to watch. I still enjoy watching it, as long as I get my bathroom break. Almost any movie about a period in history is selective...I know when I watch a movie about the middle ages where the characters are chivalrous and beautiful that in reality everyone smelled like rotting road kill and women were essentially livestock. I still enjoy the movie. *Shrug*.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by Alumiyum

Were I one of my ancestors I'd be at best popping out babies on a tiny family farm, picking lice out of my one dress every night, and plowing the field every morning while the menfolk were shooting each other on the battlefield. No one we know of was sipping lemonade in our family tree. But it's a movie that a lot of people grew up on, and it's nice to watch. I still enjoy watching it, as long as I get my bathroom break. Almost any movie about a period in history is selective...I know when I watch a movie about the middle ages where the characters are chivalrous and beautiful that in reality everyone smelled like rotting road kill and women were essentially livestock. I still enjoy the movie. *Shrug*.

It's totally cool to enjoy the movie, I'm not saying not to. And to be able to watch it without the history filling your head all at the same time. I only get bothered when people go around romanticizing the era itself, often around here at least based on the movie or similar media.

But for me, it's inseparable.It's like the arrow in the FedEx logo. Not everyone sees it, but because I do see it, I cannot un-see.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Honestly, never seen it, not interested in seeing it, and frankly I don't care. (Sorry you thought I was going somewhere else with that.)

But really, I don't get the glamor of the "Old South" and can't separate it from the system that allowed it to exist.

I'd suggest reading the novel and/or seeing the movie before commenting on it. People's perceptions of them are often in stark opposition to what is really going on, in the movie and to a larger extent in the novel.

Scarlett is often misinterpreted as representing the Old South when in fact Margaret Mitchell meant her to represent the New South - the movie and novel both use Ashley and Melanie as symbols for the "old ways"; Scarlett, who often turns convention on its head and makes her way by adapting to society as it is as opposed to as it was, points to the necessity of the South to progress.

That reminds me - time to mail in my UDC dues.

eta - and love it or hate it, the costumes are an important part of cinematic history. I hope they get preserved.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I'd suggest reading the novel and/or seeing the movie before commenting on it. People's perceptions of them are often in stark opposition to what is really going on, in the movie and to a larger extent in the novel.

Scarlett is often misinterpreted as representing the Old South when in fact Margaret Mitchell meant her to represent the New South - the movie and novel both use Ashley and Melanie as symbols for the "old ways"; Scarlett, who often turns convention on its head and makes her way by adapting to society as it is as opposed to as it was, points to the necessity of the South to progress.

That reminds me - time to mail in my UDC dues.

eta - and love it or hate it, the costumes are an important part of cinematic history. I hope they get preserved.

I don't have any desire to read or see it, but I'm not really commenting on the content of the movie (or book) itself anyway. It's how people and society portray it. Even authors/directors/writers who have the best of intentions don't get to control how people react to their work.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

I don't have any desire to read or see it, but I'm not really commenting on the content of the movie (or book) itself anyway. It's how people and society portray it. Even authors/directors/writers who have the best of intentions don't get to control how people react to their work.

You have never seen GWTW or read the book?

If that's the case then I agree that you should at least see the movie before embarking on such discussions.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

You have never seen GWTW or read the book?

If that's the case then I agree that you should at least see the movie before embarking on such discussions.

*points to my original post*

It's not about the content of the movie, it's what people do with it. I'm comfortable in my point without having seen it.

ETA: Should I come across it, I might actually put myself through it (my understanding is that it's an effing long movie) but that's more about reading it or watching it for the sake of saying that I have. I think I posted in another thread about how I have little tolerance for a variety of "classics" that I find little more than inane time-wasters.

[Lady Pi]

Best movie of all time, hands down. I would definitely donate, or tell mom and grandmother about. This sounds like a cause that the UDC would love to support.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by Lady Pi

Best movie of all time, hands down. I would definitely donate, or tell mom and grandmother about. This sounds like a cause that the UDC would love to support.

Are you UDC, too?

If I had money to throw around, I would. It would be sad to see ANY noteworthy Academy Award winning outfit bite the dust due to misuse.