Speaker: Eileen Roach

Presented by the Lifelong Learning Institute, Manassas

This event is open to the public. For more information about the Lifelong Learning Institute, Manassas, visit lli-manassas.org

The story of the making of the 1939 film classic Gone with the Wind is nearly as entertaining as the movie itself. The casting of the major parts seems inevitable to us today: who else but Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Hattie McDaniel, and Olivia DeHavilland could have played those iconic roles? Yet executive producer David O. Selznick considered dozens of candidates for each part and turned the talent hunt for Scarlett O’Hara into a two-year publicity campaign before finally selecting Vivien Leigh once filming had already begun.

In this program, we’ll learn about the many Scarlett hopefuls, from unknowns to Hollywood’s greatest leading ladies (including some surprising possibilities, such as Katharine Hepburn and Lana Turner). We’ll find out which stars did not want to play Rhett Butler (including Clark Gable). We’ll hear anecdotes about the casting process and discover how Gable’s marital woes and Charlie Chaplin’s reputation influenced the final casting results. Most fun of all, we’ll see screen tests of candidates for all the major roles and consider which of them, in an alternate universe, might have been the Scarlett, Rhett, and Mammy we remember today.

Eileen Roach has been a classic movie fan since fourth grade. In her previous life as the assistant director of a senior center, she presented numerous programs on Hollywood’s studio era, focusing on the splendid performers and directors of the time. A new member of the LLI board of directors, as well as on the LLI program planning committee, Eileen is also an enthusiastic member of LLI’s book club. Her favorite hobbies are reading, classic films, and reading about classic films.