(MENAFN- Arab Times) ATLANTA Dec 16 (Agencies): Seventy-five years after the premiere of the movie 'Gone with the Wind' research is shedding light on the racial tensions that existed at the time between the producer and city of Atlanta officials. Emory University film studies professor Matthew Bernstein has conducted extensive research into the archives of the film's producer David O. Selznick. His findings illustrate some of Selznick's concerns with the city's treatment of the film's black stars at the Dec 15 1939 premiere.
'Producer David O. Selznick was upset that Hattie McDaniel would not be invited to the Atlanta premiere' said Bernstein. 'He argued over and over that she should be allowed.' McDaniel played the character Mammy and went on to become the first black actor to receive an Academy Award for her performance as Best Supporting Actress in 1940. Selznick was guided by the office of Atlanta's then-mayor William B. Hartsfield. It was Hartsfield that originally reached out to Selznick to bring the premiere to the city. But due to the racial segregation laws of the time none of the movie's black stars were allowed to attend the premiere or even be included in the movie's promotional program. McDaniel did attend the Los Angeles premiere and was featured in the program. 'Selznick because he was Jewish was very mindful of the persecution of the Jews in Europe in the late-1930s under Nazism' Bernstein remarks. 'And he saw an analogy between that persecution and the life of African-Americans under Jim Crow especially in the South.' Bernstein spent years poring over the Harry Ransom Center's Selznick archive at the University of Texas Austin. Among the items studied memos and telegrams exchanged with Selznick's staff document the extent of his efforts to persuade Atlanta officials to change their minds. However Katharine Brown Selznick's east coast assistant and story editor concedes in a Dec 8 1939 letter to Selznick that efforts to include the black cast must end. Touchy 'I hope this will not prove to be a dissatisfaction to you but with everyone so touchy I am trying very hard to use my very best judgment not to create situations' Brown writes. In contrast to the city's treatment of the movie's black cast local black organizations performed at various events leading up to the night of the premiere. 'One of the most fascinating things about the festivities is Martin Luther King Jr. when he was 10 years old actually appeared on stage at a charity ball dressed as a slave in front of a mock-up of Tara singing with the Ebenezer Baptist Church choir' Bernstein points out. Steve Klein a spokesman for The King Center confirmed the event as a reflection of the times but offered a poignant analogy for the civil- and human-rights icon. 'It's kind of neat that he could go on and be awarded the Nobel Prize.' Also: LOS ANGELES: Drafthouse Films has acquired North American distribution rights to Julia Hart's Western 'The Keeping Room' three months after its world premiere at Toronto. Daniel Barber directed from Julia Hart's Black List screenplay about three Southern women facing a siege at their home at the end of the Civil War. Brit Marling Hailee Steinfeld and newcomer Muna Otaru star with Sam Worthington as a renegade soldier intent on killing the women and razing their home. 'The Keeping Room' will open in theatrical release across North America in September and will be released on a variety of VOD platforms and digital DVD and Blu-ray formats after its theatrical run. Production companies are Wind Dancer Films Gilbert Films and Anonymous Content. Producers are Jordan Horowitz Judd Payne Matt Williams David McFadzean Dete Meserve and Patrick Newall; executive producers are Gary Gilbert and Michael Sugar. The deal was negotiated by WME Global on behalf of the producers and James Emanuel Shapiro and Tim League from Drafthouse Films.
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