Frankly, my dear, it's a good bet that practically everyone has seen the 65-year-old movie "Gone With the Wind," either at a theater or on television.
But does anyone really give a damn that there's a fully-stocked museum dedicated entirely to this movie?
Apparently, many people do.
Thousands of Windophiles make a pilgrimage to Marietta, Ga., each year to bask in the recaptured glory of what arguably is the World's No. 1 Alltime Two Thumbs Up Fantastic Achievement Glorious Cinematic Feat Astounding Beloved movie.
Located at 18 Whitlock Street, an old plank floor restored livery stable just off the popular downtown Marietta Square, the Gone With the Wind Museum is a veritable storehouse of information about the movie, containing more than 250,000 original items related to the movie and the Margaret Mitchell book of the same name.
All this came about because of an Akron, Ohio, doctor who became enamored of the film and all its trappings as a child. Dr. Christopher Sullivan, an endocrinologist, started saving items about the film in 1939 and it grew into a huge collection as the years wore on.
Subsequently, Dr. Sullivan's collection has been on display at Kent State University, the Self Center in Hilton Head, S. C., and the MGM Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida. And, now in Marietta, where the city operates the GWTW Museum.
The collection includes posters from several countries, photos, versions of the book printed in numerous countries, conceptual artwork, film, costumes, premiere programs, newspaper stories, contracts, autographed items, etc.
Perhaps highlighting the exhibition is the actual Bengaline dress star Vivien Leigh (who played Scarlett O'Hara) wore in the film for her New Orleans honeymoon scenes with her film husband Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). Other major pieces in the multi-colored brick building with rough hewn exposed beams include Mitchell's personal volumes of the novel, a section devoted to the African-American cast members and numerous copies of foreign versions of the book.
Margaret Mitchell probably has turned over in her grave several times regarding the establishment of a museum honoring the book and the movie.
She was a quiet, unassuming person who toiled some seven years in putting the book pages together. She was a writer for the Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine in the 1920s and wrote several plays and short stories. None of which caused a ripple. She would not let her friends see her manuscript and, reportedly, one of her friends told her rather snidely one day: "Oh, Margaret, nobody's going to publish that book of yours." That supposedly fired her up and caused her to let a New York book agent read the script. Further unconfirmed stories indicated Miss Mitchell later had a change of heart and asked the agent to return the 900-page manuscript, but he was loathe to do so. Voila! A historic book (a Pulitzer Prize winner, in fact) was born.
She did not bask in the publicity surrounding her book and rarely made public appearances. She in fact ordered in her will that her birthplace (coincidentally, a rather Tara looking building) be destroyed after her death so it could not become a shrine. In recent years, the city of Atlanta in a developmental move wanted to tear down her home she shared with her husband John Marsh, but more historic leanings won out and the building has been preserved.
Miss Mitchell was also on record as being quite upset that there was no international copyright law in effect at the time her book came out, with several overseas publishers printing the book in their countries without ever paying her royalties. She was further angered that some foreign publishers rewrote parts of her book, creating their own endings.
But enough about that. She couldn't bring herself to worry about that. She would worry about that tomorrow. After all, there was always tomorrow.

(Museum hours are 10-5 Monday-Saturday; admission is $7 adults, $6 children and seniors, $5 for groups of 15 or more. More information about the museum may be obtained by calling 770-794-5576 or visiting the Internet web site http://www.gwtwmarietta.com/).

This story was published on 22 Jun 2004.