Gone With The Wind

Gone With The Wind

Ciao bella,

Portrait from Rhett Butler's Bedroom

When you think of beauty in the movies, how many can agree that the character “Scarlett O’Hara” in Gone With The Wind carried such a trait? Atlanta, Georgia where the movie takes place has many a Southern Belle but Scarlett takes the cake! Her lily-white skin has been envied by many. Her seductiveness went into full swing when she wanted to catch her next husband. Whether she was in love or not she scored every time!

In fact Gone With The Wind has been a favorite movie in my family forever since its debut in 1939 when my Mom Josephine saw it in one of those old movie palaces on a BIG screen. In those days the movies ran repeatedly all day. By the evening show Mom and her friends fell in love with Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara!

Ahhhhh......I wonder what beauty secrets Scarlett could reveal! Her complexion and skin so dreamy, creamy! Movie note: “Mammy” would apply buttermilk to Scarlett’s skin to bleach the freckles. Her fancy parasols helped to avoid the sun.

Oh and all those clothes the women in her day would wear, pantilettes, corsets, stockings and long dresses to the ankle served as protection not only from the sun!

Another movie note: Never try to fool a gentleman without your gloves when you’ve been picking cotton! I believe the Yankees stole the hand cream too.

Just recently I had the pleasure of visiting Atlanta, Georgia. Upon our arrival at the airport I ran into Miss Teen Georgia, Caroline Wade-Wow, talk about a striking southern belle. Those beauty contestants are gifted.

My sight- seeing interests led me to visit The Margaret Mitchell House and Museum. She wrote the best selling novel Gone With The Wind there. Ann B. was our tour-guide and a marvelous one at that. Showing us around the house she could answer any question on Margaret’s life. It was not only a job for Ann, but a true fondness for Margaret’s life and how the success of the movie affected Margaret and Atlanta.

Margaret was a romantic realist and will be long remembered for writing Gone With The Wind, a most attractive women herself with beauty secrets of her own

Buona giornata, and God bless the United States of America!

--Mary N. DiZazzo-Trumbull