Gone With The Wind (1939): 15 INSANE Facts You Never Knew

Gone with the Wind looked like a sweeping romance about love, war, and survival. But behind Scarlett O’Hara’s determination was a production driven by studio deals, endless rewrites, director changes, censorship battles, racial segregation, and a producer running on borrowed money and almost no sleep. Scarlett was originally named Pansy. Vivien Leigh was discovered in front of five-hundred-foot flames. Clark Gable took the role partly to pay for his divorce, then used his power to remove segregation signs from the set. And Hattie McDaniel made Oscar history while being forced to enter the ceremony through a side door and sit apart from her castmates. These are 15 weird facts about Gone with the Wind — the kind that make the most-watched film in cinema history feel even more complicated once you know what was happening behind the scenes.