Gone With the Wind Museum
Scarlett O’Hara Display at the Gone With the Wind Museum
A few years ago, my husband detoured off of I-75 during a road trip to Florida and surprised me with a side trip to my own personal mecca: the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, Georgia. Gone With the Wind is my all-time favorite movie and I nearly salivated as we walked in and I saw display cases full of dresses the characters wore in the movie. NIRVANA!
I have seen the movie so many times that I can quote most of it. So here I’ll share some of the classic dresses and lines quoted by the characters wearing them.
My favorite dress. Scarlett wears this to the Twelve Oaks barbeque.
“Fiddle dee dee. War, war, war. This war talk is spoiling the fun at every party this spring.”
or my favorite:
“Oh, dear! My stays are so tight, I’ll never get through the day without belching!”
Belle Watling’s dress. Belle is a brothel madam.
When Scarlett tells her husband that she doesn’t want any more children, Rhett runs to Belle’s saloon where she tells him to return home:
[about Scarlett] “…you’re poisoned with her. I don’t care what she’s done to you. You’re still in love with her…”
The dress Scarlett makes from their velvet drapes.
The Iconic Green Dress Made From Drapes
(Scarlett jerks down the portiere curtains, pole and all; drapes the material over her shoulder; turns back to Mammy)
“I’m going to Atlanta for that three hundred dollars, and I’ve got to go looking like a queen.”
Carol Burnett’s Spoof
Or we could go with Carol Burnett’s spoof “Went with the Wind,” in which she makes a dress out of curtains and wears the curtain rod across her shoulders as part of the dress. She says:
“I saw it in the window, and I just couldn’t resist it.”
Crazy old Carol! 🙂
Bonnie Blue Butler’s dress.
Rhett props Bonnie on her own little pony and says she’ll be “the greatest horsewoman in the South.” He also declares that he is going to spoil Bonnie by buying her a blue velvet riding habit.
“I want to jump,” she says.
Rhett should have stopped her. 😦
The red dress Rhett forces Scarlett to wear to Ashley’s party.
Rhett tells Scarlett:
“Miss Melly’s a fool, but not the kind you think. It’s just that there’s too much honor in her to ever conceive of dishonor in anyone she loves. And she loves you – though just why she does, I’m sure I don’t know.”
The dresses in the museum are reproductions, but I don’t care. It was my chance to stand in front of the displays and imagine that these characters were standing before me. Okay, okay…actually I was imaginging wearing the dresses myself. A girl can dream, can’t she?
Are you a Gone With The Wind fan?
Browsing The Atlas 
I loved this because I am also a big GWTW fan! And I actually saw it at our local movie theatre a million years ago!
Me, too. I’ll bet you can quote even more lines than me. 🙂
I wrote a feature about Vivien Leigh for a magazine recently, apparently she hated kissing Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind because what was left of his rotten teeth beneath his denture made his breath stink!
Oh, how fascinating! Can you send a link to the article? I’d love to read it.
I’d like to but the mag hasn’t gone to press yet (believe it or not it’s for a stamp magazine, Viv is one of ten Britons who will be on a set of stamps in April) so it is still under wraps until then. I’m hoping to post a couple of the achived posts from the Philatelic Bulletin on Shipscooksstuff soon, including one on Charles Dickens and another on ghost story writer MR James
Never saw it, but I do remember it running in Birmingham (England) for years. And one old dear was at the front of the queue for every performance until it closed.
I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen when I was about 9 years old. It was fantastic.
I’ve never heard of Went with the Wind, it sounds intriguing, I’ll keep an eye out for it.
As a bloke I’m not naturally interested in dresses like you are. However at Fox Studios in Sydney I did become quite excited to see the white dress warn by Claire Danes in my favourite film “Romeo and Juliet”.
Seeing our favorite costumes is always a treat, isn’t it? Brings the magic to life.
What a cool place! And what a sweet husband for surprising you with a visit there.
Yes. He’s smart enough to know what makes me happy. And I’m lucky to have a man who cares about making me happy. 🙂
Jules, loved this ! ! ! I guess our family just vicariously lives through this movie ! I can’t believe I never knew about this place when I lived in Atlanta. I would have had apoplexy!!
Mom and I went down, too. It was nice to look at the exhibits with her and drool over the dresses. You should swing by on your next trip north!
I do like GWTW…I just see the first half more than the second half (common case with me for movies w/ intermissions). I really like the Civil War era, so I guess that is one of the reasons I like it. Never really cared for Scarlett O’Hara…I just always thought she was a big jerk to everybody XD.
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Ghostly World
Email At: ghostlyworldblog@gmail.com
PS. If you ever need information on haunted places…I’m here!
Say it isn’t so. You don’t like Scarlett?? 😦 Yes, she’s selfish, self-centered and ruthless, but she’s Scarlett.
And I’ll be in touch about the haunted places.
Fiddle dee dee…But, then again…you do kind of need a character like her to make some things work. I mean, for the same reason, I dislike/like the character Shane in the Walking Dead. So she is a character I like to dislike, you know what I mean? Anyways, you can email me any time at ghostlyworldblog@gmail.com with the paranormal. Have you ever been to Waverly Hills Sanatorium? My favorite all time haunt there.
I have been to Waverly Hills. I wrote a blog post about it. It was definitely an adventure.
I hope I can eventually get back there…but frankly my dear, I just can’t afford it right now.
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Ghostly World
Email: Ghostl
I remember watching it in middle school and unfortunately not quite being able to appreciate it for what it was. Definitely need to see it again. I love Belle Watling’s dress, even if she is a brothel madam. 😉
I wonder if you’d like it now? Some people (like my husband) don’t like the movie. *gasp!* I haven’t even been able to get my daughter to watch it yet. 😦
Ahhh I accidentally published my comment before finnishing it. *GAK*
Those dresses are really something!
I couldn’t help think of the Burnett sketch either 🙂
I know! Even when I’m watching GWTW, I think of the Carol Burnett spoof when Scarlett puts on her “fresh as a Georgia peach” green velvet dress. 🙂
Oh yes, I am a HUGE fan! And this place would be my Mecca too…awesome post 🙂
Going with my mother was a lot more fun since we oohed and ahhed over everything.
Yes, husbands wouldn’t understand 🙂
We totally have the same favorite dress, but anything green is always my favorite. I haven’t read/seen Gone With the Wind in years, but I’m a fan to be sure. My mom and I used to watch it all the time when I was younger, so happy memories for me!
Me, too. In fact, a few years ago for Mother’s Day, instead of having the husbands treat all the mothers to a dinner out, my mom, aunt, grandmother and I all gathered at my mom’s to share a big bowl of buttered popcorn and watch GWTW. That was the perfect Mother’s Day to us.
Sounds awesome!
Dresses that not only are beautiful but reminds us of the precious, unforgettable golden era that will always stay close in our hearts.
I would love to go see these dresses, too!
There were a few more that I don’t show here. But the two green dresses are my favorites.
Oh those dresses look so wonderful. On a mission to watch gone with the wind now.
🙂 My daughter thought I was going to try to make her watch it. Eventually, she’ll see the beauty in it.
Hi Juliann,
This is a great post! I do remember seeing that Carol Burnett spoof, and it was hilarious.
Yes, it was. Classic!
Love Gone with the Wind!! one of my favorites movies ever!! I made 4 of the classic dresses for my little daughter: The White praying dress, the Drapery Green Dress, the Red velvet Gown dress and the BBQ dress!! Love all of them!!
I can so easily picture every dress you mention. I hope your daughter loved them! I would have. Dressing like Scarlett O’Hara???? A dream come true.