Like Scarlett making her way back to Tara after the war, TCMBacklotATL's members crossed through tens of thousands of Music Midtown Day 1 attendees for our tour of the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum. An auspicious day in many ways, among them that this was our 1st Chapter event outside of the TCM/Fathom screenings. It was also the first Chapter event several members have been able to attend, not the least of whom being one Yacov Freedman & his lovely wife Rachelle! So we were able to match even more names to faces as our Chapter continues to grow & thrive.
The tour started off with an expertly guided presentation of an exhibit on Margaret Mitchell's early life & continued through the actual apartment where she wrote "Gone With The Wind" which is staged to perfection with both actual furniture & period recreations. In fact the structure was not MM's family home but the apartment building where she lived while writing GWTW. Our guide regaled us with many fascinating stories such as the fact that a sprained ankle & its recovery period was the impetus for MM to begin writing the book. Also many of the GWTW characters were drawn from people in MM's life, such as saintly Melanie Wilkes based on a cousin of hers who became a nun (and was the one true love of Doc Holliday)!!!
We continued on our own through exhibits on the 1939 Atlanta film premiere & the making of the film itself, featuring actual set pieces! Afterward a number of us walked a block over to Hudson Grille for a classic film conversation-filled late lunch.
Many thanks to all who came for making this event a rousing success!