Margaret Mitchell's inspiration for her book title came from the 13th line of the Ernest Dowson poem, "Cynara" - "I have forgot much Cynara! Gone with the wind."
Sidney Howard agreed to write the screenplay, but from his home in Massachusetts, 3000 miles away from studio interference. His first draft would have made a 5 1/2 hour movie. Howard reluctantly agreed to leave his Massachusetts farm and come to Hollywood to work on another draft with Selznick and then-attached director George Cukor. As Selznick was preoccupied with problems on the set of The Prisoner of Zenda, Howard had to wait 5 weeks before he was able to start working on another draft (in the meantime contributing some rewrites for "Zenda"). The second draft turned out to be 15 pages longer than the first.
Sidney Howard's screen writing Oscar was the Academy's first posthumous award. Howard died in an accident in August 1939 while the Civil War epic was still being filmed.
1,400 actresses were interviewed for the part of Scarlett O'Hara. 400 were asked to do readings.
A few of Margaret Mitchell's working titles for the novel included "Tomorrow is Another Day," "Not in Our Stars", "Bugles Sang True" and "Tote the Weary Load". The most famous working title was, "Ba! Ba! Black Sheep".
A leading contender for Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Katharine Hepburn lost out, but later served as Maid of Honor at Vivien Leigh's and Laurence Olivier's wedding.
According to Newsreels, there were a handful of Confederate Civil War veterans who, though quite old, attended the premiere in Atlanta.
After the opening titles, there is a scene-setting crawl which was originally written by Ben Hecht. Nothing like this appears in the novel and, privately, Margaret Mitchell was none too enthused by it.
All four principal characters appear together in the same scene only once, after the raid on Shantytown, when Rhett tells the anxious group of the fate of Scarlett's second husband, Frank Kennedy.
All seven of Hollywood's then-existing Technicolor cameras were used to film the Burning of the Atlanta Depot. Flames 500 feet high leaped from a set that covered 40 acres. Ten pieces of fire equipment from the Los Angeles Fire Department, 50 studio firemen and 200 studio helpers stood by throughout the filming of this sequence in case the fire should get out of hand. Three 5,000-gallon water tanks were used to quench the flames after shooting.
Although Olivia de Havilland was always front-runner to play Melanie, Janet Gaynor and Andrea Leeds were also considered.
Although he played Brent Tarleton in the film, the screen credits mistakenly list Fred Crane as playing Stuart Tarleton.
Although he was dismissed from the production, George Cukor continued to privately coach both Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland at their request on weekends.
Among the many famous actress considered for the part of Scarlett were Jean Arthur, Lucille Ball, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Katharine Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, and Margaret Sullavan. Bankhead (an authentic "Southern Belle" from Alabama) was the clear front-runner, but her unsavory personal life made producers reluctant to hire her.
At nearly four hours long, this is longest running of all movies to win the Best Picture Academy Award.
At one point, five film units were shooting scenes. Directors involved were Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin and stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt.
Before casting had actually started, Margaret Mitchell was asked (during an interview) who, she felt, should play Rhett Butler. She replied, "Groucho Marx." This was obviously a joke, and Margaret Mitchell's way of reiterating that she wanted nothing to do with the making of the film.
Came first in the UK's Ultimate Film, in which films were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas, with an estimated two-thirds of the UK's population going to see it
Cinematographer Lee Garmes was fired a month into production because his footage was deemed to be too dark. He was replaced by Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan.
Contrary to popular belief, this is not the first film to use the word "damn". The expletive was used in numerous silent intertitles and in several talkies, including Cavalcade and Pygmalion.