Katharine Brown was one of David O. Selznick’s most trusted employees. Her job—and it was a 24-hour-a-day one—was to scour New York’s publishing circles and sniff out unproduced properties that her hard-driving boss could spin into box-office gold. As the mercurial, 34-year-old movie mogul’s official East Coast story editor and unofficial gal Friday/arbiter of good taste, Brown needed to have lightning-quick instincts and the thick hide of an elephant. After all, Selznick was notoriously demanding and infamous for his short-fused three a.m. phone calls. It wasn’t easy keeping pace with a mind that whirred as feverishly as Selznick’s. But Brown was one of the few movie executives who could keep up. 
 
 On the afternoon of May 20, 1936, she fired off an urgent Teletype to her employer. The message read: “ . . . have just airmailed detailed synopsis of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, also a copy of the book . . . This is an absolutely magnificent story . . . a great literary property and we must have it . . . The book is 1,000 pages long and I have only gotten through half of it, it is one of the most lush things I have ever read . . . I am absolutely off my nut about this book . . . I beg, urge, coax and plead with you to read it at once . . . I know that after you do you will drop everything and buy it.” 
 
 In fact, Selznick did not drop everything after reading Gone with the Wind. He didn’t even crack its imposing spine. Instead, he relied on the 150-page synopsis that Brown had given him, poring over it while on vacation in Honolulu. Selznick knew that the success of adapting Mitchell’s novel would depend on casting. Even though he was a compulsive gambler who lived to place exorbitantly large bets—whether in the boardroom or at the horse track—he balked at the book’s rich $50,000 price tag. But like all gamblers, he lived in a constant state of fear that someone else might rake in a pot that he felt rightfully belonged to him. He wasn’t sure he wanted Gone with the Wind, but he was certain that he didn’t want anyone else to have it. 
 
 So after several weeks of hemming and hawing, on July 6, 1936, Selznick finally relented to Brown’s impassioned pleas, opened his checkbook and paid a king’s ransom for the movie rights. It would be the easiest decision and the most incident-free moment of the next three years. ||||| ATLANTA (AP) — Seventy-five years after the premiere of the movie "Gone with the Wind," research is shedding light on the racial tensions that existed at the time between the producer and city of Atlanta officials. 
 
 In this image released by Turner Classic Movies, Clark Gable, left, appears in character as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, in the film "Gone with the Wind." 75 years after the premiere... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by Turner Classic Movies, Vivien Leigh appears in character as Scarlett O'Hara, left, and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, in the film, "Gone with the Wind." 75 years after the premiere... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken from video on Dec. 10, 2014, Matthew Bernstein, an Emory University Film Studies professor, discusses the racial tensions between the “Gone With the Wind” movie producer David O. Selznick... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by Turner Classic Movies, Clark Gable, left, appears as Rhett Butler, and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in a scene from the film, "Gone with the Wind." 75 years after the premiere... (Associated Press) 
 
 Emory University film studies professor Matthew Bernstein has conducted extensive research into the archives of the film's producer, David O. Selznick. His findings illustrate some of Selznick's concerns with the city's treatment of the film's black stars at the Dec. 15, 1939 premiere. 
 
 "Producer David O. Selznick was upset that Hattie McDaniel would not be invited to the Atlanta premiere," said Bernstein. "He argued over and over that she should be allowed." 
 
 McDaniel played the character, Mammy, and went on to become the first black actor to receive an Academy Award for her performance as Best Supporting Actress in 1940. 
 
 Selznick was guided by the office of Atlanta's then-mayor William B. Hartsfield. It was Hartsfield that originally reached out to Selznick to bring the premiere to the city. 
 
 But due to the racial segregation laws in the Jim Crow south, none of the movie's black stars were allowed to attend the premiere or even be included in the movie's promotional program. McDaniel did attend the Los Angeles premiere and was featured in the program. 
 
 "Selznick, because he was Jewish, was very mindful of the persecution of the Jews in Europe in the late-1930s under Nazism," Bernstein remarks. "And he saw an analogy between that persecution and the life of African-Americans under Jim Crow, especially in the South." 
 
 Bernstein spent years poring over the Harry Ransom Center's Selznick archive at the University of Texas, Austin. Among the items studied, memos and telegrams exchanged with Selznick's staff document the extent of his efforts to persuade Atlanta officials to change their minds. 
 
 However, Katharine Brown, Selznick's east coast assistant and story editor, concedes in a Dec. 8, 1939 letter to Selznick that efforts to include the black cast must end. 
 
 "I hope this will not prove to be a dissatisfaction to you but with everyone so touchy, I am trying very hard to use my very best judgment not to create situations," Brown writes. 
 
 In contrast to the city's treatment of the movie's black cast, local black organizations performed at various events leading up to the night of the premiere. 
 
 "One of the most fascinating things about the festivities is Martin Luther King Jr., when he was 10 years old, actually appeared on stage at a charity ball dressed as a slave in front of a mock-up of Tara singing with the Ebenezer Baptist Church choir," Bernstein points out. 
 
 Steve Klein, a spokesman for The King Center, confirmed the event as a reflection of the times but offered a poignant analogy for the civil- and human-rights icon. "It's kind of neat that he could go on and be awarded the Nobel Prize." ||||| Audiences still frankly give a damn about the lavish Civil War epic "Gone With the Wind" 75 years after its release. 
 
 When adjusted for inflation, the Oscar-winning romance remains the domestic box-office champ with a gross of $1.6 billion. The 220-minute Technicolor film received a record 13 Oscar nominations, winning eight competitive Academy Awards, including best film, actress (Vivien Leigh), supporting actress (Hattie McDaniel) and director (Victor Fleming). With a production cost estimated between $3.85 million and more than $4 million, it was the longest and most expensive Hollywood sound film of the time. 
 
 More than 30 million copies of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, on which the film was based, have been sold. The film has been re-released eight times, been a staple on television since the 1970s and a bestseller on video, DVD and now Blu-ray. 
 
 Celebrations of the film's diamond anniversary include an exhaustive exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, a new collector's edition Blu-Ray and several books including Life's "Gone With the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years Later." 
 
 Despite criticism and controversy over the film's racial stereotypes — the slaves in the film are happy, and McDaniel's Mammy is a welcome member of the family and loyal servant — "Gone With the Wind" continues to have a special, if troubling, place in the hearts of American filmgoers. 
 
 The film was and I think continues to be a pop cultural phenomenon. — USC Professor Richard Jewell 
 
 "The film was and I think continues to be a pop cultural phenomenon," said Richard Jewell, professor at USC's School of Cinematic Art. "It's one of the few movies that lived up to the book." 
 
 Long before social media, the buzz surrounding the film version of "GWTW" was astonishing. After independent producer David O. Selznick brought the rights to the book, "GWTW" fans waited on every story coming out of Hollywood about the production, particularly about who would play the willful and beautiful Scarlett O'Hara, the belle of the Tara plantation. 
 
 Though such stars as Joan Crawford, Carole Lombard and Katharine Hepburn were among those considered to play Scarlett — about 1,400 actresses were interviewed — Selznick chose British actress Vivien Leigh, who had made a few films, to play the lead role. 
 
 Fan favorite Clark Gable was selected to play Rhett Butler, the rakish Charlestonian who pursues her, and British actor Leslie Howard was cast as Scarlett's obsession, the glum Ashley Wilkes. Olivia de Havilland, best known for ingenue roles opposite Errol Flynn, landed the plum role as Wilkes' sweet cousin and wife, Melanie, and McDaniel was chosen to play the O'Haras' beloved and opinionated Mammy. 
 
 Jewell noted the film was brilliantly cast. "Clark Gable was absolutely the right person to play Rhett Butler. Every actress in Hollywood wanted to play Scarlett. The fact that they went with a relatively unknown and she turned out to be the incarnation of Scarlett. It's like a baseball team when one day every one gets a hit. 
 
 "It's a testament to the old studio system where producers were the most important factor in most cases. Selznick kept that film together. It was Selznick's vision more than Victor Fleming's. To me he is one of the greatest producers of all time." 
 
 But as Missy Schwartz, editor of the Life "GWTW" book and a senior editor at Entertainment Weekly, pointed out, "you can't watch it without 21st century eyes. You have to address race. It's problematic, there is no question. It is just not the reality [of slavery]." 
 
 The conversation about "GWTW's" treatment of slavery, race and a benign antebellum South was particularly heated over the last year with the release of 2013 best picture Oscar winner "12 Years a Slave," which depicted the brutality of slavery. 
 
 Todd Boyd, professor of critical studies at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, told The Times this year that "the entirety of the history of African Americans in Hollywood has been problematic, and I think in some ways still is. A lot of people looked at those movies as sort of an authentic representation of what African Americans were like." 
 
 Jim Crow laws were in full force in the South 75 years ago. McDaniel and the other black cast members couldn't attend the premiere in Atlanta on Dec. 15, 1939. Gable had threatened to boycott the premiere but was persuaded by McDaniel to attend. The Life book reveals that during production, Gable had also protested when he learned there were segregated toilets on one of the sets, promising not to return if they were still there the next day. They weren't. 
 
 African Americans protested the film when it opened in major cities. Black playwright Carlton Moss stated in the Daily Worker found Mammy's love for the white family "that has helped to keep her people enchained forever" particularly reprehensible. 
 
 Jewell noted that a lot of films from the Golden Age of Hollywood make one "uncomfortable" because of depictions of race and other issues. "But they need to be screened and talked about, as a way to measure the kind of attitudes that existed at that point, which was 75 years after the end of the Civil War. These kind of stereotypical depictions of black people need to be put in a historical context so people will have a better appreciation of how far we have come." 
 
 TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne believes "GWTW" has endured because of its emotional resonance. 
 
 "It's about survival," he said. "It hit the world in the '30s when Europe was going to war and just before we went into the war. Also, everybody has had somebody in their life that they loved more than they loved them back. 
 
 "I think the brilliant thing about the story is that there are little samplings of every part of us in it. It doesn't matter if it was set during the Civil War. It's a relevant movie about emotions." 
 
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 Here are events, books and collector's items linked to the 75th anniversary of "Gone With the Wind." 
 
 "The Making of Gone with the Wind: The exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, features about 300 rare items culled from the center's David O. Selznick Collection, including the recently restored "green" dress worn by Scarlett O'Hara and other gowns designed by Walter Plunkett. The exhibition continues through Jan. 4 
 
 "The Making of Gone with the Wind": A lavishly illustrated companion book to the exhibition edited by curator Steve Wilson. 
 
 "Gone with the Wind" 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition Blu-ray: This limited and numbered Blu-ray set features the restored film and such extras as a music-box paperweight.
– It's been 75 years since Gone With the Wind was released—and given the many hurdles to its production, it's kind of amazing that it ever was. In Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty tells the story of the film's making, which centered on producer David Selznick. He was at first reluctant to make the film, despite a glowing review of the book by one of his employees. "I am absolutely off my nut about this book," Katharine Brown wrote, finally convincing him to take action. But plenty got in the way. Among the challenges: The first writer dropped out after spending months on the script. After a number of other writers tried their hand, including Selznick himself, writer Ben Hecht took it on, but there was no time for him to read Margaret Mitchell's book. So Selznick and director Victor Fleming "stayed up all night acting out the story for him." Clark Gable was under contract to Selznick's father-in-law, who finally "loaned" him to Selznick, with plenty of strings attached—and Gable wasn't thrilled about it. Original director George Cukor didn't get along with Gable and was eventually replaced by Fleming, who didn't get along with Vivien Leigh. "Leigh hated Fleming. With a passion. Fleming hated her. Clark Gable hated David … Everybody hated David," an assistant said. Fleming quit before returning. Ultimately, the film required "125 days of photography, 37 months of preparation, half a million feet of film and a budget of $4.25 million (at a time when the average feature cost less than $1 million)," Nashawaty writes. And the trouble was far from over: Racism plagued the various premieres, with black cast members in many cases banned from attending, the Los Angeles Times reports. That prompted anger from Selznick, the AP reports; Gable, meanwhile, had already stood against segregated toilets on set, threatening to bail on the film, according to a Life magazine book cited by the Times. Ultimately, however, "Selznick kept that film together," says a film scholar, and it still holds the record for domestic box-office gross, adjusted for inflation, the Times notes (and you can bet it's a lot better than the current crop of big-grossing films).