December 15, 1939 –
The motion picture Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, had its world premiere in Atlanta on this date.
It was the first movie premiere ceremony to be televised. The governor of Georgia proclaimed the day a state holiday in commemoration of the event and the holiday celebrations continued for three days.
Segregation wouldn’t end in the U.S. until 1954, which meant that, depending on the theater, many African American actors who starred in the film, including Hattie McDaniel (Mammy), Butterfly McQueen (Prissy), Oscar Polk (Pork) and Eddie Anderson (Uncle Peter), were barred from attending public premiers — for the theaters that weren’t segregated, the producers discouraged black cast members from attending premiers, on the grounds that it was “unsafe.”
And so it goes.
The Haus of Dcaligari 