Gone With The Wind Exhibit, North Carolina Museum of History

One of the coolest things Raleigh, North Carolina offers is a free state history museum, which permanently houses an entire floor dedicated to the state's history as well as several rotating exhibitions. For the past fews months, and extended by popular demand, the museum has been home to an exhibit of memorabilia, costumes, and artifacts from the American classic Gone with the Wind. 

As a kid, I coveted a copy of the film my grandmother had taped off cable in 1987, intact with the archaic commercials and fuzzy sound. I didn’t care that it took six hours to watch an already lengthy movie. I swooned over the period costumes, the tangled romances, and the devastatingly handsome Clark Gable.

Alex's note: I grew up having only watched the movie once, in numerous segments, in my 7th grade English class. It wasn't until this January, after buying the movie on DVD for Alexa, that I had a chance to watch it all in one sitting. I found it to be much better than I had remembered. From a cinephile's point of view, it had some groundbreaking cinematography and set design. To use actual outdoor settings rather than studio lots or, even worse, indoor sets to mimic the outdoors, and to do this in full glorious Technicolor, was nothing less than impressive. And I won't lie, that Clark Gable is devastatingly handsome.

Original painted storyboard from the "Atlanta is burning" scene.

The exhibit was a behind the scenes look into a film I’ve loved since childhood. It included original storyboards, photographs, and notes from cast members. Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy and subsequently became the first African-American to win an Academy Award for the role, sent thank-you notes to nearly every member of the production team, several of which appear in the exhibit. Because segregation was an ugly reality, even in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, McDaniel and the other African-American actors used separate dressing rooms and waited in separate areas between takes. It wasn’t until Clark Gable stepped in and demanded equal treatment for the black actors, threatening to walk off the set, that on-set segregation was done away with.

The film, even in its time, provoked mixed reactions for its portrayal of African-Americans. Butterfly McQueen, who was a dancer before starring as Prissy in Gone with the Wind, famously stated that she struggled with the role as it was difficult for her to play such an unintelligent character.

Alex's note: I've found a lot of the criticism for the film's portrayal of race to be overly PC. The fact is that there were domestics like Mammy and Prissy and they were slaves and they did speak in a certain vernacular. To dismiss historical accuracy as racism is misguided at best, but to make these claims without knowing the back-story of its actors demanding an integrated set is just foolish.

Other artifacts of note were original sheet music from the Gone with the Wind score, a copy of the novel owned by Butterfly McQueen, and the Oscar statue won by Vivien Leigh for Best Actress. Video footage of the 36 screen tests shot in the search for Scarlett O’Hara played on a screen, including one with Paulette Goddard who appeared in Modern Times and The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin.

Alex's note: As a Chaplin fan, I admire Paulette Goddard quite a lot. She is probably my favorite of Chaplin's leading ladies in his feature films, but her personality and affect would have made her a terrible choice for Miss Scarlett. If there had been a scene where we met Scarlett's street-wise cousin from the North, then Goddard would have been a shoe-in!

Butterfly McQueen's copy of the novel.

Sheet music to the original score.

Vivien Leigh's Oscar for Best Actress.

The costume section included the outfit worn by Bonnie Blue Butler in the fateful horse riding scene and the straw hat Scarlett wore to the barbecue at Twelve Oaks.

Bonnie's equestrian outfit.

Scarlett's "Shantytown" dress.

Scarlett's hat for the Twelve Oaks barbecue.

Alex's Prologue

“We’ve got to get out while we’re young,

Because tramps like us, baby, we were born to run…”

-         Bruce Springsteen, “Born To Run”

In the past 26 years, my life so far has been a series of unexpected turns, chance encounters, and more than a few surprising detours. A stroke of good luck here, a minor decision having major consequences there, all of them brought me to where I am today. I also know I can say right now, without fear of contradiction, that Alexa’s life has followed a similarly varied path. Our idea of ditching our lives in New York City for a cross-country roadtrip should not be such a surprise for either of us.

It certainly didn’t faze our parents, who were all surprisingly enthusiastic and supportive, offering only the most practical of concerns and questions. Our closest friends, though they were saddened to hear that we were leaving, gave us nothing but encouragement, well-wishes, and even a few ideas. Our nearest and dearest mentors all said the same thing:

“This is the perfect time for you two to do this!”

From the moment Alexa and I started talking about our future as heads of a family unit, we happily agreed that we did not want to raise children in New York City. Neither of us wanted to be that poor sap, desperately attempting to calm our screaming toddler on the train, mouthing “sorry” to all the nearby straphangers shooting a collective death stare. We agreed we would be ready to relocate elsewhere, wherever that may be, within “three to five years.” Seemed like a fair estimate. After all, we both had steady full-time jobs and were getting established in our respective fields.

As soon as we thought we knew what our long-term plans would be, the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan. “Three to five years” rapidly evaporated into “when our lease is up next August” after several misadventures, including Alexa suffering an attempted carjacking in front of our own building in Long Island City. A mere two months later, right around the corner from our place, someone broke into our car, leaving behind our copies of Marquee Moon by Television and Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange but swiping my DVD  of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and a laptop charger. Whoever the thief was, the shithead at least had good taste in movies. (And I certainly hope they have been able to keep their laptop charged!)

Maybe it's also worth mentioning that in both instances, the authorities offered no help. Because - for some reason - Alexa didn't stick around long enough after her would-be assailant made a grab for her door handle, thus not seeing a weapon or hearing the man issue a verbal threat, the cops said the best they could do was record an incident of "attempted harassment." Not "attempted assault," not "attempted vehicular theft," not "scaring the shit out of a 23-year-old whose previous news beat included covering violent crimes." Attempted harassment. In the case of the theft, the cops didn't even show up in response to our call. While it can't be proven directly, we both suspected these half-assed responses were part of an initiative to keep crime stats in an "up and coming neighborhood" down. (We pay taxes for this?)

We cut our timetable even shorter when we both hit critical mass at our jobs. For me, it was a shortage of teaching opportunities for both paid and volunteer gigs, coupled with the soul-crushing drudgery of being chained to a cubicle from 9 to 5, answering the same stupid questions from the same stupid people through increasingly clenched teeth, and hoping no one decided to give me a shove on a cramped subway platform either to or from the office because I had made the mistake of being in their way.

For Alexa, it was even worse, with her job at a weekly publication in Queens wearing her down mentally, emotionally, and physically. Her situation at the paper in question could serve as the impetus for either a droll observational sitcom or a work of sheer terror, and one that I think may best be saved for her own words, of which she has many. (I’m serious – buy her a Jameson and ginger ale and just sit back!)

In short, we had both come out to New York City to pursue THE DREAM, because we had grown up thinking it was the only place to go if we wanted to make it big, like many people our age. In our short time in the professional world, we both received a good deal of maltreatment and abuse within it. For us, THE DREAM morphed, to crib from Wilfred Owen, into THE GREAT LIE, a world where our superiors regarded us as replaceable ants who should be grateful for the opportunity to even have a job, what with the economy being what it is, quit our bitching, keep our heads down, and hope we weren’t arbitrarily laid off. We concluded that in the universe where our corporate “greed is good” overlords were in charge, in order to get ahead, to get recognition, or simply to get that big break, one merely needed to abandon their principles.

Of course, we were having none of that. 

Us and our silly principles.

Though our experiences were different, we both ultimately shared the same grievance. At best, all we were doing was earning more money for our already wealthy bosses, without either of us ever seeing an extra penny in our paychecks. At worst, everything we did in the course of a week did nothing to better the lives of people in need. Witnessing people who have been dealt a shitty hand in life from the start, from my time working for the city’s 311 hotline to Alexa’s work at the newspaper, seeing the dramatic disparity in the quality of life where we lived brought out a strong urge in both of us to do something meaningful, something profound.

But what?

After considering several options, including trips to other parts of the world, we decided that we would go everywhere (yes, even Alaska), see as much of this country as we can, and then write about our experiences. Every part of the United States has its own unique history, cuisine, and culture. Each town, which from the outset is just part of a massive constellation of dots on a map, has its own story to tell. We want to document and share those stories with our readers. 

At the present time, our nation has become increasingly divided. Forgive my soap-boxing, but the "us vs. them" mentality that dominates our culture has become more destructive, sowing seeds of hatred rather than simply agreeing to differ on one's political viewpoints. One of my dearest coworkers at my boring office job was a hard-nosed Republican, and while we disagreed on a lot of policy issues, we could still ultimately agree that GoodFellas is one of the best movies ever made, and most importantly, he was a terrific friend. (We also shared a common disdain for Michael Bloomberg, and neither of us voted for Obama - Alexa and I both voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.)

As cheesy as it may sound, hopefully with our trip we can learn more about one another, recognizing our similarities while at the same time celebrating our differences.

Next stop: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia!

Our Blogspot page will feature unedited content, more pictures, and extra entries. Additionally, I will be posting weekly updates on Woman Around Town, an entertainment website based out of NYC and DC, run by author Charlene Giannetti and publisher Debra Toppeta, that I have written for since 2010. My working title for the weekly column on WAT is The Scenic Route, with Alex & Alexa. A slightly different version of the above entry will be available soon on the site.