Page 12 - CinemaRecord #83

Marketing

in Melbourne

By Ian Smith and the late Brian Miller

ineteen thirty-nine is considered It says a lot about Selznick and his
NHollywood’s Golden Year, when all the dedicated team that he was able to win the
major studios released some of their ‘best rights to the most popular book of the 20 th
ever’ attractions. Foremost amongst them was century.
David O. Selznick’s Gone with the Wind
(GWTW). In 1937, one year after publication, it had
sold 1,375,000 copies in the USA, totally
Selznick was the prototype of the creative, unprecedented in publishing history.
independent producer whose impact on his
films went far beyond financing and Not surprisingly, the film version went
administration. well over budget. Selznick was forced to
turn to his father-in-law. Louis B. Mayer
Whilst a superior adaptation of GWTW was had already loaned out the services of
his foremost ambition, he was simultaneously Clark Gable, and now he was able to
juggling Ingrid Bergman’s introduction to extract from a desperate Selznick a coup
English-speaking audiences, and supervising for MGM – the rights to release the film.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Hollywood debut with
Rebecca. The public appetite for news about the
search for Scarlett
O’Hara, and drip-feeds
about other cast
members was advance
publicity made in
heaven. The
background production
news, greedily passed
on by the press, was all the “Melbourne’s Scarlett O’Hara”. Crowned on
marketing the film needed. stage that night, Miss Joyce Delanoue of St
For this reason the original Kilda became the Official Hostess at the
advertisement was a Metro for the GWTW season.
model of simplicity.
The next day the film opened at “advanced
The Event prices” at the Metro (two sessions daily) and
the nearby Regent (three sessions daily).
Such was the demand for Although the Metro received the glory, it was
tickets in Sydney and the Regent (3,277 seats) that pulled the
Melbourne that it opened crowds. The season at the Metro (1,479 seats)
in two theatres in both lasted three weeks, compared with seven
cities. This was five weeks at the Regent.
months after the opening
in New York. In
Melbourne, a Charity
Premiere attended by the
Governor of Victoria and
his wife was held at the
Metro Collins Street,
“Theatre of the Stars”, on
Friday 31 May 1940.
For weeks beforehand
MGM had been seeking
entrants for the title of

12 CINEMARECORD # 83