How ‘Gone With The Wind’ Got Made: ‘Moonlight And Magnolias’ At The Chatham Drama Guild

 “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” is the classic line Rhett Butler utters to Scarlet O’Hara at the end of the 1940 Best Picture winner “Gone with the Wind.” As the film celebrates its 85th anniversary, the Chatham Drama Guild will be opening a new production on Aug. 21 about the making of the movie.

 “Moonlight and Magnolias,” which originally opened in 2004 at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, is a dramedy written by Ron Hutchinson that focuses on a five-day period when producer David O. Selznick, screenwriter Ben Hecht, and director Victor Fleming lock themselves in Selznick’s office in a desperate attempt to finish writing the screenplay. The familiarity of the source material is what drives the play, according to Pam Banas, president of the Chatham Drama Guild and producer for the project. 

 “One of the things that is really fun is if people are familiar with the movie,” she said. “These guys act out scenes from the movie. [They] were closed in a room with peanuts, bananas, and water…and they got the screenplay written.”

According to Banas and Director Anna Marie Johansen, the play begins with Selznick having paused production on the filming of “Gone with the Wind” and explaining to Hecht that the film needs a whole new scenario. With the production losing money the longer it remained paused, Selznick called in Fleming, who was filming “The Wizard of Oz” at the time, to assist himself and Hecht in reworking the script. From there, our action rockets forward in an ultimate time crunch. That race against the clock creates a good deal of tension, notes Banas.

“What happens is that you see little snippets of Ben sitting, typing this thing up like a crazy person, while these other two men are acting out scenes from the movie to get this done,” Said Banas, “you invest in them getting the project finished.”

Production for “Moonlight and Magnolias” began in the middle of June, according to Johansen. The small cast of four features Andrew Haber as Selznick, Timothy Moynihan as Fleming, and Matt Gardner as Hecht. The role of Miss Poppenguhl, Selznick’s secretary, is shared by Banas and Kristen Wynn. Both Banas and Johansen noted an appreciation for the relationships the cast created.

 “That makes the dynamic of it interesting, too, because you develop a different relationship with the performers,” said Banas, with Johansen adding, “I have wonderful actors that work very well together, and no matter what happens in the play, they still are friends.”

The period of the setting — Hollywood in the late 1930s — is something that Johansen explained adds to the dynamic of the play.

 “It harkens back to the time of the golden days of Hollywood when the images on that movie screen can change a person's day,” she said. “You come out and feel elated because the heroes and the heroines finally achieved what they wanted to achieve or overcame an obstacle.”

It’s something that Hutchinson himself would agree with. In “Ron Hutchinson — A Celebration” written by David G. Anderson for the Utah Shakespeare festival in 2008, Anderson cites Hutchinson explaining his affection for the era and the people who made it. Anderson quotes Hutchinson as saying “‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ was really more of a celebration to correct the image of film’s Golden Age writers, directors and producers than an indictment of Hollywood. Though Hecht is the voice in the play, the hero is the producer David Selznick. Too often today, the producer’s image is that of the sleazy, behind the scenes guy who rakes in the money. Selznick had everything on the line: his fortune, reputation and his marriage. The producers of yesteryear are the ones upon which the industry was built.”

The dilemma Selznick faces in the play is something that Banas also said she found interesting.

 “Louis B. Mayer was Selznick’s father-in-law,” Banas explained. “So Selznick feels like Mayer wants him to fail — that this has all been set in motion so he won’t get this accomplished. There’s that tension of Selznick saying ‘I’ve got to — I can’t fail.’”

Banas and Johansen said to expect the show to be a fun time.

 “It brings to life something that people of a certain age love already,” said Banas. “They're in love with the story of the movie and so going and seeing the backstory is just really fun.”