JUST IMAGINE!

GONE WITH THE WIND

I once roomed with Olivia De Havilland's brother-in-law. She played Melanie Wilkes, the good-hearted friend of Scarlett O'Hara who was married to the man Scarlett loved, Ashley Wilkes. In real life, she married Will Price of my hometown after the film was released. The wedding was in McComb.

If you are wondering how such a famous movie star fell in love with and married an ordinary McCombite, and married him in McComb to boot, it's not a difficult connection. Will Price was the technical advisor on "Gone With the Wind." He taught the actors to speak like Southerners. Not only that, it was Will who brought the world's most famous film to little old McComb for the premiere showing in the State Theater! That event in 1939 ranks right up with the most famous things that ever happened in McComb!

A special daytime showing of GWTW was allowed for high school students who were dismissed from school for the day. The movie lasted 4 hours and had a 15 minute break in the middle. When Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," there was an audible gasp from the audience of high schoolers. It was the first profane word we had ever heard in a movie or on the radio. We also gasped at the price of a ticket! 75 cents!

In January, 1947, I spent a few months attending Gulf Radio School and rooming in New Orleans, and my roommate at 1010 Carondelet Street was Lloyd Price, Will's brother. He was working for the railroad there, but his home was in McComb. In his company we would board the back side of the locomotive for the Panama Limited on Fridays at 4:00 PM and we rode up to McComb for the weekend at over 100 mph, sitting in the rear-facing engineer's seats on the second engine! It faced backwards. We got off in McComb at 5:45 on the opposite side of the train from where the paying passengers boarded. I am sure this was contrary to railroad rules, but Lloyd worked on the trains, and every worker knew him.