the red earth of Tara: a competition
I couldn't get the image I wanted; indeed, any of the images I wanted. But while we're on the subject, here's a competition for you! There will be a fabulous [sic] prize for the first person who can tell me where the phrase "gone with the wind" comes from.
(Note: All members of the Spaniel family and its tenants and employees are ineligible for this competition.)
Thinking about it, I can offer a bonus if you guess correctly the image I wanted. Note that I will ideally want you to know what's happening in the scene and what the music is doing. (Spaniels may have a go at the bonus question.)
All answers should be emailed to me, at the email address in the sidebar. I will award the prize to the first correct answer, and the bonus to the first correct guess as to the image I was looking for.
In case you don't feel like helping me celebrate my brief "Red Earth of Tara" moment, here is a nice piece of Hollywood trivia from the obituary of Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick in the New York Times, June 23, 1965:
"Nothing in Hollywood is permanent," Mr. Selznick said in 1959 on a Hollywood set, as Tara, the mansion built for "Gone With The Wind," was being dismembered and shipped to Atlanta, Ga. "Once photographed, life here is ended. It is almost symbolic of Hollywood. Tara has no rooms inside..."
Click on the image below for more of this kind of thing.
9 comments:
The phrase is from a Dowson poem, isn't it? Unless someone got there before him:
I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.
Oh Bennnnnnn-uh!!! I said send me an email! But then, no other blighter has even bothered to try. And it is practically cheating, since I happened to know you knew the answer (since you've posted on Dowson).
I shall contact you separately re your prize: I have some spare poetry books, I mean duplicates, some of which are very good.
Does anyone want to have a go at the picture I wanted from the movie? Come ON, guys. There are sweets in it for you.
Oh, sorry - I'm under the weather and was up at 3.30am calming an under-the-weather toddler. I'm a bit dim even when at the top of my game...
Haven't a clue about the picture, though...
Interesting that Dowson, who is remembered for little else, should have come up with phrases fit for 2 great movie titles.
And the image you wanted was Scarlett, just having eaten a raw something or other (radishes? potatoes?) holding up her fist and saying, "As God as my witness, I'll never go hungry again" *music swells* La-LAAAAA-la-laaaaaaaaaa - La-LAAAAA-la-Laaaaaaaaa
Sis
xxoo
Unless it's Scarlett and Ashley, when he puts the dirt in her hand.
I'm sending you e-mail.
Sis
Sis, you are my new hero. I opened the email first and it gave me INORDINATE pleasure. For the benefit of all I can share the fact that the email was pictures of two extremely ghastly commemorative plates, featuring the two above-mentioned shots from the film. I want them! (not...)
Anyway - you win! I had thought that people would be much more generally enthusiastic about this competition. I am frankly a bit disappointed; but you have tempered my disappointment with your plates.
As I gave you a plane ticket last year I think I will limit myself to sweets for your prize. If you tell me what you crave from, say, Tesco's or Sainsbury's, it will wing its way to you forthwith. And something for the puppies!
Richard, well that's as may be! You clearly haven't read Pierrot the Minute (now there's a title to conjure with). There'll be more of our Ern coming along - we're big on him here at the mo.
No, clearly I haven't. I have a lovely limp leather edition of Dowson, which is somewhat less lovely since I tried to read it and, as a direct consequence, threw it across the room. It's all so attenuated and etiolated; I think of the gnat sighing in Alice's ear, and I cannot rejoice in insects either.
Making you inordinately happy is all the sweets I need.
Sis
xxoo
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