- Other
- Segregation
- December 15, 1939
- City of Atlanta
The 'Gone with the Wind' premiere (1939)
Atlanta's festivities for the film's world premiere drew some 300,000 people to watch the stars' motorcade from the airport and about 18,000 outside Loew's Grand on premiere night. The film's Black actors were not invited.
The record
Under Georgia's segregation laws, Black cast members including Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen were not invited, and McDaniel was left out of the film's promotional material. Accounts say Clark Gable threatened to boycott until McDaniel persuaded him to attend. At the costume ball the night before the premiere, a young Martin Luther King Jr. sang in costume with the Ebenezer Baptist Church children's choir, and John Wesley Dobbs had tried to talk King Sr. out of taking part. McDaniel attended the Hollywood premiere thirteen days later.
Today: Loew's Grand burned in 1978. The Georgia-Pacific Tower stands on the site.