That evening, there were 300,000 people on the streets of Atlanta. It was December 15, 1939 and the premiere of Gone with the Wind was taking place at the Loew’s Grand Theatre. It was the culmination of three days of festivities organized by Mayor William B. Hartsfield: a limousine parade with the film’s stars, receptions, thousands of Confederate flags and a masquerade ball. At the behest of the governor of Georgia, Eurith D. Rivers, that day was a statewide holiday. Many years later President Jimmy Carter remembered it as “the greatest event that occurred in the South in my lifetime.”

Of the film’s protagonists, only Leslie Howard – who had left for the war – and director Victor Fleming (who had fallen out with producer Selznick) decided not to participate. For the African-American actors, including Hattie McDaniel, there was no choice: they were excluded from the ceremony because Georgia’s racist laws prevented them from sitting next to their white colleagues. McDaniel, however, had her revenge shortly after when she won the Oscar for best supporting actress, the first black person to win the statuette.