Selznick, Serendipity and Somerset Maugham

Part 4 Selznick begins to put the pieces together.

One of the problems facing David Selznick during the summer of 1937 was the paring down of the GWTW story line (book 1034 pages) to a reasonable motion picture screening time. He even toyed with the possibility of making it into two films, but that idea was almost immediately tossed out.

Selznick was anxious for Menzies to finish work on the 'Tom Sawyer' cave scene so that he could put all of his time to GWTW sets. At that date the full scope of the picture had yet to be laid out but there were a number of scenes he could work on Tara, the Wilkes house, Miss Pittypats home, ballroom scene and key scenes involving the evacuation of Atlanta.

The first star to be selected was first mentioned in a memo dated October 14, 1937 when Selznick told his people to open negotiations  with Leslie Howard's agent for the part of Ashley Wilkes. Late in November Lionel Barrymore was set (but later changed) to play Dr. Meade as tests continued for a number of feature players. At that same time a hurry up call went out for Shepherd Strudwick to be tested for the Ashley role.

Apparently Leslie Howard's agent was holding out for a high figure Selznick wasn't eager to pay.
(To be continued)

Tom Howard interviews Tom Barnes for the National Writers Association - VIEWS.

At our next meeting our featured speaker, the multitalented, dedicated writer, Tom Barnes will focus on his latest passion, writing a weekly blog column on the Internet. Tom's blog site, www.Rockthetower.com, is full of his sharply written pieces. This quiet, selective, and health-conscious Southern gentleman (or is it rebel?) was born during a hurricane to an artist mother. He grew up in Florida and Georgia, studied drama and literature at Middle Georgia College. During his hitch in the Navy he trained as an aviation mechanic. Tom was one of the original hurricane hunters with the Navy following WWII. This is the Subject of one of his well-researched nonfiction books, which one reviewer calls 'a treasure to read,' (The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in The Bermuda Triangle, 2007).

Tom Barnes also worked for many years as a lead actor in theater and television from New York to Pasadena, with the likes of Bert Lahr (Harvey), June Lockhart (Forty Carats), Cary Grant (North by Northwest) and Vera Miles (The Country Girl). The straightforward, never-at-a-loss-for-words Barnes once told a casting director, "What ever age you need, I'm it," and joked, during our interview at the Sportsman's Lodge in Studio City, with the joie de vivre of a kid, "I lied so much about my age at the time, sometimes I couldn't remember how old I really was!"

CIVIL WAR TO TOMBSTONE

Tom began writing short stories at the ripe old age of ten and read Hemingway, Steinbeck and Mark Twain with absorption, but it was working for Public Broadcasting as writer, host and narrator of twenty-four historical documentaries (on the South, the Civil War and the history of Georgia) that whetted his appetite for serious research and the creation of historical fiction. As he hounded historical societies, interviewed natives, and walked back through Civil War battle sites like Chickamauga, ideas for books began to percolate.

From Tombstone, Arizona, to the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Barnes studied Georgia native and Western legend Doc Holliday, eager to move past the superficial renderings in film of this folk hero. The result was Tom Barnes' most popular and best-selling book, 'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone,' which one reviewer says, 'is splendid and has the best telling of the Gunfight at the OK Corral I've ever read.'

Tom, who writes daily and refers to himself as "a morning person," also researched and wove what one critic called "a spell binding mystery"
entitled, 'The Goring Collection' that revolves around famous paintings stolen by the Nazis.

All this productivity has pretty much happened without an agent, although he still cherishes one rejection letter. It was from a partially retired woman named Kay Brown at ICM, who functioned many years ago as the story editor and chief go between for the reluctant novelist, Margaret Mitchell, and determined producer David 0. Selznick, while filming 'Gone With The Wind,'
which is part of his Doc Holliday tale.

How's that for serendipity?

His books are available at Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble or they can be ordered from local bookstores. To learn more, check out his web site, www.tombarnes39.com

Writers Notebook:

A few words from Somerset Maugham about story form.

'I think you must make sure not to divide the interest in a story; Checkov, however haphazard his appear sometimes, took care never to do this. In fact, in a story as in a play, you must make up your mind what your point is and stick to it like grim death. That is just another way of saying it must have form.' As Winston Churchill once said about words, 'I find the short words good and the old short words best of all,' Somerset Maugham said about story form. TB

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter. Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com