--- title: 'Gone With the Wind': Photos From the Set, 75 Years Later description: 75 years after its December 1939 premiere, LIFE.com presents photos from the set of the Civil War epic, 'Gone With the Wind.' canonical: https://time.com/3514029/life-gone-with-the-wind-the-great-american-movie-75-years-later/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-01T19:40:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:22.574Z og:title: 'Gone With the Wind': Photos From the Set, 75 Years Later og:description: 75 years after its December 1939 premiere, LIFE.com presents photos from the set of the Civil War epic, 'Gone With the Wind.' og:url: https://time.com/3514029/life-gone-with-the-wind-the-great-american-movie-75-years-later/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda20cc12a44966eb/6987613355a85960fca83482/141016-gone-with-the-wind-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Leigh, Gable and Fleming take a breather on set og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Gone With the Wind': Photos From the Set, 75 Years Later twitter:description: 75 years after its December 1939 premiere, LIFE.com presents photos from the set of the Civil War epic, 'Gone With the Wind.' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda20cc12a44966eb/6987613355a85960fca83482/141016-gone-with-the-wind-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE Gone With the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years Later by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 1, 2014 7:40 PM UTC  Leigh, Gable and Fleming take a breather on set Leigh, Gable and Fleming take a breather on setSunset Boulevard—Corbis by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 1, 2014 7:40 PM UTC As the greatest Hollywood Civil War epic of them all approaches its 75th birthday, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at the movie that Roger Ebert, in his [four-star 1998 review](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-gone-with-the-wind-1939), called “a towering landmark of film.” (_Gone With the Wind_ debuted on Dec. 15, 1939, in Atlanta.) “_Gone With the Wind_,” Ebert wrote, “presents a sentimental view of the Civil War, in which . . . the war was fought not so much to defeat the Confederacy and free the slaves as to give Miss Scarlett O’Hara her comeuppance. But we’ve known that for years; the tainted nostalgia comes with the territory. \[It\] is still a towering landmark of film, quite simply because it tells a good story, and tells it wonderfully well.” Here, LIFE.com presents photos from the recent book, [_Gone With the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years Later_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1618930702/). Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk).  Rhett (Gable) and Scarlett (Leigh) embrace, showing off the fabulous costume work of Walter Plunkett. Courtesy Everett Collection  Leigh, Gable and Fleming take a breather on set Sunset Boulevard—Corbis  Scarlett perfects her pout, standing alone, yet still the center of everything at the Twelve Oaks barbecue. Selznick International Pictures/Ronald Grant Archive—Alamy  On December 10, 1939, with the supervision of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Selznick's Atlanta burned on a Culver City lot. Print Collector—Getty Images  Mammy (McDaniel) tightens Scarlett's corset. Silver Screen Collection—Getty Images  December 25, 1939 Issue of LIFE Magazine LIFE Magazine  December 25, 1939 Issue of LIFE Magazine LIFE Magazine  Margaret Mitchell attended the Atlanta gala, despite having stated she wanted nothing to do with the movie. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kenneth Rogers—AP Photo  In an intimate (albiet staged) photo that appeared in LIFE in the March 11, 1940 issue, Leigh stands in the living room of her Beverly Hills home and places her Oscar on the mantel. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gone with the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years later book jacket LIFE ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3514029/life-gone-with-the-wind-the-great-american-movie-75-years-later/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3514029/life-gone-with-the-wind-the-great-american-movie-75-years-later/"},"headline":"LIFE Gone With the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years Later","datePublished":"2014-10-01T19:40:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:22.574Z","description":"75 years after its December 1939 premiere, LIFE.com presents photos from the set of the Civil War epic, 'Gone With the Wind.'","url":"https://time.com/3514029/life-gone-with-the-wind-the-great-american-movie-75-years-later/","keywords":["movies","Hollywood","photography","film"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda20cc12a44966eb/6987613355a85960fca83482/141016-gone-with-the-wind-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda20cc12a44966eb/6987613355a85960fca83482/141016-gone-with-the-wind-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Leigh, Gable and Fleming take a breather on set","caption":"Leigh, Gable and Fleming take a breather on set","creditText":"Sunset Boulevard—Corbis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3514029/life-gone-with-the-wind-the-great-american-movie-75-years-later/","name":"LIFE Gone With the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years Later"}}]}] ```