Sunday Reading. The Reputation of Classic Women's Pictures: Gone with the wind?

Here's an interesting bit of Sunday reading for you: The Reputation of Classic Women's Pictures: Gone with the wind? discussing the legacy of Gone with the Wind the movie and other "women's pictures" of classic Hollywood in today's film culture. 

Enjoy and let us know what you think. Do you agree with the article's assessment?

Rue de la Paix: All Things Scarlett

This week's collage was developed for you by none other than your blogger iso. It features All Things Scarlett--items either named Scarlett or that reference Gone with the Wind (like the "Frankly I Don't Give a Dress" dress). So if you you're in the market for Scarlett O'Hara nail polish, Rhett and Scarlett lip gloss (it exists!) or Scarlett sunglasses, you'll find them here. You can scroll over the images to get their product info, and you'll find a complete list of products with links available after the jump.

All Things Scarlett by gwtwscrapbook featuring Bourne bags   

Beyond the Chignon, Part 1: Civil War Hairstyles

"The next day, Scarlett was standing in front of the mirror with a comb in her hand and her mouth full of hairpins, attempting a new coiffure which Maybelle, fresh from a visit to her husband in Richmond, had said was the rage at the Capital.  It was called 'Cats, Rats and Mice' and presented many difficulties...However, she was determined to accomplish it, for Rhett was coming to supper and he always noticed and commented upon any innovation of dress or hair." 

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XIII

It's a shame that my resourceful co-blogger Bugsie already christened our Marietta post "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Marietta but Were Afraid to Ask." 

Because, if you swap out "Marietta" for "GWTW-era hairstyles," that nicely describes our two-part Beyond the Chignon feature, where I'll tackle period hairstyles in more depth than you ever wanted a concise overview. 

This week I'll be discussing Civil War hairstyles, and next week will be post-war hairstyles. To allow for some semblance of order (there's a good bit of information floating out there about Victorian hair- go figure), after the jump I've categorized several popular hairstyles from the Civil Era period... along with some critical beauty advice from the time about how to choose the hairstyle that's right for you.   

Blueprints for the Butler Mansion: The Poll

So the time has come for you to vote. Which house do you think comes the closest to the Butler mansion? You can find the poll in the right sidebar just under our How We Do Run On blog description. The poll ends Sunday night. Vote away!

For a quick review of the contestants (click on their names to read the original posts): 

1. The Dougherty-Hopkins residence (The House of a Thousand Candles)

2. The James residence (The Governor's Mansion) 

3. The Richards-Abbott residence 

The Quotable Rhett Butler: Of Something Rich and Strange

Call me Ishmael Scarlett. You see, this week's edition of our Quotable Rhett Butler series features a literary reference that, until recently, went over my head, completely. Granted, The Tempest was never my favorite among Shakespeare's plays (I am more of a gloom and doom, Macbeth kind of gal), but I was still surprised that not even after reading it twice did I notice the Rhett line staring me in the face. The Rhett line from one of my favorite and most often reread dialogues in the entire book... Oh well, here it is, in all its elusive glory:

"And I fear that when you can afford to fish up the honor and virtue and kindness you've thrown overboard, you'll find they have suffered a sea change and not, I fear, into something rich and strange..."  

-- Gone with the Wind, Chapter XLIII

This is from the conversation Scarlett and Rhett have on Aunt Pittypat's porch in December of 1866, after Ella is born. Scarlett sets forth her principles in life, that include acting like a fine honest rogue now and trying to be a lady later, when she could afford it. I've always found it interesting that it's Scarlett who offers the nautical metaphor in the first place,  for it seems unlike her to be so eloquent: 

"I've felt that I was trying to row a heavily loaded boat in a storm. I've had so much trouble just trying to keep afloat that I couldn't be bothered about things that didn't matter, things I could part with easily and not miss, like good manners and--well, things like that. I've been too afraid my boat would be swamped and so I've dumped overboard the things that seemed least important."

                            -- Gone with the Wind, Chapter XLIII

Her words offer Rhett the perfect opportunity to expand on the metaphor. He talks about the difference between Scarlett and her honorable neighbors who would rather go down with their ships than renounce their principles, and expresses doubt at the idea that a transformation like the one she suffered could be reversed. Both of which, must be said, forebode Scarlett's evolution in the book and the doom of their marriage. 

His literary allusion is to Ariel's song from the first act of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It is, I think, one the most famous parts in this play, the one where the airy spirit Ariel, ordered by his master, sings to Fernando to lead him to Miranda. At this point, Fernando is convinced his father drowned in the shipwreck that brought him to the island, and Ariel does nothing to dispel this idea, on the contrary (btw, have I mentioned that I do like Ariel?):

"Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell

Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell."
                    (1.2. 451-468; emphasis mine)

So what about you? Do you all love The Tempest and I was alone in my Scarlett-like oblivion to this reference?

Ariel on a Bat's Back by Henry Singleton (1819)

Poster of the Week

This week's poster was originally used in 1939 and 1940, then reprinted in 1971 by Celestial Arts of San Francisco as an 23x35 image and shows Scarlett running through Five Points during the evacuation of Atlanta. Enjoy! 

Image from moviegoods.com.  Poster information cited from Herb Bridges' "Frankly My Dear..."

Charleston Recipes from Rhett Butler's Real People

I will be completely honest with you: despite my best efforts to the contrary, cooking makes me about as agitated as Aunt Pittypat mid-swoon--easily excitable, hopelessly flustered, prone to fainting at the slightest provocation, and liable to be revived only by a handy swoon bottle (okay, maybe the last two are teeny tiny exaggerations).  

But although cooking isn't a natural talent of mine, I must say I'm very excited to introduce yet another feature here, something that we fondly call Southern Cookin'. From time to time, we'll be posting authentic Southern recipes (or "receipts" as they said in yesteryear) from the era of Gone with the Wind.

Today we're getting things started with a five-course dinner from Charleston, that genteel city and birthplace of Rhett Butler. 

Some quick background info: the recipes, which you'll find after the jump, are excerpted from Charleston Recollections and Receipts: Rose P. Ravenel's Cookbook. Rose P. Ravenel (1850-1943) was the daughter of a Charleston planter, merchant and shipowner, who kept lifelong journals and sketches describing Carolina coastal life, her family's lineage, and her memories of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

She also collected more than 200 recipes from her Charlestonian friends--and here's my very favorite part--this collection was based on an earlier cookbook developed by her mother, Eliza Butler Ravenel (emphasis mine, of course!). Meaning that these recipes were not only circulating during antebellum Charleston, but were actually known and used by Rhett's own Butler kin (yes, yes, that is only *if* he was a real person, I know).

The author of the cookbook (wisely) updated the instructions for modern times--so you won't see any steps like "boil water in a pan over a wood burning fire" or "cure the meat for five days in the smokehouse on your plantation."  But beyond that, they appear as they did 150 years or so ago.

If you're more clever than me when it comes to culinary matters and try out these recipes (or any others we post in the future), let us know. We'd be curious to find out if they were, in fact, tasty or if they should best be left to the historical dustbin.  Either way, I hope they provide an interesting glimpse into the life of antebellum era.