Rue de la Paix

After exploring Rhett and Scarlett's honeymoon adventures in New Orleans, we of course had to feature a honeymoon-themed collage this week. Enjoy! 

Scarlett's New Orleans Shopping Spree by carol@themovies featuring mirror jewelry

 

Doppelganger Dresses, Part 19: Scarlett's Red Mrs. Kennedy Dress

The Mrs. Kennedy era hasn't featured too prominently in our Doppelganger Dresses series so far, despite our first find ever being the dress Scarlett wears at the time of the Shantytown attack, in what's technically the last day of her marriage with Frank. Today we thought we'd remedy that by taking a closer look at the historical inspiration behind the red dress Scarlett wears when convincing Ashley to come to Atlanta and work for her. Check out the screenshots and the fashion plate after the jump!

Honeymoon Adventures, Part 2: The Churches of New Orleans

"He took her to plays and annoyed her by whispering that God probably didn’t approve of such amusements, and to churches and, sotto voce, retailed funny obscenities and then reproved her for laughing." 

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XLVIII

Yesterday we explored the theatres of New Orleans that Rhett and Scarlett could have frequented on their honeymoon, and today we turn our attention to our second installment of their honeymoon adventures with a look at the churches of New Orleans.  So without further ado, let's get started on examining the Butlers' more spiritually-minded pursuits.  

St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans

St. Louis Cathedral.  We would be remiss if we did not start our discussion with the most famous place of worship in the New Orleans: the St. Louis Cathedral, which presides in stately grandeur over Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter. Named for King Louis IX of France, St. Louis Cathedral bears the distinction of being not only the oldest church in the fair city of New Orleans, but also the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States. Originally established in 1718 as a modest wood building, the church was upgraded to a larger, brick structure in 1727, only to be destroyed in the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788. The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1789 and by the time of the church's completion in 1794, it had already been named a cathedral the year before. 

Later renovations were made in 1849-50 to bring the St. Louis Cathedral its "modern" state, which is how Rhett and Scarlett would have encountered on their honeymoon. The Illustrated Visitors' Guide to New Orleans (1879) describes the legendary church thusly: "the exterior of the Cathedral is of majestic appearance, while the the interior is at once grand, solemn, rich and artistic." Had she attended church there, perhaps Scarlett would have enjoyed her lofty surroundings, as well as felt a connection between the Cathedral's French origins and her own Robillard ancestry. Of course, this wasn't the only church in New Orleans in which Rhett could have brought his new wife, nor the only one that had a connection to Miss O'Hara's background. Which brings us to...

St. Patrick Church, New Orleans

St. Patrick Church. If ever there was a church to catch the fascination of Scarlett O'Hara (a questionable prospect to be sure), St. Patrick Church in New Orleans holds a strong claim to that crown. For as you'll see, the Church recalls Scarlett's own heritage in some truly lovely ways and one would venture that Rhett would score points with his bride if he took her there. In the first decades of the 19th century, Irish immigrants attended church services at St. Louis Cathedral--but its masses conducted solely in French did little to inspire these new arrivals from the Emerald Isle.

So with Gerald O'Hara-like pluck, they set out to establish their own church, one that would be grand enough to rival even the imposing St. Louis Cathedral. The cornerstone for the church, naturally named after the patron saint of Ireland, was laid in 1838 and by 1840 the church was complete. Modelled after the Exeter Cathedral, St. Patrick's elaborate Gothic architecture fulfilled the dreams of its Irish builders and the church soon become nationally renowned for its beauty. In 1850, it even served as the pro-cathedral for New Orleans while St. Louis went under renovation.

Noted for its "grave and quiet grandeur" per the Illustrated Visitors' Guide to New Orleans, St. Patrick's interior features three soaring murals behind the main altar: the Transfiguration of Christ in the main panel, with the Christ Walking on Water on the right--and St. Patrick baptizing the Princesses of Ireland in the halls of Tara. Of this, we think Scarlett would wholehearted approve. Perhaps a longer honeymoon would have even made a church-goer out of her, if  she only went to St. Patrick's Church to gaze at the royal princesses of Tara.

Christ Church, New Orleans

Christ Church. Thus far we have operated under the assumption that Rhett Butler only took his Catholic (in name, at least) wife to Catholic churches. But perhaps Mr. Butler had other ideas and used their honeymoon excursions to better acquaint Scarlett with the Protestant faith (Ellen Robillard spins in her grave as we speak!). If this was the case, an excellent option for our couple would have been Christ Church, the oldest Protestant Church in New Orleans and Episcopalian in its denomination. (GWTW of course hints that Rhett is Episcopalian). Christ Church was founded in 1803 by an intrepid band of 53 Protestants who endeavored to create the first non-Catholic place of worship in New Orleans. In order to decide on the church's denomination, they held a vote--and the Episcopalians won in a landslide, garnering 45 total votes. The church grew rapidly and by 1846 a new Gothic structure was built to better accomodate its growing faith community. Recognized for its buttresses and central tower, the Christ Church was described by Jewell's Illustrated Crescent City as "one of the most elegant church structures in New Orleans," thereby making it an ideal venue for our always image-conscious twosome.

So ends our look at the churches of New Orleans. We hope that you've enjoyed our exploration of the theatres and churches of New Orleans, and that it's given you a little more insight to the places that Rhett and Scarlett could have actually seen on their honeymoon.

Poster of the Week

In this week's poster (circa 1960s), Gerald and Ellen O'Hara appear to look on in disapproval as daughter Scarlett shares a passionate kiss with Rhett. 

 Image from movieposterdb.com.

Honeymoon Adventures, Part 1: The Theatres of New Orleans

"He took her to plays and annoyed her by whispering that God probably didn’t approve of such amusements, and to churches and, sotto voce, retailed funny obscenities and then reproved her for laughing." 

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XLVIII

Rhett Butler is a consummate romantic. After all, what young bride doesn't want to spend her honeymoon going to plays and churches? Of course, I kid only slightly, as the aforementioned passage never fails to make me gleeful and starry-eyed, creating as it does such a charming glimpse into Rhett and Scarlett's time together on their honeymoon. So using this passage as our inspiration, we will be taking a look at where in New Orleans the Butlers actually could have bickered and flirted their way through enjoyed their Shakespearean dramas and worship services. Up first today will be a post on the theatres of New Orleans, to be followed by the churches of New Orleans.

Perhaps no surprise given its flair for the dramatic and the different, New Orleans featured a robust circle of theatres, which started to come of age from the 1830s onwards. Many survived the ravages of the Civil War to continue to serve as cultural landmarks for the city. Today, we'll examine five of the main theatres of New Orleans in the post-war period, all of which are displayed in the illustration below: the Academy of Music, the St. Charles Theatre, the National Theatre, the Opera House, and the Varieties Theatre. Much of my information for this post comes courtesy of three wonderful old books: the Illustrated Visitors' Guide to New Orleans (1879); Jewell's Crescent City Illustrated (1873); and Standard History of New Orleans, Louisiana (1900).  Alright, introductions aside, let's enter stage left and begin Act I...

Illustrated print of the "Theatres of New Orleans" from the book The Great South, published in 1875.

The Academy of Music Opened originally in 1853, the Academy of Music operated for only a one year as an actual music academy before it changed its tune and re-emerged as a theatre in 1854. From there, the now-misnamed theatre quickly endeared its way into the hearts of New Orleanians and visitors alike, becoming one of the most popular spots within the city for entertainment. Indeed, the Illustrated Guide to New Orleans (1879) describes the Academy in most glowing terms: "Its name is never mentioned by our citizens except with a smile and expections [sic] of pleasure, and especially is this so with ladies and children, to whom the 'Academy Matinees' are always enjoyable events."  

The Academy also held a unique spot in Civil War history: it was here that actor and lyricist Harry McCarthy first introduced "Bonnie Blue Flag" to New Orleans audiences during September 1861. Soon after, New Orleans printers republished the song in zeal, helping to spread use of the tune as an anthem for the Confederacy. Perhaps it was after hearing an encore performance of the tune at the Academy of Music that Scarlett was encouraged to belt out the song on her infamous ride through the streets of New Orleans in an open carriage?

St. Charles Theatre  Built in 1835 for a staggering $350,000, the St. Charles Theatre would have suited Scarlett's opulent taste perfectly and could have therefore served as an optimal play-viewing spot for the new Mr. and Mrs. Rhett Butler. Boasting one of the largest stages in the United States and seating for more than 4,700 guests, the St. Charles Theatre was as lavish as it was enormous, furnished with a 12 foot high chandelier, gilded columns flanking the stage, and stage boxes adorned in yellow, blue, and crimson silk. It was regarded as one of the best theatres in the country and featured a wide range of performances, from traditional drama and comedy selections to opera and to variety acts where jugglers, singers, and comics took to the stage. As one of the nation's premier theatres, the St. Charles played host to many of the most famous actors of the period, along with a truly infamous one. John Wilkes Booth performed in the St. Charles Theatre's opening production of Richard III on March 14, 1864, along with several other plays before he departed the city on March 26.

National Theatre  While the glitz and glamor of the St. Charles Theatre would have no doubt appealed to our young bride, I fear the same cannot be said about the National Theatre. For you see, the National Theatre was also known during the period as the German National Theatre--and featured quite a number of German plays. With this knowledge at hand, we can only speculate about whether Rhett, in one of his less tender moments, escorted Scarlett to the National, simply to annoy her and poke fun at her lack of cultural depth.

The Opera House  Established in 1859, the Opera House (also known as the Old French Opera) was, quite simply, the social mecca of New Orleans--the de rigueur place to see and be seen within the Crescent City. So surely the Butlers, flush with money, dressed to the nines, eager to thumb their nose at polite society, would have made their appearances at the Opera House on their honeymoon. Like its elegant cousin the St. Charles, the Opera House maintained a reputation for sophisticated glamor. The Illustrated Guide to New Orleans does not spare its praise in declaring it to be"one of the finest buildings of the sort in the United States... supplied with all the care and conveniences required in a first class Temple of the Muses." While opera naturally served as its main attraction, the Opera House also featured an eclectic mixture of entertainment, including plays, receptions, concerts, debuts and Carnival balls--so Rhett and Scarlett would have found many opportunities by which to entertain themselves in its posh confines. 

Varieties Theatre Last but certainly not least, our look at the theatres of New Orleans ends with the Varieties Theatre, described as "a gem of a theatre" by The Illustrated Guide to New Orleans. Built in 1849, the original theatre, known as The Gaiety, was destroyed by fire in 1854 and reopened the following year under its new name. In a similar vein to the Academy of Music, the Varieties Theatre also helped to popularize a well-known Southern tune. "Dixie Land" was first performed in New Orleans at the Varieties Theatre in the late 1850s, where it was greeted by enthusiastic applause and soon spread in popularity. Throughout the mid-Victorian period, the Varieties enjoyed a reputation as a well-respected theatre house, drawing major actors from around the nation and serving as "favorite place of amusement" within New Orleans. 

Thus, our dizzying look at the many and varied theatres of New Orleans now draws to a close. But before we draw the curtain and take our final bow, we invite you to check out the slideshow below, which showcases all of the theatres mentioned in our post. The images are drawn from Jewell's Crescent City Illustrated, a souvenir book of New Orleans published in 1873. 

A Tribute to Butterfly McQueen (Part 2)

So what happened to Butterfly once Gone with the Wind was over (you can read about her time on the GWTW set here)? She returned to New York to star as Puck in a very unconventional adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream called Swingin' the Dream. Described by one reviewer as a "lavish jitterbug extravaganza," Swinging' the Dream was based on a choreography by Agnes de Mille and opened at Center Theatre on November 29, 1939.  It transferred Shakespeare's tale to late 19th century New Orleans, during "The Birth of Swing," with a black and white cast, including among others Benny Goodman, Dorothy McGuire, Louis Armstrong, Maxine Sullivan, Juano Hernandez and Oscar Polk.

Unfortunately, this ambitious project that sounded very good in theory was a resounding failure. Critics unanimously bashed it and it closed after only one performance. It also put an end to  Butterfly's theatrical career. She returned to Hollywood where between 1941 and 1947 she was typecast as a maid in a host of films: Affectionately Yours in 1941 with Hattie McDaniel, I Dood It in 1943, Flame of the Barbary Coast and Mildred Pierce in 1945 and Duel in the Sun in 1946. (Her appearance in Selznick's Since You Went Away in 1944 did not survive editing.)

One exception in this succession is the musical Cabin in the Sky from 1942, where Butterfly played a friend to Ethel Waters' Petunia. Cabin in the Sky had started as a very successful  all-black Broadway musical, but MGM's decision to turn it into a movie and its black cast raised concerns both from studio executives that were afraid the movie would fail to make money (especially in the South) and from the black press that feared the cliche depiction of black characters Hollywood had accustomed them to expect. But director Vincente Minnelli that had set out to "never knowingly offend blacks... or anyone else for that matter" managed to create a balanced film for the standard of the time. It should be noted, however, that Butterfly was not very happy on the set of this film, where she felt everyone and especially Lena Horne treated her with contempt.

In 1946, following her appearance in Duel in the Sun, Butterfly McQueen issued a statement that she wouldn't appear in any more comic maid roles, the kind of roles that were almost exclusively available to black actresses in the 1940s. She found herself unemployable in show business and took on a variety of jobs in factories, shops and restaurants. She also attended a number of courses at five different colleges over the years and in 1975, aged sixty-four, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in political science from New York’s City College.

In 1948, she appeared in Killer Dealer, a movie produced independently, outside of Hollywood and directed mostly at black audiences. And somewhat contrary to her resolution, in 1950 she starred as a scatterbrained maid in the ABC show Beulah, along with Ethel Waters. Her one-woman show at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in 1951 (in which she invested her life savings) was unsuccessful. During the 1950s and later, she  only occasionally appeared in minor shows and spectacles, but continued to be remembered fondly for her role in Gone with the Wind.

So what is the legacy of Butterfly McQueen in the world of Gone with the Wind? Her portrayal of Prissy was disliked by Margaret Mitchell and a few other reviewers, but acclaimed by the majority. For the black community, it was iconic of the degrading manner in which African Americans were presented in popular culture at the time and many remembered the moment Scarlett slaps her, as well as Prissy's antics in themselves, as things that were deeply embarrassing to watch. (We will perhaps have a post exploring the black community's reaction to Gone with the Wind.) The depiction of the Prissy character in itself, both in the book and in the movie, is one of the most controversial and most widely condemned aspects of Gone with the Wind and rightly so. 

Donald Bogle in Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films gives another, more forgiving interpretation to Prissy's part in Gone with the Wind as played by Butterfly McQueen:

"Some observers saw Butterfly as the stock darky figure. But there was much more to her performance. Had she been a mere pickaninny, she might have engendered hostility or embarrassed audiences. Instead she seemed to provide an outlet for the repressed fears of the audience. That perhaps explains why everyone laughed hysterically at her hysterics. For during the crisis sequences, the film built beautifully, and there was a need for release. Mere comic relief of the old type would have been vulgar. But because of her artistic mayhem, her controlled fright, and her heightened awareness and articulation of the emotions of the audiences, Butterfly McQueen seemed to flow wonderfully with the rest of the film. She had a pleasant waiflike quality, too, not in the patronizing style of The Green Pastures, in which the grown-up people behaved like rambunctious idiot children, but in a special, purely personal way. Tiny and delicate, Butterfly McQueen seemed to ask for protection and was a unique combination of the comic and the pathetic."

And to end this on a high note, here's a very touching moment recounted by David Thompson who interviewed Butterfly while researching for the documentary The Making of a Legend: “Gone With the Wind” "some time in the late ’80s":

"So we moved to a kind of island in the middle of the street, sat down there on a stone wall and did the interview. I suppose she was shy or afraid of going anywhere else. Well, considering the circumstances, it was a good interview— and later on, Butterfly was properly filmed for the documentary. But the most beautiful thing happened. Because of where we were, many people were passing close by all the time we were talking. But the crowd was often too dense to see anything clearly. Well, all of a sudden a young white woman crossing the street cried out, “Gone With the Wind!” She had heard Butterfly’s voice, without seeing her, and made the connection. And this young woman went down on her knees before Butterfly to thank her for the film. It was very touching and entirely natural."

Rue de la Paix

Continuing our look at the life and career of Butterfly McQueen, we're pleased to pay her tribute with a collage today, the 100th anniversary of her birthday.

Remembering Butterfly McQueen by gwtwscrapbook on Polyvore.com