Blog | Saving Tara

… “when will the project be finished”….

I receive at least one, “when are you going to be finished”, comment per week which I of course feel obligated to stop and answer and explain that the Saving Tara project is not a rebuilding of Tara using the original pieces,…but preserving the original pieces to keep them from rotting to the ground, documenting their use in the film along with any stories … [Read more...]

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The first step in learning the secrets of the Tara façade was to show up….

The first day I walked into the barn and experienced the pile of go carts and assorted plumbing fixtures piled amongst the pieces of the Tara façade MY EDUCATION BEGAN! At that moment I felt the overwhelming dread of someone who looks at a job and realizes it is way over their skill level and even their physical strength to get it accomplished….but once I … [Read more...]

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A book and a Birthday and the tie that has bound them for 75 years.

On June 30, 1936 Margaret Mitchell’s, “little book” called Gone with the Wind, was published and set in motion a juggernaut that would sell more than 30 million copies (to date) and procured for her a Pulitzer Prize. She would later sell the rights to Hollywood Producer David O. Selznick who went on to create the film version of Gone with the Wind which … [Read more...]

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Telling the truth of the Gone with the Winds stories,..one piece at a time

According to Margaret Mitchell, the “shooting of the Yankee” at Tara stirred lots of conversation and brought many bags of letters commending and condemning the stories inclusion in 1936. I grew up near the Fitzgerald property and heard many an “old timer” say that the shooting occurred in that house during the Late Unpleasantness (the name the little old … [Read more...]

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Should Gone with the Wind be shelved as propaganda?

While many have referred to Gone with the Wind as propaganda over the years or claimed that its tale was nothing more than the sympathetic southern “lost cause” pamphlet in jumbo size,….none have come forth to face my research and deny what I have documented. In fact on a number of occasions I have even sought to “pick a fight” with the doubters, the media … [Read more...]