It's curtains for you

"Great balls of fire! They're my portieres now! I'm going to Atlanta for that $300, and I've got to go looking like a queen."

Thankfully, most of My Faithful Readers seem to be familiar with Gone With the Wind.

But some of you seem to be unfamiliar with Carol Burnett's classic parody, Went With the Wind.

In GWTW, both the book and the movie, Scarlett plans to go to Atlanta to get $300 from Rhett Butler to pay the taxes on Tara. To impress him, she needs a new dress and makes one from her mother's portieres.

Incidentally, according to Wikipedia, a portière is a hanging placed over a door or over the doorless entrance to a room. Its name is derived from the French word for door, porte.

In Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone with the Wind, the protagonist Scarlett O'Hara makes a new dress from her mother's green velvet portieres. Although the term is used incorrectly in the movie; the characters are talking about green velvet window curtains while portieres are so named because they hang in doorways. (The scene was famously parodied on The Carol Burnett Show when Carol Burnett, playing the role of Scarlett, wore not only the fabric but the curtain rod as well.)

In WWTW, Starlett needs to get $300 from Ratt Butler to pay the taxes on Terra. She also makes a dress from her mother's drapes.

The 1939 movie GWTW made its broadcast TV debut on Nov. 7-8, 1976 in two parts on NBC. Burnett's 18-minute parody WWTW aired Nov. 13, 1976 on CBS.

Carol Burnett later said the audience laughed for more than 10 minutes (a show record) when she first appeared and they had to stop taping until the audience settled down.

Burnett's dress is now in the Smithsonian. From Smithsonian.com on May 14, 2009:

Like Miss Starlett, the Smithsonian saw that Bob Mackie dress in the window and couldn’t resist it. That’s right, folks, the curtain rod dress now honors the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian as a part of the American History Museum’s Kennedy Center Honors collection. And that’s hardly something to fiddle dee dee about. Not only is the dress representative of Mackie’s decadently innovative designs, it’s a monument to the art of parody and the golden age of American comedy. No word yet on if and when it will go on public display, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted. Because, frankly, we give a damn.

I guess I'll have to go back to Washington, D.C. Again.

In the meantime, look for Went with the Wind on YouTube (Part One and Part Two).

Why did I want this? Well, I am all about alternative history. While I can appreciate the literary merit of GWTW (the book) and like the movie, certain, um, shall we say "glorified perspectives" set my vinyl teeth on edge. Besides I liked the green velvet and the curtain rod made me think of military epaulettes. 

But, I ask you, who looks better? Me or that Scarlett woman?

Went with the wind

I now completely understand why Carol Burnett said in a 2007 interview,

"When we were doing the Gone with the Wind take-off, it had originally been written that Starlet would come down the stairs with just the draperies hanging (off her). I went into the costume fitting on that Wednesday, and (fashion designer Bob Mackie) said, 'I have an idea.' He picked up the curtain rod with the dress on it, and I fell on the floor. I said, 'This is one of the most brilliant ideas anybody has ever come up with.' It was one of the longest laughs we’ve ever had on the show. You can see me kind of biting the inside of my cheek, trying not to laugh, before I could say, 'I saw it in the window, and I just couldn’t resist it.'"

Look for Went with the Wind online, especially YouTube (Part One and Part Two). It's hilarious. 

Oh, and you'll probably never see me in pink again.

It is so not my thing.

Green velvet, however....

Thanks Terrie!

I don't know nothin' 'bout restorin' dresses

http://terriespot.blogspot.com/

I was reading an interesting, but sad, article about how five of the dresses from Gone With the Wind are being restored and wished I had the talent to do that.

I got to thinking about Carol Burnett's classic spoof, Went With the Wind, and found this Blast from the past!

Add a brass curtain rod and I am all over that look!!