The Road to Tara celebrates 70th anniversary of GWTW

The Road To Tara Museum will open its doors for FREE to the public for a two day event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the movie premiere of Gone With The Wind Dec. 11 and 12.

The Road to Tara museum in Jonesboro, located at 104 N. Main St. in the Official Home of Gone With The Wind, will unveil new collector items and a Civil War exhibit. The new museum displays will include an original costume piece, Scarlett O’Hara’s pantalets from the iconic scene in the movie where Mammy is cinching Scarlett’s corset before the bar-b-cue at Twelve Oaks. Other additions are vintage costume jewelry from the year of the movie’s release and rarely seen museum quality artifacts. In anticipation of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, a new exhibit will showcase Civil War relics. The Civil War played an important role in Margaret Mitchell’s book and she was quoted as saying that her classic novel was based on what happened to her family during the time of the battle of Jonesboro.

Special guest Herb Bridges, author of Gone With The Wind: The 3 Day Premiere, Gone With The Wind expert and collector will be at the museum on Friday, December 11 from noon- 4 p.m. Peter Bonner, Gone With The Wind and Jonesboro historian and author of Lost in Yesterday, will be on hand to talk with visitors Saturday, December 12, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m..

The Road to Tara Museum will also be celebrating the release of a special edition DVD boxed set of the movie and a documentary about the film.

For its 70th anniversary, Gone With the Wind will be available as a limited and numbered Ultimate Collector’s Edition, with both Blu-ray and DVD offerings. The two-disc Blu-ray and five-disc DVD collections, housed in velvet boxes, come with three new documentaries:

• 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year, a Turner Classic Movies documentary that aired in July, looks at the other great films from that year, including The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
• Gone With the Wind: The Legend Lives On takes a look back at the legacy of the film with interviews, archival footage, and visits to historical sites and museums.
• Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara Wars, a 1980 TV special that’s never made it to home video.

The collector’s editions include a 40-page hardcover book, a reproduction of the 1939 original film program, a CD soundtrack sampler, and eight 5×7-inch art prints.

The Road to Tara Museum had the honor of serving as one of the backdrop during interviews with Gone With The Wind experts for the Gone With The Wind: The Legend Lives On DVD. The Warner Brothers documentary crew filmed at the museum on February 26, 2009.

Since Clayton County is the official home of Gone With The Wind, it was a perfect opportunity for the film crew to shoot a portion of their documentary here.”  Patrick Duncan, president and CEO of the Clayton County Convention & Visitors Bureau said. “The crew shot footage with a few individuals, including Herb Bridges, who is a leading Gone With The Wind expert and collector, and who’s collection is housed in the Road to Tara Museum.”

Warner Brothers is releasing the digitally re-mastered version of Gone With The Wind with documentary and the DVDs will be available at the Road to Tara Museum gift shop the weekend of the two day celebration.

For the two day event, admission to the Road to Tara Museum will be FREE.  For an extra bonus, visitors are invited to take the Peter Bonner Gone With The Wind Tour at the discounted price of $10 (regular price $24.95). The tour takes visitors on a trip through Jonesboro exploring details of Margaret Mitchell’s famed book and its significant ties to the town. This recorded audio tour takes place on a 14 passenger mini bus.  The tour, normally available at 1 p.m. Monday through Saturday, will be offered every hour with the first tour beginning at 10:30 a.m. and the last tour boarding at 4:30 p.m. If you are interested in the tour, please call 770-478-4800 to make your reservations. The Road to Tara Museum is open special hours for this event, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.

The Road to Tara gift shop will also be offering 20% discount on entire purchase for the two day event. Coupons for the promotion can be picked up at the Road to Tara Museum and the offer excludes the limited edition Gone With The Wind DVDs.

The Clayton County Convention & Visitors Bureau is the official tourism marketing agency for Clayton County. The CVB advertises and promotes the area to bring business to hotels, attractions, historical sites and meeting facilities within Clayton County and its neighboring communities.

For more information see www.visitscarlett.com.