This is not a new feature at all, since almost every Gone With the Wind page has something on this. I just wanted to include it on my page too! =)

Every girl who had read Gone With the Wind had dreams of portraying the saucy Scarlett O'Hara. When it was announced that there was to be a talent search for that very role, David O. Selznick did not expect to pick up an unknown girl to play the role. It was more about publicizing the movie, since no amateur actress could play the 'most challenging role in screen history'. He set himself on a better goal - to scour Hollywood and pick his Scarlett from the established stars. Here are some that were considered.

* Bette Davis *

More than 40% of the movie-going public chose her as their ideal Scarlett. Bette refused the role, since she did not want to play opposite Errol Flynn (as Rhett Butler). The Warner Brothers, who both Errol Flynn and Bette Davis were under contract to, were willing to make them both available for the movie, but not just Bette. She was so upset about being deprived the role that she had Warner Brothers make a movie about the South with a Scarlett-like heroine, called Jezebel. Selznick was upset when Bette won an Academy Award for her role in that movie, which came out a year before Gone With the Wind.

* Paulette Goddard *

Selznick liked her screen tests more with every new viewing, but she lost the role on a 'technicality' -- she was living 'in sin' with Charles Chaplin. When it was announced that Selznick was interested in the actress, the women's clubs voiced their outrage. When she could not give Selznick a marriage licence for his inspection, she lost her potential role as Scarlett O'Hara. (All that for being very Scarlett-ish -- she went against the rules of society and did as she pleased. Does that not sound like Scarlett?) She was the only other actress, besides Vivien Leigh to be given a Technicolour screen test.

* Lucille Ball *

A story of revenge, it seems. When Selznick invited the studios to send over their actresses who wished to be Scarlett, a redheaded actress named Lucille Ball arrived one rainy day. She was shown to Selznick's empty office, and told to wait. Selznick arrived as she was drying her drenched hair. She read the lines quickly, and then was dismissed. Years later when Lucille Ball had made her fortune in producing her own television show, she purchased the studio and moved into Selznick's old office.

* Katherine Hepburn *

Even though she was pronounced box-office poison by motion picture exhibitors, Selznick doubted whether she could have kept Rhett Butler's interest for ten years with her sex appeal, and she refused to test for the role, Katherine Hepburn was still very much in the running for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. Margaret Mitchell carefully said that she looked well in hoopskirts, and George Cukor, her discoverer and friend, pushed for her in the role. Selznick looked upon her as a possibility, stating that with old stars like Hepburn and Howard "we have a lovely picture for release eight years ago." (Personally, I am VERY glad he felt that way, because I am not blown away with Hepburn's 'talent').

* Margaret Sullavan *

A client of Selznick's brother Myron, like Carole Lombard and Vivien Leigh, Margaret Sullavan should have been at an advantage. Unfortunately, having an insider on the family did not help since Selznick was just as brutal with his brother as he was with any other producer, not being able to play favourites. Margaret Sullavan got no more than exposure and consideration from the audition.

* Carole Lombard *

Lombard was fleetingly considered by Selznick. Her affair with Clark Gable would have brought publicity (as did the Olivier-Leigh romance), but Selznick had trouble matching her zany humour with the role of the vixen Scarlett.

* Norma Shearer *

Norma Shearer was the leading contender for the coveted role, though she was thirty-seven and Scarlett was but sixteen when the film opens. Even though she was past the height of her fame, she had a large following that couldn't be ignored. When Selznick leaked her name as a possible Scarlett, the public outcry was tremendous. Her fans were upset at the thought of their classy favourite playing a snotty Southern . . . you-know-what. Norma Shearer withdrew her name from the role.

* Margaret Mitchell *

At one point during the 'Search for Scarlett', the press announced that it would be none other but her creator who would portray the saucy Scarlett. The newspaper story said that Mitchell had been seen taking acting lessons at Selznick's studio. It was all nonsense, though, since she wanted nothing to do with the film.

* Lana Turner *

It was said that she had been discovered behind a soda fountain at Shwabb's. Nonetheless, the actress got her shot at trying out for the role. Selznick found her too young and inexperienced for the role, and unable to understand the complex character of Scarlett.

* Miriam Hopkins *

Selznick did not feel the need to test this actress, since she had played the role of Becky Sharpe, a character very much like Scarlett. The similarities between the heroines, one created by Thackeray and the other by our own Margaret Mitchell, had not gone unnoticed, and this put her at an advantage. She had an intense beauty, and she came from the South. Perfect. Or so you would think, for upon screening Becky Sharpe, Selznick had very little enthusiasm for the actress.

* Ann Sheridan *

A new star in a string of Warner Bros films, Ann Sheridan held a special appeal. Selznick liked what he saw, and deemed her a possibility. Her name soon slipped from the press as she was overshadowed by more prominent stars.

* Tallulah Bankhead *

(I have seen her name spelled Tallula, Tallulah, Talullah, Talulla .... AAA!)

A daughter of the South, she was a veteran of the stage but had not made it to the screen. She really wanted the role of Scarlett, but Selznick remained unimpressed by her screen tests. Secretly, he wanted to cast her as the madam of the Atlanta brothel, Belle Watling, but was not comfortable with offering her the role. He gave the job to an underling, who understandably ignored this task.

* Jean Arthur *

The thirty-three year old actress was more a woman than a girl, and she held no hint of being a charming Southern belle, but Selznick still tested her for the role. It was suspected that his motives for this were not entirely professional. Before his marriage, in the twenties when they had both been at Paramount, Selznick had been in love with Jean Arthur. His heart ruled his mind when he ordered a screen test for Jean Arthur. She was the first established screen star to do a complete test for the role. Selznick commented in a letter to his wife: "[She] has been no end of trouble . . . I look at her as though I had never known her before!" It is rumored that Arthur burned her screen test after being refused the role.

* Susan Hayward *

Suggested by his wife, Irene Mayer Selznick, Selznick was wary to test the pretty model. He relaxed when he met Edythe Marrener at a fashion show, and he tested her. She changed her name to Susan Hayward, but the hat model's test was amateurish and wooden, and so she was dropped out of the running.

* Joan Fontaine *

The twenty-year old actress was under contract to RKO when she was invited to George Cukor's office to read for the role of Scarlett. She was not a success at RKO and the role would have been appreciated in her struggling career. Upon arriving, she was upset to learn that she was not wanted at all for the role of Scarlett, but that of Melanie! She told them in a huff that she was not interested in that role, and as she flounced to the door, she said, "Oh, you might speak to my sister Olivia."

* Others *

As the date for the start of the movie loomed closer and closer, the search became more desperate. The list ran with names such as Claudette Colbert, Jean Harlow, Joan Bennett, Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, Irene Dunne and Marie Dressler.

The following is from an official studio list of all the actresses tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, where they were from, and the date on which they were tested. It is merely copied from there, spellings and all.

Girls Suggested for Scarlett but whose Tests were General:

I am SO glad that Vivien Leigh was chosen. Can you imagine? "GONE WITH THE WIND"! Starring Fleurette DeBussy as Scarlett O'Hara! (I'm being mean, since I don't know who she is, but try saying that with the other actresses. Vivien Leigh fits perfectly.)

The information for this page was taken from:

"Pictorial History of Gone With the Wind" by Gerald Gardner and Harriet Modell Gardner, and

"David O. Selznick's Gone With the Wind; The rich and fascinating story of how Hollywood's legendary producer created one of the greatest movies of all time" by Ronald Haver