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'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn'

In 1939, the Hollywood Production Code (a list of things that could or couldn't be shown/said on screen), and the people that enforced it, had flagged Clark Gable's now infamous last line in Gone with the Wind as potentially volatile. Apparently, they thought damn was too street, too racy, perhaps too uncivilized.
Some suggested alternatives were 'Frankly my dear, I just don't care'; 'Frankly my dear, my indifference is boundless', and then there's my personal favourite, 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a hoot'. It's to producer David O. Selznick's credit and will power that he stuck to his 'damn' guns and kept the original line. Of course, he also had to pay a 5000 fine, but I'm sure in the end, he didn't give a damn.

Everyone knows that Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award. If you didn't know that, well, crack a book once in awhile Beavis. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy, and ended up taking home the award. To put that into some kind of perspective, as to its importance, Hattie was the first African American to be invited to the awards as a guest and not as a servant. A bittersweet victory for a woman who wasn't even allowed to attend the Georgian premiere of the film due to the state's segregation laws.
As a matter of record, it would be another 51 years before another African American woman would win the award. (Whoopie Goldberg for 1990's Ghost)



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