# How Did They Shoot the "Burning Atlanta" Scene in "Gone With The Wind"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662 "2008-04-16T23:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/1 "2008-04-16T23:20:25Z")
This is the scene that always stayed in my memory-Rhett and Scarlett escaping the burning city. Did they actually burn a big set down? Or was the scene done n miniature? Whatever technique was used, it is still one of the most impressive feats in film history. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/2 "2008-04-16T23:30:50Z")
The general belief is that they burned old sets from _King Kong, The Last of the Mohicans,_ and _Little Lord Fauntleroy_. The Burning of Atlanta was the first scene shot…the Tara set was built on the lot after the ashes were removed. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/3 "2008-04-16T23:31:55Z")
The fire was real, but Scarlett wasn’t. Vivien Leigh had not yet been cast in the role, so the stunt double for Scarlett isn’t seen very clearly. “The location for the filming was to be the Pathé lot in Culver City, not far from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. To clear this lot of some old standing sets in order to make way for the construction of the plantation mansions of Tara and Twelve Oaks and the Atlanta buildings and streets, the art director, William Cameron Menzies, proposed that the old sets be brought down in a monstrous nighttime conflagration which could be photographed to constitute the big scene of the burning of Atlanta, a climax in the film. This heroic suggestion was enthusiastically embraced. Two stunt men were engaged to ride in an old wagon in front of the burning sets to represent in long shot the flight of Rhett and Scarlett (and Melanie Wilkes and her newborn child) out of the defeated city.” (found [here](http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:9dElNcGqN_YJ:www.doctormacro.com/Movie%2520Summaries/G/Gone%2520With%2520the%2520Wind.htm+%22gone+with+the+wind%22).) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/4 "2008-04-17T01:49:47Z")
I am without cite, but thought they burned the set to _The Thief of Baghdad._ ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/5 "2008-04-17T01:53:38Z")
I taped a documentary about the making of GWTW and it did say they burned part of the King Kong set(the big wall on the island). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/6 "2008-04-17T02:01:50Z")
On the extras DVD there’s a making of that goes into detail. Many of the scenes with Rhett/Scarlett/etc in front of the burning buildings (including the famous scene where the wagon goes by the imploding building) had _nobody_ there at all- they were added in later using whatever passed for the 1939 equivalent of bluescreen. The Kong and other backlot sets were filmed/burned without actors present and the fire was artificially “spread” with a 1939 equivalent of a cut&paste. You can tell in these scenes there are slight proportion problems. The film was actually a breakthrough in special effects in many ways. Most of Twelve Oaks didn’t exist, for example- just the staircase (left over from a musical) and library and bedrooms. The (unrealistically) vast hallways and the facade were painted glass laid over the film, and if you’ll watch the guests arriving for the barbecue you’ll notice that the wagons pass under huge trees that cast shadows on the entry way but the wagons themselves are never in shadow. I’ve wondered how they’re doing the burning in the [GWTW Musical](http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article3720744.ece) that’s supposed to open in London this month. The vlogs on YouTube say the sets are incredible- much like _Les Mis_ and _Miss Saigon_ in the huge moving parts. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-shoot-the-burning-atlanta-scene-in-gone-with-the-wind/445662/7 "2008-04-17T02:09:26Z")
Trivia: the same sets (meaning the street facades, not just the land) used for Atlanta in _Gone With the Wind_ later became Mayberry in _Andy Griffith_, NYC in _The Untouchables_, Gotham in _Batman_ (the Adam West version) and various Earth or Earthlike planet scenes on _Star Trek_, most notably during the _City on the Edge of Forever_ episode. They’re gone now, though Tara (the movie facade) is supposedly somewhere in Georgia in storage. [Cool photos](http://www.1966batfan.com/batlocations2.htm) (scroll down for GWTW).