Laurence Olivier/Gone With The Wind

Details

Laurence Olivier/Gone With The Wind
An evening tailcoat and matching trousers of black wool woven with a black stripe, the tailcoat lined with black silk, labelled Roche and Pollock, Hollywood, Ltd. with typescript details: Mr.Lawerence [sic] Olivier, Date 9/9/39 No.1472 -- made for Laurence Olivier and worn by him to the three premires of Gone With The Wind, when he escorted the film's star Vivien Leigh; the first, the world premire in Atlanta, December 15th, 1939; the second in New York, December 19th, 1939; the third in Hollywood, December 28th, 1939; and a copy of a magazine Peter Stackpole - Life In Hollywood, 1936-1952 featuring a photograph of Olivier and Leigh at the 1940 Academy Awards banquet showing Olivier sticking his tongue out, captioned ...Vivien Leigh winner for "Gone with the Wind", eyes husband Laurence Olivier, loser for "Wuthering Heights"... (2)

Literature

VICKERS, Hugo Vivien Leigh, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988, p.79
CAMERON, Judy & CHRISTIAN, Paul J. The Art of Gone With The Wind - The Making of a Legend, New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1989, p.235

Lot Essay

Laurence Olivier escorted Vivien Leigh to all three U.S. premires of Gone With The Wind. Just as Leigh came to resent the fact that she would always be identified with her most famous role, Scarlett O'Hara - Olivier ...bridled at being dubbed 'Mr Scarlett O'Hara' for a time in the American press... On December 16th, 1939 after the triumph of the world premire at Atlanta, Leigh and Olivier flew to New York for the premire there, on arriving at Newark, their engagement was announced. Atlanta's papers then ran the front-page headline SCARLETT TO MARRY OLIVIER.

The corresponding still shows from right to left Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, David Selznick, Olivia de Havilland, Irene Selznick and John Hay Whitney in the forecourt of the Carthay Circle Theatre at the Hollywood premire of Gone With The Wind, December 28th, 1939.

Christie's are grateful to James L.Tumblin of the Shaw-Tumblin Collection for his help with the research into this lot.

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