Gone With the Wind Screen Test Script by [GONE WITH THE WIND - THE FILM]. MARGARET MITCHELL - 1939

Los Angeles: Selznick International Pictures, 1939. Original mimeographed three-page “Reading Scene” screen test script between the characters of Belle and Melanie dated November 28, 1938 given to actress Billie Dove for a screen test as producer David O. Selznick sought out the recently retired actress to play Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind. The scene is the classic moment when Melanie thanks Belle Watling for lying to save her husband Ashley Wilkes from being arrested by occupying Union soldiers. The script is accompanied by a Western Union telegram to Billie Dove from agent Arthur M. Landau, January 18, 1939, in part: “Please telephone me … on receipt of this wire as David O. Selznick is interested in talking to you about the part of Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind”; with a Typed Letter Signed to Dove from Landau on his agency Artists and Authors Corporation of America, January 30, 1939, in part: “David Selznick still thinks that you are right for the part of Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind. He tells me that he did see you recently at some function...From a personality standpoint you may be just what he wants...within the next twenty four hours he will have his representive Mr. Maxwell Arnow or [film director] Mr. George Cukor call on you in person and discuss the part....” Billie Dove, was a star who enjoyed tremendous popularity in the silent era earning the popular nickname of The American Beauty, had retired from films in 1932. The roles in this massive production were actively competed for, and despite Selznick’s efforts to entice her, Dove could not be lured into returning to the screen, and the role of Belle Watling went to Ona Munson. Accompanied by the original envelopes for the telegram and letter. This is the only screen test script we have seen to have survived from Selznick’s screen tests to cast the production.