This green gown, often called the “Green Library Gown,” the “Apple Green Gown” or the “Screentest Gown,” was used for the Bazaar Scene in Gone With the Wind. It was rented from The Western Costume Company (see Selznick’s memo below). However, the gown was first used before any actual filming for the scene began. It was worn by Marcella Martin for her audition for Scarlett O’Hara, though she would ultimately be given the role of Cathleen Calvert. It was also worn by Vivien Leigh when doing screentests for Scarlett O’Hara, and in a technicolor screentest in December of 1938. Leigh wore the gown before it was publicly announced that she had the role of Scarlett O’Hara, and Walter Plunkett eventually designed her final wardrobe.

We can learn a good deal about the production and the costumes from Gone With the Wind from the many memos written by David O’Selznick before and during the film’s production. The following segment, taken from a memo from Selznick to Raymond A. Klune on February 3rd, 1939, is interesting because it discusses the costumes from the bazaar scene. It also mentions how he wished they could have recycled costumes from other productions that had been worn by stars such as Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford!

I was very disappointed by the costumes in the bazaar sequence during the dance. Much of the loveliness that this sequence could have had has been lost through the very ordinary costumes worn by the dancers. I am aware that we do not want to spend money building costumes for extras, but I think that we might have done much better if we had used a little more effort to get costumes worn by stars in other pictures, notably at M.G.M. Certainly, costumes worn by Miss Shearer and Miss Rainer and Miss Crawford and all the other woman stars in various costume pictures could have given us a much more beautiful effect in this scene than the cheap looking extra costumes that we have utilized...

The response from Klune to Selznick came on February 6th, 1936, and mentions where the costumes were obtained, and the process taken in having them made.

Your memorandum concerning costumes in the Bazaar Sequence brings up a number of important points that should be given consideration immediately, the principal one concerning authenticity, and another, to what extent Mr. Cukor’s approvals may be considered final by Mr. Lambert and Mr. Plunkett. 105 of the dresses on women in the Bazaar were manufactured by Western Costume Company from scratch in accordance with sketches and specifications as to color and material as submitted by us. Samples of the dresses were in each case shown to Mr. Cukor for his approval. In all cases, Miss Myrick felt that we were dressing the women much too nicely for Atlanta of that day.

However, both Lambert and Plunkett went very much further than she said was permissible in attempting to make the gowns lovely. It would have been just as easy and not much more expensive to have gone to more picturesque dresses because of having completely manufactured so large a number. While on a production rental basis, we are paying much less, some of the manufactured dresses have cost as much as $75.00 to make. It seems a shame now that they are not what you wanted. Lambert and Plunkett both took your instructions literally when you suggested that they accept Mr. Cukor’s approval on the wardrobe for bits and extras and, of course, feel very badly now that they have missed giving you what you wanted in the sequence…

The gown is used again in another film called Can’t Help Singing, interestingly enough with costumes by Plunkett, though this gown in particular was almost certainly rented from The Western Costume Company.

For more costumes reused in the classic Gone With the Wind, click here!