Gone With The Wind
Artist: Howard Terpning
Format: UK Quad (30"x 40")
Condition: Excellent
Year: 1969
DescriptionBreaking box office records, (adjusted for inflation it remains the world’s highest grossing film) and winning a-then record ten Academy Awards in 1940, “Gone with the Wind” had a huge commercial and critical impact on original release. Its legacy has remained intact with the film now achieving iconic status and regularly appearing on “Greatest Films” lists. Further testament to the film’s lasting appeal and success is the fact that it regularly sees re-releases around the world.
The importance of “Gone With The Wind” in the history of 20th century cinema is shown by the fact that this is the only stand-alone film to have featured in a single auction by a major auction house. In 2002, Christie’s held an auction purely devoted to this film with over 300 Lots of posters, clothing, scripts, photos, props, autographs etc. Whilst other major auctions have featured the "James Bond" & "Star Wars" franchises, the "Gone With The Wind" auction remains a unique event & a symbol of the films importance in the cinematic firmament.
The Quad poster displayed here was released to coincide with the film’s 30th anniversary re-release in the UK in 1969, this being part of a wider global re-release that the film enjoyed. A beautiful design by Howard Terpning, the flaming imagery and illustration of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh embracing works well in capturing the film’s tale of a passionate-yet-doomed romance set in Atlanta during the American Civil War (Original release Quads from 1939-40 do not appear in the market, wartime privations in Britain meant that cinema poster advertising reverted to simple text-based posters).
Though the Terpning imagery post-dates the original cinematic release of "Gone with the Wind" by 30 years, it too has seeped into the collective consciousness. A prime example of this is shown by the Roger Kastel design of the US 1-Sheet poster for "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) (image courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com). This poster is referred to as the "Gone with the Wind-Syle" for very obvious reasons.
The Quad differs substantially from the original US 1-Sheet for the film (c' 1939) which offers a more restrained approach, possibly as the picture was yet to make its mark on the cinema stage (image courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com). Although still featuring Gable and Leigh in a romantic embrace, the poster is unusual in its design which resembles that of a framed painting complete with pretty floral decorations around the rim.