Gone with the Wind is now gone from The Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee. The theater’s board deemed the 1939 film “insensitive” to their larger audience after receiving “numerous comments” that stemmed from a screening on Aug. 11. As such, the title has been dropped from next year’s planned summer movie series.
The complaints prompted the theater to release this statement:
“While title selections for the series are typically made in the spring of each year, the Orpheum has made this determination early in response to specific inquiries from patrons,” read a statement from The Orpheum Theatre Group. “The Orpheum appreciates feedback on its programming from all members of the mid-south community. The recent screening of Gone With the Wind at the Orpheum on Friday, August 11, 2017, generated numerous comments. The Orpheum carefully reviewed all of them.”
It continued:
“As an organization whose stated mission is to ‘entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves,’ the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population.”
This, as you probably expected, gathered a pretty negative reaction. Here are some of the comments from the theater’s Facebook page (that you can read/engage with here):
The wife of the late Fred Crane, Terry Lynn Crane, wasn’t too happy about the theater pulling the film:
“By making a statement, they are trying to make a problem. They are inciting racial division and it’s only escalating.”
She added that if Crane were alive today, he would be saddened:
“I think he would be very saddened by all of this,” she said before adding with a laugh, “But I haven’t talked to him the last few days.”
She added:
“We should keep our history, we should keep things that are historic so we can learn from them. We’re running down a slippery slope. What’s going to be next? Total censorship?”
She also made this point:
“Hattie McDaniel’s Mammy was such a milestone for black performers because she opened up the door right there for people to recognize black performers and all that they contribute to art.”
This situation does pose some interesting questions. Whatever your thoughts are on the matter, be sure to tell us in the comment section below!