Vivien's 100th Birthday

                                 Vivien's 100th Birthday


              I remember a couple of years ago, holing up in the basement, my eyes pasted to the computer screen as I drank in the life of one of Hollywood's greatest actresses, Vivien Leigh... better known as Scarlett O'Hara from the classic and astoundingly successful film "Gone with The Wind" in which she starred alongside a dashing young Clark Gable. My mind floats towards her legend, especially on this Nov. 5th, the 100 year anniversary of the astoundingly beautiful actress' birth, the day her charm first debuted itself on this earth. That's when it all began! And although this astoundingly beautiful British actress' presence has been been long absent from the cameras and sets of Hollywood, her legend shall blaze on in the spark of her roles in such notable films as the Southern Belle, Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. So, in her memory on this special day, I have compiled a list of 10 fascinating facts about the gorgeous screen legend. enjoy!;) 

(1.) When she started working with a talent agent at the start of her career, her married name had been Vivian Holman. Despite her agent's wishes to change her name to "April Morn" she instead opted to switch the spelling of her first name from Vivian to Vivien and then decided upon the last name Leigh, after her husband Herbert Leigh Holman.

(2.) Vivien Leigh could never seem to forgive the first critic who had referred to her as "a great actress" for, in her opinion, it left her with, in her own words "such an onus and such a responsibility" of which she had been simply "unable to carry".

(3.) Vivien ultimately won the role of Scarlett over Paullette Goddard, Jean Arthur, and Joan Bennett all of whom had been narrowed down for the role. 

(4.) The parents of both Vivien Leigh and Scarlett O'Hara were from French and Irish descent. 

(5.) In the famous "I'll never be hungry again" scene in which Scarlett downs a radish and then vomits, the sound of vomiting had to be recorded by her costar Olivia DeHavilland, the reason having been speculated as to have evolved around Vivien's refusal to make such noises due to her idea of it not being very "lady-like".

(6.) Vivien Leigh was paid between $25,000 to $30,000 dollars for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind" while her costar, Clark Gable was paid $120,000 dollars for his role as Rhett Butler. 

(7.) The actor who played Beau Wilkes (Melanie and Ashley Wilkes' young son) in Gone With The Wind later stated that Vivien had been very kind to him and was "one of the loveliest ladies" he had ever met.

(8.) Vivien was 25 when she played Scarlett O'Hara while the actress who depicted her mother was merely 28 yrs. old, scarcely three years older.

(9.) Tennessee Williams (the author of "A Streetcar Named Desire) said that Leigh as Dubois was "everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of".

(10.) Vivien Leigh was later noted to have claimed that it had been her role as Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire that had finally "tipped me over into madness". 

And that concludes our post, my lovely readers! You now know 10 new facts about Vivien that you'd probably never known whilst looking upon her sparkling sapphire eyes and beholding her mesmerizing performances amidst the silver screen. So, with that said, cheers to Vivien and a Happiest 100th Birthday to her! May her legend live on for hundred years yet to come! Have a wonderful Tuesday night, my Beauty Queens! xoxo <3