Gone with the Wind Trivia
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99 free Gone with the Wind trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
47 free Gone with the Wind trivia questions with answers. Gone with the Wind is still, adjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing film ever made, and it began as a thousand-page novel by an Atlanta journalist who never published another. This quiz covers both: Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer, the poem behind the title, the heroine originally called Pansy, the Irish hill that named Tara, and the last line about tomorrow. Then the film: David O. Selznick's $50,000 rights deal, the 1,400 women interviewed for Scarlett, Vivien Leigh's arrival on the night Atlanta burned, the fired director, the MGM deal for Clark Gable, Max Steiner's marathon score, the truth about the 'damn' fine, the Atlanta premiere Hattie McDaniel could not attend, her segregated Oscar table, the eight competitive Academy Awards, the National Film Registry, the HBO Max removal, and the sequel that starred Timothy Dalton. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen the film once; harder ones will test old-Hollywood buffs. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, the novel and their makers, and the source sentence appears under each question after you answer.
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Q 01In Gone with the Wind, what does Scarlett have made into a fine dress when she has no money?
Velvet curtains
Velvet curtains from Tara's windows became the green dress Scarlett wore to charm tax money out of Rhett. Carol Burnett's 1976 parody left the curtain rod in, and that costume now belongs to the Smithsonian.
Q 02Gone with the Wind sold a million copies in six months during which era?
The Great Depression
The Great Depression had not yet lifted, and the 1,037-page novel cost three dollars, yet about a million copies had gone by the end of the year.
Q 03Which honour did Gone with the Wind win for its author in 1937?
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to a first novel whose author never published another: Mitchell spent much of her remaining twelve years answering every fan letter and fighting pirated editions abroad.
Q 04Gone with the Wind takes its title from what?
A love poem
A love poem: in Ernest Dowson's 'Cynara' a man sick with an old passion says he has 'forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind'. Scarlett borrows the phrase to wonder whether Tara still stands.
Q 05What was Scarlett O'Hara's first name in Mitchell's manuscript before publication?
Pansy
Pansy O'Hara she stayed through years of drafts; Mitchell swapped in Scarlett only while revising for the printer, in the same months she finally wrote the opening chapter.
Q 06How did Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone with the Wind, die in 1949?
Struck by a car
Struck by a car on Peachtree Street, she had been crossing with her husband on their way to the cinema; the driver, an off-duty taxi driver, was speeding, and she died five days later aged 48.
Q 07In Harris polls of 2008 and 2014, Americans named Gone with the Wind their second-favourite book, behind which one?
The Bible
The Bible topped both polls with Mitchell's 1936 novel as runner-up; in 2014 it still outpolled the Harry Potter series in third place and The Lord of the Rings in fourth.
Q 08Gerald O'Hara named his plantation Tara after what?
The ancient seat of Irish high kings
The ancient seat of Irish high kings gave a grand name to land that was mostly wilderness: Gerald, a County Meath man, won it from a stranger at poker in a Savannah saloon.
Q 09What are the famous last words of the novel Gone with the Wind?
'Tomorrow is another day'
'Tomorrow is another day' closes the book as Scarlett plans to go home to Tara and win Rhett back. Mitchell wrote this final chapter first, and the line was nearly the title.
Q 10In Gone with the Wind, how does Rhett Butler grow rich during the war?
Running the Union blockade
Running the Union blockade, he slipped cotton out past the warships and scarce goods back in, and he scandalised Atlanta by saying openly that he did it for profit, not for the Cause.
Q 11In 1936 Hollywood was wary of filming Gone with the Wind partly because pictures about what were thought to lose money?
The Civil War
The Civil War was reckoned box-office poison. Even the film's eventual producer said no at first, judging the setting strongly against it, then changed his mind and paid a record sum for a first novel.
Q 12Who is the credited director of Gone with the Wind?
Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming alone got the screen credit and the Oscar, yet the final cut also holds scenes by two other directors, one of whom stood in for a spell when the strain of the shoot drove him off the set.
Q 13Which original director of Gone with the Wind was fired less than three weeks into filming?
George Cukor
Q 21Which Gone with the Wind co-star did Hattie McDaniel beat to become the first African American Oscar winner?
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland was up for the same supporting award. The winner sat at a small segregated table by the far wall, in a hotel that barred Black guests and let her in only as a favour.
Q 22Which character did Hattie McDaniel play in Gone with the Wind?
Mammy
Mammy was one of the many maids McDaniel played on screen, and when people objected she had a stock reply: she would rather play a maid than be one.
Q 23Who threatened to boycott Gone with the Wind's Atlanta premiere after Hattie McDaniel was barred, until she persuaded him to go?
Clark Gable
George Cukor had spent two years preparing and casting the film, yet was gone within three weeks of the cameras rolling, after he and the producer fell out over how to shoot it.
Q 14Paulette Goddard nearly played Scarlett, but lost out amid doubts over whether she was really married to which film star?
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was her co-star in Modern Times and the man she lived with, but she could not produce a marriage certificate, and the part went to the only other finalist.
Q 15When did Vivien Leigh first meet Gone with the Wind's producer?
The filming of the burning of Atlanta
The filming of the burning of Atlanta came first of all, on 10 December 1938, with old studio sets going up in flames and no Scarlett yet cast; she was introduced to the producer that night.
Q 16The credited director of Gone with the Wind was pulled off which other 1939 classic to take over?
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz was still shooting, so another man had to finish its Kansas scenes. A year later the two films met at the Oscars, both up for Best Picture, and Oz lost.
Q 17Which studio lent Gone with the Wind its Rhett, plus cash, in exchange for the right to release the film?
MGM
MGM was run by Louis B. Mayer, the producer's own father-in-law, but family came at a price: besides releasing the film, the studio took a share of its profits.
Q 18Who plays Ashley Wilkes in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind?
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard took the part reluctantly. He died in 1943, when the airliner carrying him home from Lisbon was shot down over the sea.
Q 19In Gone with the Wind, what kind of business does Scarlett run herself in post-war Atlanta, to the town's horror?
A lumber mill
A lumber mill was a gold mine in a burnt city busy rebuilding. Scarlett ran hers in person, drove out to it alone and undersold a rival until he went bankrupt, all of which scandalised Atlanta.
Q 20After a newspaper printed Gone with the Wind's Oscar wins before the 1940 ceremony, what did the Academy start doing?
Keeping the results secret
Keeping the results secret began in 1941, with sealed envelopes. Until then the press got the winners early on a promise to hold them, and the Los Angeles Times broke it, so nominees arrived already knowing.
Clark Gable was a friend who had acted with her in China Seas in 1935. Georgia's segregation laws kept Black actors out of the whites-only theatre, and he gave way only when she urged him to go.
Q 24To save Tara from the tax collector, Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy for his money, stealing him from whom?
Her own sister
Her own sister Suellen had been courted by Frank for years. Scarlett lied to him that Suellen was about to marry another man, wed him herself within a fortnight and paid the taxes with his money.
Q 25Why did Sidney Howard never collect his screenplay Oscar for Gone with the Wind?
He had died months earlier
He had died months earlier, in an accident on his Massachusetts farm in August 1939, and so became the first posthumous Oscar winner. Several other writers reworked his script, but he alone got the credit.
Q 26Who composed the score of Gone with the Wind, including 'Tara's Theme'?
Max Steiner
Max Steiner was nominated for this music but lost, one of only five defeats on a night when the film won eight Oscars. His three wins all came for other films.
Q 27After driving Scarlett out of burning Atlanta, what does Rhett do on the dark road to Tara?
Leaves to join the army
Leaves to join the army: the cynic who had mocked the Cause for years enlisted only once it was lost, leaving a furious Scarlett to get a sick woman and a newborn home alone.
Q 28Why did Rhett's closing line nearly fail to reach the screen in Gone with the Wind?
Censors objected to 'damn'
Censors objected to 'damn', which the Hays Code forbade. Tamer lines were drafted before the producer's lobbying won permission, weeks before the premiere.
Q 29How does Rhett's famous last line differ in the novel Gone with the Wind?
It lacks the word 'Frankly'
It lacks the word 'Frankly': on the page Rhett says 'My dear, I don't give a damn' and goes upstairs, while on screen he says it as he walks out on her.
Q 30Which famous novelist was hired to polish Gone with the Wind's script, though none of his work was used?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, spent his last years doctoring Hollywood scripts, mostly without credit, and his dialogue polish for this one went unused.