Tomorrow is Just Another Day

Author says: what if circumstances favourable to white supremacists in the Southern states enabled the movie "Gone with the Wind" to be more faithful to Margaret Mitchell's novel? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

14th December 1939: with the Union and Confederacy on the verge of entering World War Two on different sides, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the explosively controversial movie Tomorrow is just another day. Even the title was sufficiently provocative, igniting a furious debate about multi-racial aspirations for equal citizenship, despite African-American's conspicious absence from the film (white actors and actresses were "blacked up").

"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton fields called the Old South, Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of SlavBased on Margaret Mitchell's romantic novel of the same name, the story presents an unabashedly positive image of the South during the War of the States Rights.

Mitchell herself acknowledged her inspiration from Thomas Dixon's famous novel "The Clansman" which was the basis of the film "The Birth of a Nation". In a letter to Dixon, Mitchell wrote in 1937: "I was practically raised on your books, and love them very much".

Of course within five short years of the films release, events would overtake the Confederacy which was dissolved at the climax of World War Two.

A sharply revisionist account of the same story was presented in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley in the novel "Scarlett" and adapted into a television mini-series in 1994. Fifty years later, tensions were still visible, and the mini-series ommited scenes of Atlanta being burnt down in 1945, and, so it was rumoured, a suggestion to re-title the program "Gone with the Wind".

Author says, original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Juddery, Mark. "Gone With the Wind" published in History Today Magazine, August 2008.

Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.