Darlings, It Is The End Of An Era!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                         

 Honestly, I never really thought she would die!  But on July 26, just 25 days after celebrating her 104th birthday, Miss Olivia De Havilland, who will always be Melanie in "Gone With The Wind," passed away.  It seems impossible that the Hollywood I grew to love is officially dead.

As the actress said herself, in a 2009 interview, "I feel I am a survivor from a world that no one today quite understands."  Olivia, you SAID it!  I feel that way too, myself, and I am a mere 65, compared to the 93 you were when you made that statement.

Now, don't start on me with "Gone With The Wind."  It is a beautifully made and acted film , and will always be.  Those of us who love it will always revere it.

As for you BLM's, get off my back!  The film gave more Black actors work than any project in Hollywood of that time, and one of those actors, Hattie McDaniel, broke the color barrier at the Oscars, and received a medal from the NAACP!

Just take a look at Hattie and Olivia going up the stairs, in the scene just after Bonnie's death.  Two actresses at their best, and it is easy to see here how Hattie beat out Olivia!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Olivia was so much more than Melanie!  I still say the feud between she and sister Joan Fontaine, inspired writer Henry Farrell to write "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?," where would we be, if he hadn't?  As sweet as Melanie was, she played a marvelous bitch in the follow up to 'Jane,' "Hush....Hush Sweet Charlotte with Bette Davis!

There was also "To Each His Own," which won her her first Oscar, and is a film I have always wanted to see.  Then there is her chilling performance in 1949's "The Heiress," which netted her Oscar number two.

And who could forget "Lady In A Cage?"

From the age of 19, when she appeared in Warner Bros. 1935 "A Midsummer Night's Dream," until taking her final breath on July 26, this actress commanded attention  for 85 years on earth.  And, once she became the sole survivor of "GWTW," she became its ambassador.  Now, I guess that job

will go to me.

Farewell, Olivia De Havilland.  It still pains me to write those words.  Your screen work--and yes, "Gone With The Wind"--will outlive us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now you and sister Joan can slug it out, for all Eternity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!