>Hi Peachtreegal (are you a Gone w/ the Wind fan ?,

Actually... no. The name comes from the fact that I live in an Atlanta suburb and everything is Peachtree down heah, ya'll. I am a fan of the actors in the movie (especially the exquisite Vivien Leigh), it's an absolutely GORGEOUS production, and I admire Scarlett's spirit if not her ethics, but the racial politics of GWTW are too problematic for me to be an out and out fan (of either the book or the movie). I should add that Margaret Mitchell endowed scholarships for black students, so she actually was quite enlightened compared to many others. And the movie did give Hattie McDaniel a terrific (if stereotypical) role, and the opportunity to become the first African-American woman to win an Oscar.

Back to on topic -- Interesting no mention of the ring. Ty's always wearing it both in the films and in photos, so I assume it had a great personal meaning for him. Perhaps one of his children could answer the question, should anyone here be in contact. Surely this is something fans would like to know about.

Speaking of racial politics and Tyrone Power in the same message, it's fascinating to wonder what might have happened if Billy Wilder had ever filmed that update of Camille for which he wanted Ty as the male lead. Lena Horne would play a Creole version of Camille, and Ty would play a white man who falls in love with her, only to discover at some point that his own father actually was black. This was around 1951. I don't think Hollywood was ready for that yet. When Frank Sinatra fell in a love with a biracial girl in the 1958 film Kings Go Forth -- a daring notion back then, at least in the movies (the film was adapted from a novel) -- she was played by Natalie Wood, the daughter of Russian immigrants.