The Messed Up Truth About Gone With The Wind

Gone with the Wind the novel, despite its repugnant racism, is actually a sophisticated and surprisingly modern take on gender politics that features a complex female protagonist. Gone with the Wind, the film, isn't quite as great in that respect, but Scarlett O'Hara is still depicted as a smart, fiercely independent woman for much of the story.

Sadly, behind the scenes things were a lot more like 1939 in terms of gender equality. In fact, Clark Gable, despite not being the lead in the film and not having nearly as much screen time as Vivian Leigh, got paid a whole lot more than his co-star. Granted, as The Atlantic notes, the studio had to overpay in order to get MGM to loan him out, but the discrepancy remains startling. According to TCM, Gable was paid $7,000 a week—which works out to an eye-popping $129,119 in today's money. Per week. And he only worked 71 non-consecutive days.

Leigh, on the other hand, had to work 125 days in a row, appeared in just about every scene, and was paid $25,000 total for her work—about $461,140 in today's money. Gable's total payout equals about $2.2 million in modern dollars, so about four times the pay for half the work.