Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war war.

So I guess there's this new thing going around on a bunch of blogs. It's called 30 Days of Vivien Leigh and  from what I understand it's circulating around on a bunch of different people's blogs on a whole bunch of different blogging sites/networks. Being that Vivien Leigh is my favorite actress and I love photos of her and talking about her, I am totally jumping on this bandwagon.  So, on y va! Here we go!

photo courtesy vivandlarry.com

Day 1 | The first picture of Vivien you ever saw

Let me start out by saying that I don't exactly remember the actual first time I saw Vivien Leigh. I'm sure that throughout my life I had seen her without knowing who she was. I vaguely remember seeing a picture of what was then "some old movie star" on a wall in a diner when I was about 15. I don't remember who the picture was of, but a part of me really wants to say that it was Vivien Leigh. I say that because the first time I saw a specific portrait of her I felt somehow like I had seen it before.
I also remember being at a friends house when I was about ten and her parents were watching Gone With the Wind. I didn't know what they were watching, I just remember seeing a little girl jump a pony and fly over its head. And I remember some man on the screen yelling "Bunny! Bunny!" (Yes, at ten I heard Bunny, not Bonnie)
I think it's pretty safe to say that Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara is sort of ingrained into our subconscious very much in the same way as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis. Gone With the Wind is the most famous film ever made, and so we're all somewhat familiar with it even if we've never even seen the film itself.

Anyhow, the first time I really "saw" Vivien Leigh was when I first watched Gone With the Wind when I was sixteen years old. TCM was showing Gone With the Wind as that week's Essential. I remember when I found out that Gone With the Wind was going to be shown I got so excited for it. I watched it in its entirety on Saturday night and on Sunday I watched half of it again. (Back then TCM would rerun their essentials on Sunday). For the rest of the summer I rented Gone With then Wind from my library (on VHS!) and watched it every other week I think. Finally, by the end of the summer, I had saved up enough money to go to Best Buy and buy my own DVD. I remember I spent $31 on it.

The summer of 2006 marked my fascination with a lot of things. It was when I first discovered TCM and the majority of my favorite actors and actresses and films. It also lead to my discovery of the greatest picture ever made, and more importantly, to Vivien Leigh.