American Notes Atlanta

Antebellum gowns and Confederate uniforms were back in vogue in Atlanta and environs at a ten-day celebration marking the 50th anniversary of Margaret Mitchell's novel about the Old South, Gone With the Wind. The U.S. Postal Service last week even issued a definitive memorial 1 cents U.S. postage stamp with Mitchell's likeness. As if to confirm the cult status of the Pulitzer- prize-winning novel (25 million copies sold in 27 languages) and the 1939 movie, serious philatelists and GWTW aficionados alike stormed a postal booth and bought 50,000 of the new stamps.

Local officials were notably absent from the stampissuing ceremony, however, and there was some uneasiness in the mostly black city over the near veneration of a book that stereotypes blacks. Butterfly McQueen, 75, who played the movie role of Prissy, Miss Scarlett's maid, showed up with tongue firmly in cheek. Handed an album of the stamps, she repeated her most famous GWTW line: "Miss Scarlett, I don't know nothin' about birthin' babies."