This Marblehead man a reel screen gem

MARBLEHEAD – The last surviving screen-credited male actor in the legendary 1939 movie “Gone with the Wind” is living in Marblehead – and frankly we should give a damn.There are only five cast members from GWTW left alive: Olivia DeHavilland (Melanie Hamilton Wilkes), Alicia Rhett (India Wilkes), Ann Rutherford (Careen O?Hara), Cammie King (Bonnie Blue Butler) and Mickey Kuhn, now a retired airline executive who lives with his wife Barbara in Marblehead.A Hollywood child actor during the 1930s and ?40s, Mike “Mickey” Kuhn played Beau Wilkes, Ashley and Melanie?s son, when he was 7 years old. He has a lot of memories from his 19-year career, interrupted by Navy service in the Korean War.Kuhn can recall drawing a gun on John Wayne in the opening scenes of “Red River” and taking a real slap from him, and spending a friendly half-hour with GWTW star Vivien Leigh on the set of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where he had a small part as a sailor – he is the only actor to have worked with Dame Leigh in both of her Academy Award-winning movies.Some movies never leave us – Kuhn was delighted to see his moment with John Wayne turn up in the opening scene of Wayne?s last film, “The Shootist” – but with a legion of dedicated fans called “Windies,” “Gone with the Wind” still has a life of its own.Kuhn?s association with the movie was lucky from the beginning. A child actor for five years, he arrived at the producer?s offices with a crowd of hopefuls and was greeted with the words, “Mickey Kuhn! Thank God you?re here!” A secretary ushered him into David O. Selznick?s office. Selznick conducted the interview and got a nod from the director, Victor Fleming. Immediately a secretary told the other applicants, “You can go home, the part?s been cast.”Kuhn had two important scenes. One involved Bonnie and Rhett Butler. His line was short – “Hello, Uncle Rhett,” but when he looked up at Clark Gable he said, “Hello, Uncle Clark.”That spoiled the first take but Kuhn, who prided himself on doing what the director needed the first time, flubbed the line two more times. Fleming had already taken him aside to talk about the scene. Worse yet, Kuhn?s mother was on the set and he was sure she was going to kill him when he got home.At that point Gable took him aside. “You?re right,” Gable said. “My name is Clark. But today, in the movie, my name is Rhett.”The fourth take was perfect.Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes) got worried because, in Kuhn?s scene with Howard, Beau?s mother Melanie was on her deathbed and he had to cry. “Leslie, don?t worry about it,” Fleming said.Before the scene “He took me in his arms and painted a picture of sadness,” Kuhn recalled. “He asked, ?What if your mother died, just after you lost your puppy?”Kuhn cried on cue on the first take.Then Fleming took Kuhn aside again and expressed his regrets for upsetting the boy. “?Would it make you feel better if you hit me?” Fleming asked. Kuhn said it would and threw a punch. A photographer snapped a picture just before he swung. Kuhn signs copies of that photo for fans today, including Fleming?s daughter, who cried when he gave it to her.?Gone with the Wind” is 70 years old now. It has survived despite reservations about the way it portrays African Americans, who spend the first half of the movie as slaves and the second half as servants.The film tries to offer balance. Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel?s Mammy is the real mother in the O?Hara household and the one person whose respect Rhett Butler hopes to earn.?This movie is about the Civil War and Reconstruction,” Kuhn said. “It may not be right by today?s standards but there?s nothing we can do about that. It?s a movie, and a great one.”