Forty Acres Fact Check

The "Burning of Atlanta" at Forty Acres

The "burning of Atlanta" on the Forty Acres backlot took place on December 10, 1938, but contrary to popular belief, the fire itself was confined to the former "King Kong" set (a large set originally built for DeMille's "The King of Kings"), along with another wall of the original "King of Kings" Jerusalem set re-decorated to resemble a warehouse, a few boxcars, and other assembled debris. The original town sets themselves were NOT burned, and a few of these original facades in fact were left relatively unmodified for their appearance in Gone With The Wind.



Sets burned also did not include those for Selznick's 1936 film Little Lord Fauntleroy as is reported elsewhere on the web, as the Brooklyn Street sets seen in this film were in fact located on Harold Lloyd's Westwood Location Ranch, and not at 40 Acres. In addition, although GWTW technical advisor Wilbur Kurtz recorded in his journal the presence of a "old lodge palace structure" across Ballona Creek in January 1939, which he noted as having last been used in Little Lord Fauntleroy, Marc Wanamaker has found conclusive evidence that the mansion which appeared on film was in fact a real one (the George Lewis Estate that was once located on Hillgrove Avenue in Beverly Hills off of Benedict Canyon).