That most enduring of love stories — Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler — celebrates 70 years on the big screen this year. Marietta’s Gone With the Wind Museum is to be part of that celebration.

Warner Bros. plans to issue a special edition DVD boxed set of the movie and a documentary about the film that premiered in Atlanta on Dec. 15, 1939, said museum director Connie Sutherland.

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Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com

Connie Sutherland, director of the Gone With the Wind Museum will be filmed for a Warner Bros. documentary for the 70th anniversary of the film, which premiered in Atlanta.

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“Gone With the Wind,” the book, was written by Atlanta’s Margaret Mitchell. Published in 1936, it is the most widely read book in America after the Bible.

The Marietta museum, host to 10,000 visitors a year, houses memorabilia on Mitchell, her book, the movie and cast. Only there can Windies — as die-hard GWTW fans are called — see an original dress worn by Vivian Leigh as Scarlett in the movie.

Referred to as the bengaline honeymoon gown, it’s the one Scarlett wore when she married Rhett Butler. It is the only original dress worn by Leigh as Scarlett that is on display for the public to view, Sutherland said. Every few years, she and Dr. Christopher Sullivan of Akron, Ohio, owner of the museum’s collection, carefully pack up the dress and other artifacts for loan to other exhibits.

Recently, two chairs from the Scarlett and Rhett dining room scene were added to the museum’s collection.

“We are kind of a mecca for Windies,” Sutherland said. “They count on us. We’re somewhat the keepers of the flame.”

That’s why the documentary crew is to be in Marietta Feb. 27 to interview Sutherland and film the museum. Sutherland helped the film crew locate several of the remaining cast members. The hope is that some cast members can be at the museum to be included in the documentary, she said.

Sutherland admits she has lost track but has read the book at least six times and seen the entire movie about 25 times. The movie plays daily at the museum.

“I’ve always been a ‘Gone With the Wind’ fan. Mainly, I’m a Margaret Mitchell fan. I’ve always had a connection with her,” Sutherland said. “In the movie, the person I think was the core of the story is Hattie McDaniel. She’s so different than Mammy. She was the one person who knew Scarlett for who she was, for how she was.”

“There is something mystical and magic about ‘Gone With the Wind,” she said. “The reason people come here is the romance. Rhett and Scarlett didn’t even wind up together at the end of the movie. People will assume they went back together because Scarlett got everything else she wanted.”