MOVIES - March 28, 1989

What is thought to be the only surviving copy of the original sound track for “Gone With the Wind” has been discovered at Turner Entertainment Co., which acquired MGM’s entire film collection in 1986. The track, on 17 1/2-millimeter safety film, is being transferred to quarter-inch magnetic tape at a Burbank laboratory, and it might be used on a home video release of the David O. Selznick film to be made available this summer. Richard May, director of film services at Turner, said custodians found the 1954 copy while unpacking boxes of approximately 40,000 films and sound tracks stored underground at MGM. The original nitrate track for the film has long since disintegrated.