SilverWook said:

They never learn, do they? Seems like an awful waste to destroy a perfectly good print. Do the studios require proof of destruction?

Now I'm having visions of some crazy person concealing old film prints in their house, like a scene out of Fahrenheit 451. Or maybe it's just someone I know...

Has anyone else seen the restoration documentary on the Gone With the Wind 4 disc dvd edition?

They talked about how even technicolor prints could turn out differently and that sometimes people would get excited about finding a technicolor print from a middle of nowhere theater. And it turned out to be one that was a bad printing so they sent it somewhere not important.

I'm pretty sure that was also the documentary that mentioned how for the 60's rerelease, the studio wanted it to be in stereo because that was all "new" and "better." And they wanted whatever source of the mono mix tossed.

However, somebody kept the print hidden and tucked away knowing it would be worth saving and it would have been very hard to present the original audio mix on dvd if that source had no longer existed.