Daily Update
Posted by Faye Bell on August 12, 2009 at 10:32:27:
LOVE AFFAIR WITH AN EPIC FILM
By GEORGE WILKENS
gwilkens@tampatrib.com
The Civil War blockbuster premiered 70 years ago, but some will never forget the motion picture that is everything but "Gone With the Wind."
For J. Faye Bell, fascination with the epic film started with a little old-fashioned decor for her Plant City secretarial office and evolved into an Internet-based business marketing "Gone With the Wind" memorabilia to customers worldwide.
"I shipped to South Africa a couple of weeks ago, and that made country No. 45," Bell said. "I always get excited when I get a new country."
Bell's business, Gone With the Wind Memories, has shipped merchandise to Russia, too, and it amuses her that residents of the former Soviet Union of the Cold War-era covet American collectibles. "That former bad guy loves the same things I love," she said with a laugh.
The Oscar-winning film - which American Movie Classics deems the most popular movie of all time - has spawned a slew of memorabilia, though scarcely any marking this year's 70th anniversary of its premiere.
The movie made its world premiere Dec. 15, 1939, at Atlanta's Loew's Grand Theater.
"Unfortunately, Warner Bros. is not doing anything for the 70th," other than releasing a Blu-ray Disc of the film with an updated logo, Bell said. "It's a shame, because people are looking all over for 70th anniversary things, and they're not out there."
Most everything else, however, is likely available through Bell, considered the largest independent retailer of "Gone With the Wind" memorabilia.
Her showroom, tucked away in a local air conditioned self-storage complex, contains things such as inexpensive pins bearing the most famous line in cinema history, according to the American Film Institute. (Clark Gable as Rhett Butler: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.")
It also stores rare Scarlett O'Hara/Rhett Butler cast-iron bookends, marketed the year after publication of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller on which the movie is based.
Bell didn't intend to become a "Gone With the Wind" collector, much less a memorabilia dealer; it just happened.
When Bell opened her Command Center Secretarial Service in a historical downtown Plant City building next to the State Theatre in 1988, the Queen Anne furnishings dictated the decor.
During a visit to the tourist town of Helen, Ga., Bell bought five sepia-toned photos of "Gone With the Wind" scenes, which she used to create a collage for her office wall.
She continued the movie theme and, by the end of the second year of her lease, her office collection had swelled to 250 pieces. Visitors to the building routinely poked heads into Bell's office and asked, "Do you mind if I just look?"
The growing collection of memorabilia got more exposure, attention and foot traffic after the secretarial business relocated, in 1995, to a storefront in a Publix-anchored shopping center fronting Alexander Street. "People thought it was a shop, and some wanted to buy," Bell said. "Most of the time I couldn't do secretarial work until after I closed the doors at 5:30."
In 1996, Bell exhibited her collection at the Florida Strawberry Festival for the first time and created her Web site, www.gwtwmemories.com.
In 1998, her memorabilia drew attention from Cypress Gardens, the Winter Haven attraction best known for its historical botanical gardens. Bell rejected the initial proposal to exhibit her collection for five years, and a second offer of three years. But the attraction's vice president and marketing manager persisted.
"This would be nice," Bell finally decided, committing to one year at the attraction that opened in 1936, the year "Gone With the Wind" was published. "My one year ended up being five years," Bell said.
Starting in January 1999, Gone with the Wind Memories operated from a shop near the entrance to Walden Lake, where she lives with her husband of 43 years, Jim.
Looking to save time and expenses, Bell closed the store in May 2006. "I realized I could do $60,000 to $75,000 less per year and be OK" by reducing operating overhead, she said. Operating a retail Web site from home seemed to be a better fit.
"The Internet is my No. 1 income," said Bell, who shuns online auctions, selling solely through her Web site.
Bell's appointment-only exhibit space, two miles from Interstate 4's stream of Orlando theme-park visitors, draws memorabilia collectors from as far as Thailand, Germany and France, the guest register shows. Her merchandise includes "Gone With the Wind" products ranging from a lunchbox to artwork to mugs. Prices range from less than $2 to hundreds of dollars.
Bell's standing as a longtime dealer of "Gone With the Wind" memorabilia has put her on a first-name basis with several of the film's few surviving actors.
In 2004, to mark the 65th anniversary of the film's Atlanta premiere, Bell organized a weekend of Plant City events featuring three former child actors from the movie: Cammie King Conlon, who played Bonnie Blue Butler; Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes at age 7; and Patrick Curtis, who played Beau as a baby.
Kuhn, a child actor who worked with luminaries such as John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart, stops to visit Bell when traveling between his house in Marblehead, Mass., and his Naples condominium.
"I hate to think how many friends I would have missed out on if I was not involved with this," Bell said.
GONE WITH THE WIND MEMORIES
HOURS: Business operates out of a warehouse; open by appointment only; merchandise also available for purchase online
MERCHANDISE: Hundreds of items, from $1.99 "I Love Gone With the Wind" bumper stickers to $195 Scarlett O'Hara doll to $995 painting of Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) embracing Rhett Butler (Clark Gable)
PHONE NUMBER: (813) 752-7700
WEB SITE: www.gwtw memories.com
'GONE WITH THE WIND' RETURNS TO SILVER SCREEN
"Gone With the Wind" is periodically televised and available on DVD, but those who prefer to see the large-screen 35mm version will have that chance with two matinees this weekend.
Tampa Theatre, a 1926 downtown landmark at 711 N. Franklin St., is screening the Civil War epic at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday as part of its Summer Classic Movie Series.
Tickets are $8 ($6 for Tampa Theatre members).
For information, call (813) 274-8286 or go to www .tampatheatre.org.
George Wilkens
