Daily Info Update
Posted by Faye Bell on April 25, 2001 at 21:47:28:
A few days ago, I came across a March 25, 2001 article in the "Dixie Living" section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The article consisted of an excerpt from the book entitled "Clestine Sibly: Reporter" edited by Richard Eldredge and available from Hill Street Press ($22.99).
Most of the article consisted of her writings relative to Ava Gardner and Clark Gable while they were making the movie "Lone Star", (a movie released 1954). However, during her interview with Gable, naturally, the subject of Gone With the Wind came up. I have repunched some of the article for you ...
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... and he (Clark Gable) wants the public to be pleased. He doesn't expect to repeat Rhett Butler or "Gone With the Wind".
"I know that's the best picture I ever made, " he said soberly. "Margaret Mitchell made that possible with a superb story. We'll never have another one like 'Gone With the Wind'. There's nothing the matter with the picture business that a story like that, a good story, couldn't cure."
He squatted down on the ground and stirred idly at the dust with a stick after the manner of any country man hunkered down before a crossroads store on Saturday afternoon.
"You know," he said, looking up and squinting against the sun, "Margaret Mitchell was quite a person. That was a terrible thing, the accident. I tried to express my sympathy to her husband, John Marsh, but none of us could really say how we felt. It hit people all over the world pretty hard. A woman was here from France last week to give me an award for Rhett. They're just getting to see "Gone With the Wind" there since the war.
.... I'll never forget how I met Margaret Mitchell," he went on after a time. "We were all at the Piedmont Driving Club and I was anxious to talk to her. She had helped me so much with Rhett. But, there were so many people about and so much going on. We finally went into the ladies lounge and locked the door!"
