Windys' Caught Up in Swirl of Mania-- 65th Anniversary of 'Gone With The Wind'

[Jenya]

Windys' Caught Up in Swirl of Mania

By: Dahleen Glanton
Chicago Tribune

Sunday December 12, 2004

Robert Warren knew he had gone too far when he tussled with a friend in a store over possession of a hanger with the letters "mm" on it, representing a garment's size. But that did not end his obsession with Margaret Mitchell and her book "Gone With the Wind."

He made a pilgrimage to Dublin to lay the book on the Hill of Tara, from which Mitchell is said to have gotten the name of her fictional Southern plantation. He has spent huge amounts of money buying memorabilia, enough to fill a room in his small Atlanta home. He took a part-time job at Oakland Cemetery, where he cleaned Mitchell's grave.

"Don't put `mm' on anything or it's gone. Some people say it stands for Marilyn Monroe, but in this part of the county, that's Margaret Mitchell," said Warren, 45, a customer service representative who spends much of his paycheck feeding his "addiction."

"We laugh about it and call it our secret little disease, but we all know it is very serious," he added.

In recent weeks, "Gone With the Wind" fans from throughout the country have made their way to Jonesboro in Clayton County--the Atlanta suburb that provided the setting for Mitchell's book--to quietly observe the 65th anniversary of the premiere of the film version of "Gone With the Wind."

On Dec. 15, 1939, the movie opened in star-studded splendor at the Loews Grand Theatre in downtown Atlanta, an event that helped solidify the city as the capital of the Deep South.

No big event is planned Wednesday. But the Clayton County tourist bureau last month sponsored a bus tour of "Gone With the Wind" landmarks, a collector's swap meet and a private brunch with 84-year-old actress Ann Rutherford, who played Scarlett O'Hara's sister Carreen in the movie.

Heaven in their eyes

For die-hard fans, it was a dream. They walked through the small apartment in Atlanta, now Margaret Mitchell House, where the author created beloved heroine Scarlett and her sexy, rogue husband, Rhett Butler. They posed for pictures with Scarlett look-alike Melly Meadows, who travels the world in her hoop skirts and ruffled pantaloons promoting the South. They touched the ground where the Loews cinema stood before it burned in a mysterious fire in 1978 and was torn down.

As far as obsessions with characters and movies go, the "Windys" as they call themselves, are not unique.

But unlike Star Trek's Trekkies, who hold an annual convention, Windys are more low-profile, with their affiliation hidden sometimes from even their closest friends. In the South, "Gone With the Wind" is as much hated as it is loved.

Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning book and the subsequent movie have inspired generations with a romanticized vision of the Deep South under siege during the Civil War and a tenacious heroine who refused to concede defeat as the Confederacy crumbled around her. But it also is a symbol of a deep racial divide between blacks who loathe the book's glamorization of slavery and whites who have adopted it as an icon of their heritage.

"The Civil War is etched in the memory of every American--black or white, Northern or Southern--as a pivotal time in American history," said William Ferris, a history professor and associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"`Gone With the Wind' is perhaps the best-known example of a book and film that captured the drama. And part of the appeal is that it offers a panoramic view that goes from well before the Civil War to its aftermath.

"Because of the book, future generations will continue to return to the Civil War to somehow define their experience as Americans," said Ferris, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Windys--no one is sure exactly how many are out there--are very aware of their delicate situation.

Not everyone is a fan

And with "Gone With the Wind" a controversial subject, the Margaret Mitchell House, a museum and literary center that opened in 1996, has been a target. Two suspicious fires have struck the house since then-Mayor Andrew Young saved it from demolition in 1989. Some speculated they were set by arsonists who did not like the idea of a tribute to Mitchell or who feared the museum would cause racial unrest in the city. Others said the blazes were related to a competition over prime real estate. No arrests have been made.

Atlanta has been shy about promoting its ties to "Gone With the Wind." But that's not the case with Jonesboro, where more than 16,000 visitors come each year and where Mitchell's grandparents owned a plantation that she visited often as a child. In Jonesboro, the Depot Welcome Center houses the Road to Tara Museum.

"What draws people is the age-old theme of overcoming adversity and pulling oneself up by the bootstraps and getting on with life," said Stacey Dickson, president of the Clayton County Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Our main demographic is the 40-plus-age housewife who likes Scarlett O'Hara, who was definitely a pick-up-and-move-on kind of gal. They've read the book a dozen times and they see the movie every time it comes on.

"But we've also got a lot of 14- and 15-year-old girls who drag their families in off the interstate on the way to Disney World," she said. "There are these little girls in ecstasy, standing in the museum crying in front of the dresses and having a religious experience."

The Windys know that feeling well. They name their children after the characters. They fill their homes with decorative plates, music boxes, Scarlett lamps and porcelain figurines of Mammy in her apron and red petticoat.

Confession of a `Windy'

No one can explain what draws them to "Gone With the Wind." But Kim Shamey said she knew she was hooked by the time she was 7. When she turned 16, the then-resident of Dearborn, Mich., made her first trip to Atlanta.

She worked and saved enough money to pay for her ticket and her mom's.

"I used to watch the movie in the basement with my grandmother every year. . . . By the 7th grade, I had a full-blown obsession," said Shamey, now 23 and a Spanish teacher in New York.

"I thought something was wrong with me, but I met people here who had the same passion as I did. It was incredible," she added.

Each Windy has a special character. For Mary Jane Sinclair, it is Ashley Wilkes, played by Leslie Howard in the film.

"When people say, `Ashley, that wimp,' I want to slap them," said Sinclair, 49, of Houston.

She has written a book about Howard and she and her husband, Jim, have traveled to Dorking, England, to visit Howard's former home. They became friends with the current owners, who allow them to spend the night at the country estate.

Sinclair, a professional harpist, even named her daughter Leslie.

Meadows, the Scarlett look-alike, said she stopped trying to give intellectual insight to the phenomenon long ago.

"`Gone With the Wind' has never been a true story, and the people never existed. So the story lives in the hearts and minds of the people who love it," said Meadows, 30, of Jonesboro. "When people come here and see the Southern homes and a girl who plays Scarlett and talks as though she was raised on grits, it fulfills their image of what `Gone With the Wind' was about. It makes them happy for a while. It doesn't matter that it's just a fantasy."

SOURCE: Yahoo News

[Titania]

yup, ill admit to being a windy.

65 years!!!

[Liza]

lol. I don't know if I'm a windy... well, I guess I am. I just bought the special edition 4 DVD set with my graduation money

I first saw the movie when I was seven, and was totally in love with it. I read the book in seventh grade... I even named my cat Melanie after my favorite character. Yeah, I'll never grow out of that phase. But I'm not completely nuts about it

[Georgia's on my Mind]

ahhh gone with the wind is super

[musicradio77]

"Gone With the Wind" was the best movie of my entire life. It took place in the Civil War era in Georgia. I have the movie on VHS and I love Scarlett O'Hara's last line at the end of the movie.

"After all... Tomorrow is another day!"

Happy 65th anniversary "Gone With the Wind"!!!