ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CADIZ, OHIO
SOURCE: JEFF GAMMAGE KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
People on Saturday danced, drank, rubbed elbows with a star and traded memories and memorabilia on what would have been Gable's 96th birthday.
The uncontested belle of the ball was Cammie King Conlon, better known to ``Gone With the Wind'' fans as Bonnie Blue Butler, the doomed 4-year-old daughter of Scarlett and Rhett. Bonnie's death in a fall from her pony left not a dry eye in the house.
Conlon, now a grandmother of three who handles marketing for a California Chamber of Commerce, doesn't remember much about acting in that epic film - except that Gable's mustache scratched when he kissed her.
``He was like a nice daddy,'' Conlon said during a reception at the Emergency Medical Services building in Cadiz. ``My memory is of someone big and kind and comforting.''
In his day, Gable was the most popular actor in Hollywood, nicknamed ``The King'' long before anyone had heard of Elvis Presley. The members of the local Clark Gable Foundation are hoping his enduring magnetism can one day turn this downtrodden town of 4,058 into another Graceland, complete with motels, restaurants and souvenir shops.
So what if Gable actually left Cadiz before he was a year old? Who cares if he never returned after making it big? Boosters are counting on the fact of his birth, in a plain, two-family house on Charleston Street, to bring some Hollywood magic to this old coal-mining community.
Plans are being drawn to rebuild Gable's birthplace - torn down in the 1960s - as a museum and theater that would lure ``Gone With the Wind'' fans from across the country. Of course, many Windies, as they're called, have been coming here for years, enticed by the chance to stand where Gable stood.
``He has it,'' said Ann Rossi, a waitress at the Glenside Pub in Glenside who was here buying collectibles for the Gable Room in her home. ``Whatever `it' is, he has it.''
Still, Gable's promoters face obstacles. Cadiz isn't Memphis. It's remote, in the Appalachian foothills 120 miles east of Columbus, separated from major highways by winding, hilly roads. Moreover, film historians say, the number of fans who remember Gable is shrinking with time, dimming his once-bright star.
Not that the 200 people who gathered here would accept that.
``He was the King of Hollywood,'' said Steven Stultz, who drove 14 hours from Missouri to attend the festivities. ``And when he died, nobody took that title.''
* * *
Gable was bigger than big. By today's standards, he'd be Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson rolled into one.
At his peak in the late 1930s, up to 40 million people bought tickets to his movies.
Born in Cadiz on Feb. 1, 1901, William Clarke Gable was the only son of a wildcat oilfield worker. His family moved to Pennsylvania when he was 7 months old, then returned to nearby Hopedale, where Gable was raised. He left the area at 17, working odd jobs and then pursuing acting. Bit parts in silent films of the 1920s led to Hollywood, where he was cast in gangster pictures and then in light-hearted adventures.
He won an Academy Award for ``It Happened One Night'' in 1934.
In life, Gable seemed inseparable from his screen image - a tough, dominating hero who was always in command, a persona epitomized by his portrayal of Rhett Butler in ``Gone With the Wind'' in 1939.
In that movie he spoke the immortal line to heroine Scarlett O'Hara: ``Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.''
A bronze and granite monument stands where Gable was born. But all that remains of the house is a picture on a postcard.
Those who knew the actor are dead or in nursing homes. Visitors who went searching for Gable lore at the Harrison County Courthouse were directed to the Gable display at the historical society, which was closed.
Cadiz, once the ``Proudest Little Town in America,'' is struggling not just to publicize its movie heritage but for its vitality. Slipping coal markets closed mines across the region in the 1970s. Within a decade, one of every four people was jobless, and many moved away.
``Since we've lost the coal business, the economy has just been wiped out,'' said Nancy Beck, who moved to Cadiz in 1959. ``We're trying to get more tourists into town.''
That has not been easy. Some prefer to promote Gen. George Custer, born just north of here in New Rumley. They see him as one of the nation's greatest military leaders - not a foolish egotist who led his army to slaughter at the Little Big Horn.
But it is Gable who draws the tourists. They track upcoming events through the foundation newsletter, ``Frankly, My Dear Fans.'' The festival has grown to include a summer barbecue, replicating the lawns of Tara, the mansion in ``Gone With the Wind,'' and attracted several performers from the movie.
Fred Crane, who as Brent Tartleton was one of Scarlett's suitors, has appeared here, as has Patrick Curtis, who played the baby of Ashley and Melanie Wilkes.
``Being a `Gone With the Wind' fan, it's nice to be around people who feel the same way,'' said Jackie Stabnau, who traveled here with her husband, Jeff, from Ann Arbor, Mich. ``The `Gone With the Wind' `family' is why we came.''
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gable in the famous ``Frankly, my dear ...'' scene fromby CNB``Gone With the Wind.''