Atlanta 15, 1939, Atlanta hosted the premiere of "Gone with the Wind", the epic film based on the best-selling novel by Atlanta's Margaret Mitchell. The gala event at Loew's Grand Theatre was attended by the film's legendary producer, David O. Selznick, and the film's stars Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Olivia de Havilland, but Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel, an African American actress, was barred from the event due to racial segregation laws and policies. Atlanta played a vital role in the Allied effort during World War II due to the city's war-related manufacturing companies, railroad network and military bases, leading to
Clark Gable to attempt a film career. In 1924, with Dillon's financing, they went to Hollywood, where she became Gable's manager and first wife. He changed his stage name from W. C. Gable to Clark Gable. He found work as an extra in such silent films as Erich von Stroheim's "The Merry Widow" (1925), "The Plastic Age" (1925), which starred Clara Bow, "Forbidden Paradise" (1924), starring Pola Negri, plus a series of two-reel comedies called "The Pacemakers". He appeared as an extra in Fox's "The Johnstown Flood" (1926). Seventeen-year-old Carole Lombard, later his third wife, appeared as an extra in that film