Gone with the Wednesday: Test Your Clark Gable Knowledge

One of the many random books I have on Gone with the Wind is “The Official Gone with the Wind Companion” by Stephen J. Spignesi. It’s a book of quizzes and random trivia;  I think my parents got it for me for Christmas when I was in middle school! My copy is tattered and has my childish handwriting scrawled everywhere. I thought to resurrect it though and see what compelling questions the Clark Gable quiz had in store. Pencils ready, everyone!

1. For the Clark connoisseur: Which of the following was not one of Clark Gable’s pre-acting occupations? Tire factory worker, oil driller, pharmacy clerk, department store salesman, telephone lineman.

2. How many times was Clark Gable married and to whom?

3. What did Clark Gable once do in a film that almost ruined the undershirt business?

4. Which of the following remarks did Clark Gable actually make about the possibility of him playing Rhett Butler?

A. “I’ve been preparing for this part for the past fifteen years.”

B. “Cast Carole Lombard as Scarlett and I’m all yours.”

C. “I don’t want the part for money, chalk or marbles.”

D. “Who’s Rhett Butler?”

5. What was the date on which L.B. Mayer signed the contract that allowed Clark Gable to make Gone with the Wind for Selznick International, even though Gable was an MGM contract player?

6. For the Clark connoisseur Part 2: What was the original name of the Gable family and why did they change it to “Gable”?

7. TRUE or FALSE: Samuel Goldwyn once said the following about Clark Gable: “When Clark Gable comes on the screen you can hear his balls clanking together.:

8.TRUE or FALSE: Clark Gable never actually worked with “the love of his life,” Carole Lombard.

9. What was the last film Clark Gable ever made and with whom did he co-star?

10. Name the three films Clark Gable appeared in for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

ANSWERS:

1. Clark Gable was never a pharmacy clerk.

2. Five. He was married to Josephine Dillon, Maria “Ria” Lucas Langham, Carole Lombard, Lady Sylvia Ashley and Katherine (says the book but it is Kathleen) Williams Spreckels

3. In It Happened One Night, Gable unbuttoned his dress shirt and revealed that he was not wearing an undershirt, American men, thinking it was more masculine to go bare-chested beneath their shirts, immediately emulated Clark by not wearing undershirts, and within one year, sales of undershirts plunged by 75 percent.

4. C. He made this remark to David Selznick.

5. August 24, 1938

6. The original family name was “Goebel,” which they changed because of its similarity to the name of Hitler’s chief of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.  (Um, Goebbels held that post starting in 1933. Clark was already a famous film star at the time with Gable as his last name. Gable was his last name when he was born in 1901. In 1901 Joseph Goebbels was four years old!! Bogus trivia.)

7. TRUE. He made this remark to Hedda Hopper.

8. FALSE. They starred together in the 1932 comedy-drama No Man of Her Own.

9. The last film Gable ever made was The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

10. He was nominated–and won–Best Actor for the 1934 film It Happened One Night; he was nominated–and lost to Victor McLaglen–Best Actor for the 1935 film Mutiny on the Bounty; and he was nominated–and lost to Robert Donat–Best Actor for Gone with the Wind.

So how’d you do?!