Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and One Wild Cat
Carole Lombard was known for her menagerie of animals. Her home in Bel-Air was affectionately referred to as “the Farm,” because of its diverse residents: a rooster, cats, dogs, doves and ducks. In early 1937, Clark Gable had some time between films and set off on a hunting trip to Arizona. This was before they were married thus it was inappropriate for Carole to accompany him, so she flippantly requested he bring her back “a wildcat or two.” Little did she know that Clark would take her seriously…
He returned from his trip with a seventy-five pound mountain lion cub, complete with sharp claws and teeth and a personality to match. You can read the story of how he caught him here. Carole was rather flabbergasted by the gift and promptly encouraged Clark to donate the cat to MGM’s backlot zoo, which he did, no doubt in exchange for posing for some photos with the ill-mannered feline for MGM publicity.
Well, at least this is one of those pranks that there is actually photographic proof of!
One Comment
David Lumpkins
Did you know Clark Gable actually had a jacket made from a mountain lion. It is the only known mountain lion jacket in the world. After Clark’s wife died, he gave the jacket to a friend of his named Henry Gallert. Henry originally had the jacket made for Clark based on a discussion they had. It was actually made by a very well known company in Chicago named AJ Dittman Furriers. When Henry and his wife passed away, they left the jacket to their caregivers which were my wife’s grandparents. The jacket had been stored in refrigerated storage for years. Approximately 10 years ago the jacket was given to me and my wife. I thought you might find this story interesting. Let me know if you would a picture of the jacket. It is beautiful!!!