1931: Tongue in His Cheek

By Carter Bruce

Modern Screen, September 1931

 

Clark Gable takes his place among the film famous—but he meets this honor in his own unusual way

 

Ramon Navarro says: “I believe Clark Gable to be the best starring material we’ve had in Hollywood for several years!”

Joan Crawford says: “He is just about the grandest actor I’ve ever had the privilege of working with…he’ll surely hit the top.”

A studio hand says: “I’ve seen ‘em all come and go. But I’m willing to bet anyone in Hollywood a ten-spot that Gable will go farther than any other young man on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot if he is given the chance.”

A studio typist pleads: “Can’t you do something to keep Clark Gable out of sight? Every time he so much as passes through our office my head starts to reel. If I’m ever going to get this work done…well, just keep Gable out of here…that’s all!”

Yes, that’s the way they feel about Clark Gable out at his own studio. What’s more, almost all of Hollywood feel the same way. And from the fan mail that is already pouring in…in spite of the fact that he has only been in a very few pictures…one can easily guess that the entire country is going for Gable in a big way.

But there is one person who is not at all up-in-the-air about the success of Clark Gable—and that one person is Clark himself.

In face of the fact that Novarro, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and even the Great Garbo are unusually enthused about him, there are a few memories that hold him with both feet on the ground.

Gable worked “extra” on a picture starring Novarro over five years ago…and Novarro didn’t even notice him!

He sat at the lunch counter (used by the carpenters, laborers and extras) and watched Joan Crawford lunching in the comparative luxury of a table about twenty feet from the counter. She did not look his way during the entire lunch hour.

He once begged a certain influential director on that lot to give him an opportunity to prove what talent he had, and that same gentleman (who has since directed him and is now one of his most ardent boosters) told him he didn’t have a Chinaman’s chance at film fame.

“Understand, I don’t blame them,” he said from across the table in the same café where he used to lunch at the counter. “No one knows any better than I do that I wasn’t the pretty-boy type so much in demand in the days of silent pictures. But just the same it does strike me as funny that an extra who couldn’t be used five years ago could get such a great break as I’m getting now. It makes the whole thing seem so—accidental. Something not to be taken seriously. The only different between fame and failure is the most casual ‘break,’ as I see it.”

Something tells me that Clark has Hollywood’s number. Here is one potential star who is not growing near-sighted nor increasing his hat band as stardom looms up around the corner!

Strictly speaking, he is not a handsome man in the movie-actor sense of the word. He has too much jaw bone—too much character in his face. Although most of his fan mail is from women there is nothing particularly romantic in his appearance. To the contrary, his screen personality s slightly cruel—more ruthless than wooing. But combined with his masculine strength there is the color and depth of his attractive speaking voice wherein, I believe, lies the secret of his fascination—and incidentally his very good contract.

Away from the screen he carries none of that suggestion of menace. He appears far younger and more juvenile without benefit of his grease-paint. Though the studio is not zealous in publicizing the fact, he has been happily married for several years to girl no longer connected with the profession. His private life is in many ways no different and certainly no more exciting than Robert Montgomery’s or Neil Hamilton’s. But unlike those young men he has had the advantage of having been beaten by Hollywood before the loving cup of success was lifted to his lips. They say Montgomery is having a little difficulty keeping his feet on the ground.

That is one gymnastic trick Gable will not have to master.

“I can’t help comparing the fate of that fellow I was five years ago to the break they are giving Clark Gable now,” he continued his ironical tale. “I am no better an actor than then. You see, I did not come to the studios inexperienced and hoping for a chance to learn the acting craft. I had had many years of stock engagements and Broadway behind me when I first tried the movies as an extra on the Paramount, Universal and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lots.”

Clark’s career has been a colorful one, if not unusual from other actor’s in many respects. He fought through the same paternal objections, tried his hand at jobs which did not particularly interest him following his graduation from high school in Hopedale, Ohio, then suddenly broke all ties and set out to do what his heart had always been set on—a career of acting. “Acting fascinated me because it seemed to be a job that could never be entirely mastered no matter how high your name went up in electric lights. There was always the variety of learning new roles—new parts with new interpretations. It could never grow monotonous like lumber-jacking, contracting, salesmanship or any of the other jobs I had tackled.”

He began modestly enough in stock companies in the small towns of Ohio. As his ambition broadened and he began to grow sure of the tricks of the trade, he tackled Broadway. It was a long, hard pull but eventually he landed with Jane Cowl in “Romeo and Juliet,” the most successful of his early stage appearances. It just happened that “Romeo and Juliet” ended its road run in Seattle and from there Clark drifted down to Los Angeles and Hollywood. For almost a year he worked in such West Coast hits as “What Price Glory?” “Madame X” and “Lady Frederick.” For six weeks he played the role of a reporter in “Chicago” at the Hollywood Music Box Theatre, the play which first brought Nancy Carroll to the attention of the movie producers.

“It was just about this time that I became very ambitious towards pictures myself,” he went on. “I decided to refuse all stage offers and devote myself entirely to giving Gable a fair crack at the movies.” He smiled slowly. “I guess I could have saved myself the worry—judging by the way I was received. But I’m not sorry it all happened though at the time it seemed pretty discouraging. As I look back on it now I see I learned a great many important things about Hollywood in advance!

“Hollywood is one place when you are riding the crest of the wave with its bright lights, its attentions, its flattery and its excitement—but it is quite another when you’re tramping the same streets none too sure of your next meal.

“The other night I went to my first big opening, or premiere or whatever they call them. Somebody yelled my name over the radio and the people politely applauded—although I doubt whether they really knew me. ‘Well, that’s nice, Clark old boy,’ I told myself, ‘but don’t get too excited. Remember you’ve stood in the mob yourself—and the hurrah doesn’t mean a darn.”

“I was driven to that opening by a chauffeur—but when he drove away I couldn’t help remembering that there was a time when I would have been plenty glad to get a job as a chauffeur n Hollywood.

“The other day a nice little girl from the secretarial office came over to my dressing room with a flattering bunch of fan mail. I did get a big kick out f it—but then suddenly it hit me that the actor who had my same dressing room five years ago on this lot and got five times as much fan mail as my stack, is now coasting around on Poverty Row looking for a big job. It’s all rather haywire, isn’t it?”

“In that stack of fan mail was an invitation from an exclusive café club in Hollywood to become a member. I’d never seen the inside of that building—but I’ve often hung around the outside thinking I might run into a director or an old friend who might put me on to a job—five years ago. I’m afraid my enjoyment for the thrills of stardom has been a little dimmed! I know the other side of the story too well. I was such a flat failure at the movies that I eventually had to give them up entirely and grab at what I could get in the lone of a stock job.”

From Hollywood, Clark went to Houston, Texas, where he worked for six months. Then to New York to gain some real recognition in “Machinial,” “Hawk Island,” “Gambling,” and “Blind Windows.” But it was the role of Killer Mears in “The Last Mile” that brought him back to Los Angeles again. “The talkies had come in by the time we reached the West Coast—but they didn’t interest me. I figured I had made my final fling at the movies.”

It was Lionel Barrymore who visited Clark one night in his dressing room backstage and asked him to make a test at MGM. At first he laughed at the idea—told Barrymore of his previous attempts at storming the studios—and would have gone on his way if Barrymore had not sincerely protested. “He told me that everything was different now. He said camera appeal was being supplanted by voice appeal and that the day of the pretty-boy leading man was over. More out of curiosity than for any other good reason I consented to come out the following day and see what made the talkie wheels go around.

“As I waited on the set just before the test I felt disinterested in what was to follow. It all looked the same—the same long waits—the same camera, but when Barrymore came on the set and handed me a script with lines to learn and speak, I realized for the first time just how much the movies had changed. I gained confidence. I realized that this game was just up my street. We made the test and then…”

The rest of his story as told in “The Easiest Way,” “Dance Fools Dance” and “The Secret Six” is too well known to hear repetition. Following a very excellent performance with Norma Shearer “A Free Soul,” and with Joan Crawford in “Laughing Sinners” in which he replaced John Mack Brown, Clark has been chosen by none other than Greta Garbo herself to support her in her next picture!

It looks like a big future for the boy who couldn’t get a chance five years ago—but Gable has his tongue in his cheek about the fame angle. Hollywood took him over the bumps once and he won’t forget it in a hurry!