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Movie of the Month: The Secret Six (1931)
The centennial of Jean Harlow’s birth is coming up in March 2011. To celebrate, the next five movies featured will be all of Clark’s movies with the legendary Miss Harlow. (But wait! You are saying–they starred in six movies together! True, but we’ve already featured Wife vs. Secretary as Movie of the Month in July) So to start with, here’s the very first of their pairings… The Secret Six, from 1931 Clark, not yet a star, was still playing second fiddle. Billed seventh, he is lagging behind Wallace Beery, Johnny Mack Brown and Lewis Stone for screen time. Not for long, as just a few months after the release of The…
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Gossip Friday: Whatever Suits Him
From May 1937: Did you know that Clark Gable likes to have his suits made a couple of sizes too large? He thinks they’re much more comfortable that way. And now it looks as though he’s talked Carole Lombard into the idea. She was recently seen swinging down the boulevard in a tailored suit that might have been built for Fieldsie. Or maybe it was just Garbo, impersonating Lombard. ____ New this week: Article: Do Hollywood Women (i.e. Lombard) Spoil Their Men (i.e. Gable)? Pictures in the gallery
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In tribute
Clark died fifty years ago today, at the age of 59, leaving behind him 66 films, legions of fans, hundreds of shocked friends and a devastated pregnant fifth wife. Here is a piece by famed Hollywood gossip columnist (and longtime friend of Clark’s) Louella Parsons: Goodbye to My Dear Friend I still can’t believe he is gone, although reams and reams of copy have been written about his death, more than has appeared about many heads of State. Since that heartbreaking moment, a few minutes after he died on the night of [November 16] at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, when I was awakened by the shocking message, “Clark is dead”–there has…
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Gossip Friday: Wandering into Grand Hotel
Wallace Beery and Joan Crawford filming Grand Hotel From April 1932: In “Strange Interlude” Clark Gable will play a variety of roles that will carry him from youth to old age, and as a consequence he is devoting all of his time to praticing makeups at the Metro studio. He walked on the set of “Grand Hotel” (where he didn’t belong) the other day and “accidentally on purpose” got in everybody’s way without being recognized. Finally the assistant director ordered him out of the studio. Crestfallen Clark started away just as Jean Hersholt, a member of the “Grand Hotel” cast, happened along. “What’s the matter, old man?” Hersholt asked kindly.…
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Happy Veterans Day
Happy Veterans Day! Clark said of his time in the Army Air Corps: “You know, that was the thing I am most proud of. Not only because I helped in a small way, and believe me, it was a small way–but because it was the first thing I felt that I did completely unselfishly and not caring about my own hide. And I know Ma would have been proud. Makes me feel a bit better.” Read about Clark’s time in the army here. Recently updated with his registration card and service certificate.
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Gossip Friday: On the set of Gone with the Wind
From May 1939: We said we didn’t believe it. “Tell us,” we said, “that Greta Garbo is hunting autographs; that Shirley Temple has been sent to reform school; that Jimmy Cagney is baking a cake. Tell us anything. But don’t tell us ‘Gone with the Wind’ is actually shooting!” “Come over and see for yourself,” said the Selznick-International man. How could we resist making “The Wind”, as Hollywood knows it, our first stop on the monthly set circuit? After these months of waiting and waiting–false hopes, phony Scarletts, reluctant Rhetts and so forth–a mere peep at the champion never-never movie in actual production is like a preview of the millennium.…
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Meet Me in St. Louis…
Well, Friday I am boarding a plane and heading to St. Louis for the Gone with the Wind “Gateway to the Wind” event! The itinerary is as follows: Friday, November 5 2:30 p.m. “Antebellum Plantation Life; Perception vs. Reality”- White Haven Ulysses S. Grant National Historical Site 7400 Grant Rd. St. Louis, MO – Learn all about GWTW author Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War relatives and how their lives inspired her to write “Gone With The Wind” 5:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception At Drury Inn For Those Staying At The Drury 7 p.m. “Blog With The Wind”- Drury Inn Forest Park. Find out about the social media out there. 8 p.m. “Fiddle-Dee-Dee Follies” –…
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Gossip Friday: Chew on This
From October 1941: Carole Lombard chews up more letters than she writes. When she sits down to write she chews the edge of the stationary while she is thinking and by the time she has the letter halfway finished it is so well chewed up that she throws it in the wastebasket and goes out to feed the chickens. That’s why you don’t ever get letters from Lombard. Carole Lombard is probably the only actress in Hollywood who feeds the chicken while wearing Irene dresses. Or maybe Carole Lombard is the only actress in Hollywood who feeds the chickens! _______________________ New this week: Articles galore! One about Carole from…
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TCM Moguls and Movie Stars Exhibit
A few days ago I went to the TCM Moguls and Movie Stars exhibit in Atlanta. From TCM.com: Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is bringing a bit of Hollywood history to five cities across the United States this fall as part of a special tour tied to the network’s landmark seven-part documentary series, MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD, which premieres Monday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. (ET). The multimedia exhibit was created to let film lovers across the country experience the MOGULS & MOVIE STARS series through interactive displays on the history of filmmaking in America. The exhibit will feature unique memorabilia, including an Oscar®…
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Gossip Friday: Signed by Carole Gable
From January 1940: After a preview the other evening, a boy asked Carole Lombard for her autograph. The actress obligingly signed “Carole Gable”. The boy looked at it and then said, “Shucks, I can sell your Carole Lombard autograph for two bits to a pal of mine, but this ain’t worth nothing!” New this week: Articles: Will the Gable-Lombard Romance Last? written right before they married and the foreword that Clark wrote for Adolphe Menjou’s autobiography