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Gossip Friday: Not Magnificent
From July 1939: Metro people who have seen some of the 16 reels of “Gone with the Wind” say Clark Gable dominates the picture. Warner-ites confide that Olivia de Havilland steals it. Selznick employees claim it’s a triumph for Vivien Leigh, who is in almost every scene. But nobody says it’s magnificent.
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Gossip Friday: Update on Scarlett
From July 1939: Hollywood–The movie capital has not been kind to Vivien Leigh, and Miss Leigh, in turn, hates Hollywood. Neither knows much about the other, but it is unlikely that there will be time for revision of opinions. When the last mile of film has been ground through David Selznick’s cameras, his Scarlett O’Hara expects to be gone with the wind. On January 13 (which fell on a Friday), when Miss Leigh was formally signed to the most coveted role in the most talked-about picture in screen history, Hollywood welcomed her with mixed jealousy and resentment, blank puzzlement about her qualifications, feigned pity for the difficulty of her role,…
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Gossip Friday: An Adult Approach
From December 1948: Clark Gable, on the lack of movie attendance of oldsters: “Maybe we should take a more adult approach to films. Heaven knows, my pictures haven’t contributed much in that regard.”
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Gossip Friday: Number One Guest
From July 31, 1938: Clark Gable is the nation’s Number One guest. Name any kind of a beauty contest, rodeo, festival, benefit or fraternal clam bake and the chances are 10 to 1 Gable has been invited to attend it. Ten percent of the Gable fan mail consists of invitations–conventions, personal appearances, cornerstone layings, graduation ceremonies, banquets and purely social events. It runs a close second to the 12 percent who won’t believe he prefers Carole Lombard to them–and daintily offer their hand and heart in marriage.
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Gossip Friday: You Beat Us
From June 1940: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are confirming the baby item to close friends. They sent one pair of new parents a congratulatory wire saying: “Nice going, you beat us but not by much. ___ Sadly, not true.
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Gossip Friday: Gable in the Midwest
From June 5, 1947, Decatur, Illinois: Bradley’s cabins parking lot and office swarmed with crowds of celebrity seekers last night as word got around that Clark Gable was staying there. But the night clerk and A.E. Bradley, operator, claimed to know nothing of the film star’s presence. A man named Al Menasco, a stranger in Decatur, reserved a cabin at Bradley’s and visited cordially with the clerk. But no one at Bradley’s knew that the famous Clark Gable was Mr. Menasco’s traveling companion, Mr. Bradley insisted today. But the crowd knew. Several persons had seen the two men eating dinner at the Hotel Orlando’s Commodore room last night and many…
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Gossip Friday: Don’t Got Milk
From July 1940: I hate to tell this on Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, nor does it seem possible, but when they built their barn, they bought a cow, which turned out to be a heifer (ingenue to you). Never having had a calf, it couldn’t give milk. Carole learned the truth, and exchanged it for a cow. Then they bought everything that Goes into a first-class commercial dairy, so they would have fresh milk daily.
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Gossip Friday: Our Home is Our Own
From July 1939: There is something of a race on among some hundred or so journalists and magazine writers to get a description of the Clark Gable-Carole Lombard estate. There seems to be a distinct catch in it, or the newlyweds absolutely refuse to have their place photographed in detail. “It isn’t that we want to be mean,” explains Carole, “but we like to feel that our home is our own, and anyway it isn’t finished yet. Possibly it never will be finished. That’s why it keeps us interested.” Gable admits he has always wanted to farm. It has been a suppressed desire for years and now that he has…
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Gossip Friday: No Angel’s Flight
From May 1948: Clark Gable says his next film will likely be “Angel’s Flight.” No, it’s not a supernatural story–the title comes from Los Angeles’ lone cable-car line. Clark adds that he’ll be happy to get out of uniform. He’s been an army officer in his latest two pictures. ___ That film never got made, with or without Gable.
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Gossip Friday: A Wonderful Trip
From May 1948: Clark Gable has planned a wonderful motor trip for himself through England and France as soon as he finishes “Command Decision.” I’m not in the least surprised, for the last time I interviewed Clark, he told me he wanted to renew some of the friendships he made when he was stationed overseas in the Army Air Corps. He’ll probably go to Germany, too, and look at the places over which he flew in the harrowing days when he was on bombing missions. I’ll bet a cookie MGM will try to get Clark to appear in one of the pictures they are making in England while he’s there–and…
