Articles
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{New Article} 1939: What’s the Matter with Lombard?
This article, published a few months after Carole Lombard married Clark Gable, wonders what is the matter with her, in the same vein as other articles after she became involved with Clark, such as Why is Carole Lombard Hiding Out From Hollywood? and What’s Become of the Good Scout? There are persons in Hollywood who are sore at Lombard. She doesn’t care, however, because she probably doesn’t know of her misfortune. If she did, she would doubtless do something about it, because Carole is too good a business woman to willfully make anyone sore at her and too warm-hearted to deliberately give offense to anyone. It never pays to make…
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{New Article} 1951: The Girl Who Won Gable Back
This article is a follow-up to the one I posted a few weeks ago, Clark Gable’s Secret Romance. That 1949 article was all about the sweet, secret romance between Clark Gable and Virginia Grey. Well, by the end of that year Clark had married his fourth wife, Sylvia, and left Virginia in the dust, despite Modern Screen magazine’s insistence that Virginia would be the next Mrs. Gable. By the time this article was published in November 1951, Sylvia had moved out and Clark was back on the market. The night she heard of Clark Gable’s marriage to Sylvia Ashley, she cried her eyes out. Later, her sister came by, took…
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{New Article} 1949: Clark Gable’s Secret Romance
Out of the many, many ladies that Clark escorted around after the death of Carole Lombard, the one with the most staying power was Virginia Grey. Attractive blonde Virginia was never an A-list star but had small roles in Clark’s films Idiot’s Delight and Test Pilot and was great as Joan Crawford’s wisecrackin’ co-worker in The Women, among other roles. Clark and Virginia were spotted together sporadically from 1943 until 1949. This article is from March 1949 and laments the end of their relationship. When Clark Gable left California for his European jaunt last summer he spent his last afternoon visiting a girl who lives not far from his house in…
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{New Article} 1931: Danger in His Eyes
So here is a little piece from 1931, when Clark Gable first burst on the scene and made a big splash as this big brute of a man that every woman wanted to throw them around. The following data about Clark Gable are not to be regarded as the delirium of a woman who is only human after all. These are cold facts, almost statistical, the result of sober and dispassionate observation. You needn’t hesitate to believe every word. Since Clark Gable came to Hollywood, there has been a great unrest at the Metro studio. It is noticeable in every department, affecting all women—from stars to secretaries. Girls sigh and…
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{New Article} 1934: Gable Gets a New Deal
“Clark Gable Gets a New Deal” is this writer’s way of saying that he is no longer second fiddle to MGM’s stable of female stars and can charge ahead on his own. He’s got an “optimistic grip of his career” now, it seems. After playing subordinate roles for two years, working four without a vacation, and being seriously ill for months, Clark gets a new deal, a new kind of role, a new contract! And a vacation in New York with a fresh, optimistic lease on life, as well as a firmer grip on his career. Everyone is pleased about it, if one is to judge by the proud but…
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{New Article} 1933: Lost–The Gable Wallop
This is one of those early 1930’s “interviews” with Clark Gable that seems utterly pointless but kept the Gable-crazed fans satiated, I suppose. We know we’re in for a real fluff piece when it starts out with: Clark sits up through the night and thinks about himself. Has too much introspection robbed him of his force and punch? Oh boy. “The other night when I came home from a party, I went to bed but I couldn’t sleep. I got up and pulled on a dressing gown and went out on the porch. It was about two o’clock in the morning, and there was no traffic on the road in…
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{New Article} 1946: My Hollywood Friends
This little article was written by actress Susan Peters. Susan, a promising young actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for 1942’s Random Harvest, was tragically paralyzed when her shotgun accidentally went off and a bullet lodged in her spine on January 1, 1945. She started a column in Photoplay and “interviewed” celebrities, although I wouldn’t say this is technically an interview: It’s fascinating to observe the effect of his entrance into such a blasé room as the studio commissary. Stars by the gross walk in every day and nary a head turns, but when Mr. Gable arrives it’s an epidemic. Everyone turns to look at him. I’ll tell…
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{New Article} 1952: Gable’s in Love Again!
Here is a silly little article, not unlike a lot of the silly articles from the time period before he married Kay. I thought perhaps this one might have some real nuggets in it until this part in the beginning: You know what happens to women—practically all women—every time Clark Gable’s name is mentioned. It would be futile for me to deny that my own reactions follow the pattern. When I arrived in Paris this year and heard Clark was in town, prior to going to London to make his first picture there, I wanted to see him as soon as possible. Naturally, then, when Anita Loos phoned me one…
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{New Article} 1941: Things I Don’t Like About Myself
Well, this website is ten years old and I’ve got well over ten years’ worth of Clark Gable stuff clogging up my laptop, external hard drive and office. Since my Movie of the Week feature ended, I’m trying to organize things better; in particular the pictures on my laptop are nightmare. When you have 75,000+ pictures, what is the best way to organize them? By date? By subject? By subject, then by date? It makes one’s head explode. Which might just happen soon. But before it does, I’m also digging through my articles. This is less of a feat although the sheer volume of articles I have to type might…
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{New Article} 1960: How Does It Feel To Die
I like finding articles from the 1950’s and early 1960’s about Clark, mainly because the “fluff” of the 1930’s has dissipated and you are more likely to find real interviews with real quotes, not fussy, gushy, studio-directed pieces. Well, this one not so much. The full title of it is “How Does It Feel to Die, Clark Gable: The Strangest Story Story Ever Told” and I have no idea why it was titled this. The article is completely about when Kay miscarried their baby in 1955 and Kay’s subsequent heart problems. There is nothing about how it feels to die and there is nothing strange about the story other than…
