Army
-
Happy Veterans Day
Happy Veterans Day to those who served. Clark Gable joined the Army Air Corps in August 1942, after the death of his wife Carole Lombard left his aimless and shattered. He was 41 years old. He was not the only Hollywood heavyweight to join World War II, not by a long shot. A fan magazine in April 1943 published these pictures in a salute: Pictured are Richard Greene (British Army), Victor Mature (Coast Guard), Henry Wilcoxon (Coast Guard), James Stewart (Army), Ronald Reagan (Army), Jeffrey Lynn (Army), David Niven (British Army), William Holden (Army), Henry Fonda (Navy), Clark Gable (Army), Glenn Ford (Marines), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Navy), Robert Stack (Navy),…
-
Salute to Heroes
From Movieland magazine in 1943: As you read this, our country will have been at war approximately two years and five months. To no community in our great land, has the war wrought more changes than to Hollywood. To the fight for freedom, Hollywood has given out not only its manpower and its money but its time, its talents, it dreams. The men are in uniform, but the girls have gone to battle in their own way, on bond tours in this country, over the air on Command Performance, out in the mud of the South Pacific, the fiery deserts of North Africa, the snows of Alaska on entertainment tours.…
-
Salute to a Gallant Guy
In honor of Veterans Day, here is a post that was in Movieland magazine in July 1943: Salute to a Gallant Guy Captain Clark Gable could have taken this war easy. He was beyond draft age, and even when he enlisted he was given the chance to start in as a Major. He went in as a mere boot and earned his wings. His ambition now is to be an aerial gunner and serve overseas. He is now on duty at an English base, but his personal wish is to get his personal quota–and a high one it is–of Japs. How’s for all the Gable fans making at least the…
-
Gossip Friday: Causing an Uproar
Since tomorrow is Veterans Day, here is an item that appeared in October 1943: Clark Gable Throws Pentagon Into Uproar As He Talks War It was colossal! The army may have thought it could keep a press conference with Clark Gable confined to a decorous discussion of the man-sized job he’s doing, but it knows better today. He’s a captain in the air forces, an aerial gunner and a cameraman in a Flying Fortress, shot at, and missed. Back from a European assignment in the Air Force, Gable threw the Pentagon building into a furor as he walked to his first press conference. The former movie actor told of his last…
-
Clark Gable’s Speech at Officer Candidate School Graduation
Clark Gable headed off to Miami to attend Officers Candidate School right after being sworn into the Army in August 1942. He finished 700th in a class of 2,500. At the graduation in October, he was persuaded (probably not willingly) to give the graduation address. Up until now, I only had a clipping of his speech, which was blurry and incomplete. Thanks to a dear fan (who has a signed original!), here is Clark’s speech in its entirety: Fellow Classmen: What’s happened to you, gentlemen? Why have you changed so much in twelve weeks? Look around you. Look at each other. What you see if a picture of discipline that did…
-
America’s Number One Glamour Boy Marches Like The Rest of Them
In honor of Veterans Day…. One of the random things I have in my possession is a collection of letters from a man named Bud, who was in Air Corps Officer Candidate School in Miami with Clark Gable in late 1942, to his sister. Here is an excerpt from one, dated Sunday, August 31, 1942. That is pretty consistent with all the other accounts I’ve heard–they doubted him at first but soon realized that Clark was the real deal. Hats off to you, Mr. Gable, and all the other servicemen and servicewomen!
-
Veterans Day: Speaking of Heroes
A letter from the editor of Photoplay magazine, November 1942: Speaking of Heroes There isn’t a movie-goer among us who didn’t respond with quick emotion when Clark Gable enlisted as a private in the Air Corps of the United States Army, or who failed to feel a sense of elation reading the news less than three weeks later that Tyrone Power had been sworn in as private in the Marine Corps and that Henry Fonda, without advance word, had enlisted in the Navy. These men gave up adulation, riches and fame to become soldier, marine and sailor without rating. This did not make them heroes, but it did something else.…
-
70 Years Ago Today, Clark Gable Joins the Army
Within weeks of Carole Lombard’s untimely death in January 1942, rumors swirled that Clark Gable was going to give up Hollywood for good and take off for the Armed Forces like so many other stars had. Carole had wanted her “Pappy” to join while she was alive; in fact her last telegram to him urged him to “join this man’s [Roosevelt’s] army!” Not surprisingly, MGM was desperate to hold on to him, after having lost so many male stars to the service already and tried to dissuade him. Clark made no public statements one way or the other, so the public was left to speculate what was next for their…
-
{New Article} 1942: Why Gable Wants to Fight
This article drums over the reasons Clark would want to join the army and whether or not he should. A mute point, of course, since by the time this article was published in October 1942, Clark was already sworn in and in officers school. If this were a time of peace in the world, Clark Gable would probably seek escape on a desert island. It would have to be an island that offered excitement, however, because, at heart, Gable is an adventurer, a man who loves the mystery of the unknown, who has lived close to nature and knows her changing moods—a man who has always been able to find…
-
Gossip Friday: Applause for a Soldier
From March 1943: Here in my [Hollywood columnist Jimmie Fidler] office, I’ve literally got a ceiling on letters–they’re piled that high! Practically every one of them requests news about our Hollywood men serving in the armed forces, so I did a little scouting. Four out of seven wanted information on Clark Gable. Clark came home to Hollywood on official business the middle of last December, looking trim, tan, and terrific. He stayed with the Walter Langs while he was here and saw only a few close friends. The sight of the month was First Lieutenant Gable and First Lieutenant James Stewart discussing Army business on the steps of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Administration Building–both…
