News Clippings
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85 Years Ago, Clark Gable is Set Free
On March 8 1939, Clark Gable’s second wife, Maria “Ria” Franklin Gable, and her atrocious hat, obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada. Clark and Ria’s marriage had been “in name only” for years. Clark had left the family home to live at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in the fall of 1935 and famously began a romance with Carole Lombard the following year. Ria had been confident Clark would not divorce her, stating to reporters that Clark had never mentioned divorce. As the years wore on and the romance between Clark and Carole blossomed, the press began to loudly criticize Ria for clinging on and not allowing Carole to become Mrs.…
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{In the News} 1941: That Flapping at the Gables’ is Mighty Like a Stork
The omnipresent rumors of an impending little Gable continued on in this newspaper spread from 1941: That Flapping at the Gables’ is Mighty Like a Stork Hollywood, Feb. 14–A little Rhett Butler (or possibly a Rhetta) is now on its way at the nearby rancho of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, according to advices on Sir Stork’s movieland grapevine today. The report was linked to Carole’s visit to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Jan.2, when she was given a physical check up by Dr. Richard W. Telinde, the hospital’s chief gynecologist. Intimates of the couple recalled that Carole’s pet name for Clark is “Pappy” and that, in recent weeks,…
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{In the News} 1941: Carole Lombard Declares Open Season on Gossipers
Here’s a syndicated newspaper article from October 1941 (similar to this article in the Archive from 1940: “Help Kill Crazy Rumors about Me!”) Carole Lombard Declares Open Season on Gossipers Goes Hunting After Denying She’s Dead or Is to Divorce Clark Gable Hollywood, Oct. 13–Carole Lombard went gunning today, not only for birds with feathers on ’em, but also for the radio oracles who claim she’s about to divorce Clark Gable, or die, or both. Miss Lombard will get the ducks when the season starts Thursday. On the gossipers she has declared open season. They’re causing her phone to ring so much she’s not getting enough sleep. Last week Miss…
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{In The News} 1941: Anything for a Laugh
Here’s a little newspaper piece that was too long to be considered a “Gossip Friday” but not quite long enough to be considered a full article really. It goes on for a while at first talking about a man named Vince Barnett, who was “the undisputed top ribber of the movie industry. He has made a career out of being a professional insulter.” From December 1941: The only time Barnett ever got socked was at a party Douglas Fairbanks Jr. gave, with Clark Gable in mind as the victim. Gable was just too quick for them. Barnett was there, this time in the guise of a French film producer. He…
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{In The News} Carole Lombard in 1936: May-December
Continuing our news clippings series, following Carole around in 1936…we pick up in May. Here’s January-April. May 12: Carole Lombard’s hospital party, after she recovered from the flu, brought guest dressed as doctors and nurses. They arrived in ambulances and sat around on hospital cots sipping cocktails from medicine bottles. A hospital shower for Margot Grahame, about to lose her appendix, netted her 16 hot water bottles. May 20: The romance scouts are speculating on the temperature of Gable’s friendship with Carole Lombard. He has been meeting her at the Paramount gate every afternoon at 5. May 28: At Carole Lombard’s house party the other night, a departing guest…
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{In the News} Carole Lombard in 1936: January-April
As part of Carole Lombard month, here’s the start of a news clipping series on Carole Lombard. I have done these news clippings posts before, on fourth wife Sylvia Ashley and fifth wife Kay Williams. Carole is, of course, more difficult to accumulate clippings on just because of the sheer volume of them–thousands and thousands a year! But I thought it would be interesting to follow her around in 1936, the year that she and Clark started officially dating. The year started with a lot of press for her film “Hands Across the Table” and… January 1, 1936: Carole Lombard admits a fondness for practical jokes. Also for oranges, modern…
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{75th Anniversary of Carole Lombard’s Death} January 21, 2016
January 21 brought news of Carole’s funeral to be held later that day at Forest Lawn. Carole Lombard Funeral at Forest Lawn Private funeral services, with only intimate friends present, were arranged for 4:00pm today, in the Church of the Recessional, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, for screen star Carole Lombard and her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth K. Peters. The bodies, recovered from the Nevada mountain top where a commercial airliner carried 22 persons to their deaths last Friday night, were taken from a train at Pomona this morning and transported by hearse to the cemetery. Carole Lombard’s husband, Clark Gable, issued a statement, saying: “Miss Lombard and her mother,…
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{75th Anniversary of Carole Lombard’s Death} January 20, 2016
On January 20, grieving Clark Gable took his wife and mother-in-law’s broken bodies back to California. Gable Plans to Take Carole’s Body Back to Hollywood Today Clark Gable planned to return to Hollywood with the crushed body of his wife, Carole Lombard, today after identification of the body of the film actress’ mother. Gable’s film studio associates said a double funeral would be held tomorrow or Thursday for Miss Lombard and her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Peters, both victims of an airline crash in which 22 were killed. Only a few personal friends will be invited to the services at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, it said. Miss Lombard’s body will…
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{In the News} The Final Years of Kay Williams 1965-1983
Here is our final installment of the Kay Williams news clippings series. The other installments: Clark Gable Marries Kay Spreckels 1955-1960 Kay Williams Divorces Adolph Spreckels, Dates Clark Gable Again 1951-1954 Kay Williams Marries Adolph Spreckels 1945-1951 Kay Williams Dates Clark Gable (For The First Time) 1944-1945 Kay Williams 1937-1943 We pick up in 1965. April 19, 1965: Los Angeles–On the flickering screen was the happiest marriage of casting and character, plot and player, in the long history of motion pictures. The handsome, muscular man who played the renegade Confederate blockage runner seemed less an actor than the real article. In short, it was hard to tell where Clark Gable…
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{In The News} Newly Widowed Kay Williams 1961-1963
We last left Clark Gable and Kay Williams Gable in late 1960. Clark died on November 16, 1960, and I am skipping over all the coverage of his illness and death as I have covered that before and it would get redundant–the subject at hand is Kay. You can read about Clark’s death and funeral here. So let’s pick up in January 1961, when Kay is newly widowed and an expectant mother. January 15, 1961: Gable’s Widow Gets Allowance Los Angeles–Clark Gable’s widow has a $5,000 monthly allowance from the actor’s estate to meet family expenses. The petition of former actress Kay Williams for this sum was approved in Superior…
