Films
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Remembering Clark Gable
Clark Gable died 64 years ago today, after suffering a fatal heart attack. He was 59 years old. Still full of life, he had just completed The Misfits and was eagerly awaiting the birth of his son. You can read about his death and funeral here. After Clark’s death, the newspaper the Atlanta Constitution interviewed some Atlantans who had met Clark when he was in town for the premiere of Gone with the Wind. Atlantans Who Entertained Gable in 1939 Comment on His Death by Yolande Gwin Clark Gable whispered to one of the newspaperwomen and said: “Do you suppose I could have a few words with her? (Margaret Mitchell).…
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Gossip Friday: Rhett’s Horse
From July 1939: Clark Gable is becoming so attached to the splendid five-gaited horse which he rides in “Gone with the Wind” that he is seriously considering its purchase for his own use.
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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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85 Years Ago, On the Set of Gone with the Wind…
85 years ago today, the newspapers were reporting what was going on on the the set of the hotly-anticipated Civil War drama. Gone with the Wind Cast Loses Self-Consciousness by Harrison Carroll Hollywood, April 29–Some of the self-consciousness has worn off the “Gone with the Wind: company and they are now having fun just as if they were making an ordinary picture instead of an American classic. This week, they are shooting the scene in the library of the Wilkes plantation, Twelve Oaks, where Scarlett discovers that Rhett Butler had overheard her confession of love to Ashley. In sudden anger, Vivien Leigh tosses a vase at Clark Gable, who is…
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{New Article} 1940: Gable vs. Crawford
This is a new short little article gossiping that Clark Gable and Joan Crawford were not getting along on the set of Strange Cargo. This was actually mentioned in a few Gable biographies. Clark did not want to be in the film as he did not like the script (I can’t say I blame him). Joan’s career was on a downturn and she needed a hit so she was paired with Clark, who was just coming off Gone with the Wind success. Joan was a bit miffed at this, since just nine years earlier, she was the big star and Clark was getting his feet wet playing her love interests…
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Gossip Friday: Dozed Off
From January 1938: Clark Gable is an actor who knows how to relax. In “Test Pilot” there is a sequence in which he is supposed to be asleep while other players carry on action and dialog. For the rehearsal, Gable lay down and really dozed off. Director Victor Fleming woke him up, saying: “I’m afraid you might ruin a take by yawning, or talking in your sleep, or snoring.”
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Gossip Friday: Lombard in Saratoga?
From October 1936: There is a new custom in Hollywood00to get an actor and actress who are having a romance and team them in a picture. The fans want to watch the lovers they read about. Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck together in a picture were great at the box office. Metro is going to team Clark Gable and Carole Lombard in the flicker “Saratoga,” while they’re hot. ___ Not so much. As we all know, Saratoga starred Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. It was, sadly, Jean’s last role.
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Gossip Friday: The Toughest
From 1962: Joan Blondell says Hollywood should give her a “heart of gold” award when she celebrates her fiftieth year in show business. “I’ve given back more men to leading ladies than anybody else in the world,” laughed Joan. “The toughest was handing Clark Gable back to Greer Garson.”
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Gossip Friday: Elastic Man
From June 1958: The most famous male face in pictures is also the most elastic, according to writer-producer-director George Seaton, twice an Academy Award winner and a veteran who should know what he is talking about. Its owner is Clark Gable, of course, and Seaton, who directed Gable in “Teacher’s Pet,” says he learned a lesson from guiding The King through the Paramount comedy release [currently playing]. “Most people don’t realize, and I certainly didn’t, that Mr. Gable can wordlessly run through the gamut of emotions and register, authentically, just about every reaction in the books,” said Seaton. The screenplay has the kind of salty man-to-man and man-to-woman humor that…
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Gossip Friday: No Feud in Cargo
From November 1939: For these many weeks, we’ve been reading items and hearing rumors about Clark Gable and Joan Crawford being so angry at each other the chances are against their ever finishing their current costarring picture. So we dropped by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer today on the theory that maybe we’d see Gable get his face slapped by an outraged Miss Crawford. On stage 26 was Miss Crawford in tatters, as if somebody had gone after her with a pitchfork. There also was Gable, dirty, sweaty, greasy–and snarling at his leading lady. “Don’t tap your heart,” she yelled back at him, “it’ll break your finger.” If ever two movie performers were boiling…
