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    {Photos} Clark Gable and Carole Lombard on a Picnic

    By 1938, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were madly in love, and everyone knew it. The stories of “Will Their Romance Last?” were starting to dissapate and the “When Will Ria Gable Give Clark the Divorce so These Lovebirds Can Marry?” stories were roaring. So, no surprise, Carole was Clark’s date to the annual MGM company picnic that year (I think I am mostly surprised Clark attended at all–maybe Carole convinced him to be a good sport?). The pictures of them from this event are some of my very favorites. Clad casually in sweaters and Carole with very little make-up and her hair pushed off her face, they look like…

  • Films,  Photos,  Strange Cargo

    {Photos} Play Ball!

    While on location filming Strange Cargo on Pismo Beach in 1940, Clark, co-star Ian Hunter and some of the crew played ball with a girls softball team. It’s funny to see him playing all scruffy and unkempt, in his raggedy costume. I’m sure that was a story those girls told for the rest of their lives!

  • Across the Wide Missouri,  Films,  Photos

    {Photos} 1951: Clark Gable Takes His Lady on Location

      In 1951, Clark Gable and his new wife, Sylvia Ashley, headed into the Colorado wilderness to film Across the Wide Missouri. This pictorial was in LOOK magazine:   Along with 325 actors and technicians, the Clark Gables lived and worked for six weeks in a little movie boom-town especially built in the Colorado Rockies for Across the Wide Missouri. As newlyweds, the Gables were given a secluded two-room log cabin. At first Mrs. Gable, the former Lady Sylvia Ashley, set out to do all the cooking–but finally settled for a lone coffee-maker. The Gables, like the rest of the crew, in a mammoth tent dining hall accomadating the entire…

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    1939 Newlyweds

    Since Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married 74 years ago this week, here is a vintage article I found that lists the celebrity couples that were newlyweds in 1939. So let’s see who else would be celebrating 74 years together this year…   Ronald Colman and Benita Hume They were included in this article, but apparently they were married in September 1938, so not sure why they were included but… Benita was Ronald’s second wife. They were married until his death in 1958, and had one daughter, Juliet. Nelson Eddy and Ann Denitz Married in January 1939, celebrated singer Nelson and Ann were married until his death in 1967. They had no…

  • MGM,  Photos

    Clark Gable’s Star Rises in MGM Publicity

    It’s interesting to see what a few short years in Hollywood will do to one’s stardom! Clark Gable burst on the scene in 1931 and literally went from a nobody to a somebody over night. His path can be traced through MGM’s magazine advertisements…. In 1931, he was a newbie and certainly didn’t merit a picture in the stars at the top or even listed in bold among names such as Marion Davies, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or Norma Shearer (all of which would be Clark’s leading ladies!). No, Clark is listed in the small print among names such as Dorothy Appleby, Gus Shy and Edwina Booth. But also among…

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    Carole Lombard and Clark Gable

    In my humble experience with Clark Gable fans, there are two things that are the most popular topics: His role as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind and his tragic marriage to Carole Lombard. Sadly, Clark wouldn’t probably want to be remembered for either of those things. Rhett Butler left a bitter taste in his mouth and Carole, well…Carole was a touchy subject. Once, on a classic movie fan board years ago, I came across a discussion on the most romantic classic filmdom couples. Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, James Stewart and Gloria Stewart…these were the names that topped the lists. I found it…

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    Carole Lombard Behaving Like a Mugg!

    One of the things that is so admirable about Carole Lombard is that she was never afraid to be the clown. She didn’t care if her hair was out of place, her makeup smudged or her manicure outdated. I have always thought it was this quality that most attracted Clark Gable to her–if there was anything he despised in women, it was those who put on frilly, prissy airs. Proof of Carole’s photogenic wackiness is evident in a series of photos printed in the November 1940 issue of Screen Guide magazine. Lombard: Why the Most Popular Career Girl in Movies Enjoys Behaving Like a Mugg! One big fault of Hollywood…

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    The 13 Most Fascinating Women in John Barrymore’s Life

    John Barrymore lists the thirteen most fascinating women in his life, from Look magazine, Nov. 5, 1940: The most fascinating woman I ever knew was my grandmother, Mrs. John Drew. But if you ask me to define glamour–well, I simply can’t. One doesn’t define that, and therein lies its charm. Actually, I haven’t the slightest notion as to what constitutes glamour. I really feel that to find out would be one of life’s tragedies–especially where a man’s search fir it in a woman is concerned. It is the very elusiveness of the quality, and the inability to define it that provides the incentve for the search that never should end. The best…

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    Culver City Welcomes Mrs. Rhett Butler!

    Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were nortorious for  their constant pranking of one another. Clark was usually the butt of the joke; Carole was usually the more elaborate one. One of the few times he was able to successfully turn the tables on his wife was when she reported to work for the first day of shooting in Culver City for her film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When she drove up to the studio, she was startled by a huge billboard on a truck proclaiming, “Culver City Welcomes Carole Lombard (Mrs. Rhett Butler) Home of GWTW”. She was handed the “key to the city” and a bouquet of carrots! Carole couldn’t contain her…

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    The 1932 Mayfair Ball

      The Mayfair Ball was annual event held every February by the exclusive Mayfair Club. It was the seen-and-be-seen event of the year, taking place in one of the posh Hollywood hotels. The event is best remembered by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fans for being the birthplace of their spark, as they began flirting for the first time at the Mayfair Ball in 1936. Well, it turns out that that wasn’t the first time Clark attended the ball. In 1932, he attended with Ria on his arm, and the magic of the night was descibed by Picture Play magazine: Beauty, Fashion and Fame Assemble on That Night of Nights, The Mayfair…