Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Happy Easter from Carole to Clark
From April 1936: Among Easter gags pulled in Hollywood, don’t forget that Carole Lombard sent Clark Gable a dozen tiny Easter bunnies. All he had to do was find a place to keep them at his hotel. This story combined with the fact that she sent the same star an old Ford for a Valentine present, is making Hollywoodians wonder if there is really something to this friendship that might lead to romance, after all. It’s a lot of effort to plan all these jokes, if nothing but friendship is in back of it.
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Gossip Friday: Party Trick
From 1941: This happened at a housewarming at the Fred MacMurrays. Everyone was talking about the war and Paris fashions and how to cultivate dahlias, when suddenly Clark [Gable] took a cigarette, held the burning end of it between his thumb and forefinger, and, without a wince, slowly crushed it out with his fingers. That was something! Immediately, the vital topics under discussion were dropped, and everyone wanted to know if Clark’s fingers were made out of asbestos. Now wait—don’t try it yourself, until you hear how Clark did it. It’s not done with mirrors Just an ice cube. He smuggled an ice cube in his hand, held it between…
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Gossip Friday: They’re Not So Much
From June 1936: Not until you have been out with some of the better known screen favorites can you fully appreciate how many imbeciles there are among the fans. One night Carole Lombard and Clark Gable and a few others were ankling along a boulevard when a crowd gathered. Gable and Lombard were surrounded by them, shoved and pushed and otherwise mangled. The both tried to smile and groped for a way out. Their obvious predicament amused the crowd, which responded with happy cracks, which is what usually follows when people are self conscious. Finally one greasy-looking man pushed forward–close to them and shouted: “Hmph. They’re not so much.” He…
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Gossip Friday: A Speed War
From May 1936: Out of a “gag” gift from Carole Lombard, Clark Gable is fashioning a gasoline racer in which he plans to show the actress what speed really means on the Muroc Dry Lake. The entire idea had its inception last February 14 when Miss Lombard presented the Metro Goldwyn Mayer star with a broken down car of well-known vintage, painted white with red hearts appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Up until the present time Gable had been too busy before the cameras in the picture, “San Francisco” to do much thinking about what disposal he would make of the heap. But under the hood there now lies a new…
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Gossip Friday: No King and Queen Stuff
From March 23, 1939, Hedda Hopper’s column: Tom Douglas and Rex Evans, former actors, have been decorating like mad–It’s Clark Gable’s new house and it was finished March 17. While the wires are being burned up to find out Clark’s wedding date, when Clark gets a couple of hours off he doesn’t bother about anything but tilling his soil. No king and queen stuff for Clark and Carole, they’ll break the news to all the papers at the same time. ____ Don’t worry, Hedda, they’d be married six days later.
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Gossip Friday: A Brief Divorcee?
From March 1939: Mrs. Clark Gable, who is in Las Vegas awaiting her divorce, may marry as soon as her former husband does. Hal Strotz, the former Mrs. Jay Gould’s widower, flew to Las Vegas to spend the weekend as Mrs. Gable’s guest. He telephones to her every day and, according to her close friends, is devoted to Ria. Her divorce will become final on March 6 and, while there is no official word that she will become Mrs. Strotz, things look serious between her and her admirer.
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Gossip Friday: Two Millionth
From March 1938: Clark Gable affixed his 2,000,000th autograph for “Ducky” Pond, coach of the Yale University football team. The star has kept accurate check on his signatures since asked for his first autograph six years ago as the result of his performance in “A Free Soul.” ___ I really doubt that….
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Gossip Friday: A Rush Job
From March 21, 1939: Carole Lombard has hired twenty-four gardeners to complete a rush job on Clark Gable’s Encino estate. Carole’s mother, Mrs. Peters, has put on record her desire for a church wedding, or a ceremony in a private house performed by a preacher.
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Gossip Friday: Mr. Bow Tie
From January 1936: Clark Gable, famous setter of men’s fashions, is introducing a new one or, rather, reviving an old one–bow ties for streetwear. He is wearing long bows with pointed ends in bright stripes. Gable’s first honor on this line was when he made popular the turtlenecked sweater.
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Gossip Friday: Something to Talk About
From February 1936: Did you hear about the [valentine] Carole Lombard sent Clark Gable? She had an old Ford painted white, decorated with huge red hearts and ribbon and had it delivered to Mr. Gable’s hotel with her compliments. All this because of the false reports that have been going around town regarding the fact that she was romantically interested in Clark. Carole says she thought she would give the gossips something real to talk about for a change.
