Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Ask to Get
From April 1946: ‘Tis said that Clark Gable is asking for a new contract at Metro that will give him the right to make one independent picture a year. Clark has only to ask, to get, but I hope Clark will call in experts to guide him on choice of story. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, an actor is usually too close to his subject to know what is good for him at the box office. It is hard for him to see the movie as a whole with himself as a unit, and not the entire works.
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Gossip Friday: Mr. and Mrs. Gable’s First Easter
Happy Anniversary Clark Gable and Carole Lombard! Hollywood’s golden couple officially tied the knot 85 years ago today, March 29, 1939. They eloped to Kingman, Arizona and drove all night back to Los Angeles where they spent the next morning beaming at each other in front of the press, still in their wedding clothes. You can read more about their wedding day here. A month later, the newlyweds spent their first Easter together as a married couple. From April 30, 1939: Easter Sunday found most of Hollywood’s famous celebrating the day at home with their families and friends. Andy Devine used the first Sunday he’s had off in weeks from…
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Gossip Friday: He’s Sorry Now
From April 1939 (gossip columnist Sheilah Graham): Do you recognize Andy Devine in the role of Cupid? Well, take another look. When I talked to him on Paramount’s “Geronimo” set, he told me that he was responsible or the Kingman, Ariz. elopement of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. “Gable called me up the night before and said, ‘Well I think we’re going to do it tomorrow, but we don’t know where. Can you suggest any place?’ ‘Sure,’ I replied, ‘my home town–Kingman, Ariz. And I can get everything fixed for you.’ “But I’m sorry I suggested it now,” Andy added, “they used to say of Kingman–‘this is where Andy Devine…
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Gossip Friday: She’s the High Earner
From April 1939, columnist Sheilah Graham: I have heard many localities wonder how it happened that Carole Lombard earned more than Clark Gable in 1937. Clark is a bigger draw, but Carole was in the happy position of being lent to David Selznick at the rate of $150,000 for “Nothing Sacred,” which is why Carole received $314,000 and Clark $289,000. Both were definitely worth their pay to their employers. Carole made three pictures. “Swing High, Swing Low,” which I did not like personally, but which I am told made money; “True Confession”–very good; and “Nothing Sacred,” a box-office success. Clark’s output of two included the very terrible “Parnell”—but the other…
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Gossip Friday: Scared of Crawford
From October 1933: Clark Gable tells an amusing story about Joan [Crawford]. “The only time I ever have been scared in my life was the first time I worked with her,” he declares. “I wasn’t worth a nickel those first few days, couldn’t remember my lines and even acted scared. “It’s funny when I look back, because the one person of whom I should have been frightened, Garbo, didn’t bother me in the least. The first four days I worked with her I never even spoke to her except when we were doing scenes together. And it was during those four days that we shot all the hot love scenes…
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Gossip Friday: New Contract
From February 1940: Clark Gable can declare a moratorium on worry until 1948 under the terms of his new contract with MGM–a contract that will net him $2,000,000 for seven years work! This agreement sets a new record for the movie capital, according to Hollywood historians, in that it is the first screen contract to run for seven straight years without options. Only the fact that the law forbids it prevented its being filled out for a longer period. The nearest thing to it is the $1,500,000 five year contract, sans options, which was signed last year by Joan Crawford. The new agreement with Gable provides that he is to…
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Gossip Friday: Nothing is Sacred
From January 1950: Sylvia Ashley, Gable’s missus, avers that she went to see a Carole Lombard movie, Nothing Sacred, a month before her marriage to Clark. And that did it. She’s now doing over the Gable ranch house–with plans for entertaining on a more formal scale. She’s ordered expansion of the living room to include a grand piano. ___ Well that’s disturbing.
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Gossip Friday: Look Out Carole
From April 1937: It’s a shame to spoil Clark Gable’s fun, but Carole Lombard is a friend of mine, too, and I think she should be warned that Clark has just purchased that two-wheeled carriage they used in “Parnell.” Whenever Gable purchases one of these gags for his “personal use” it usually turns up in Carole’s swanky front yard with a goat tied to it or something. In fact, I hear Clark is dickering for an old thin nanny goat right now, Carole–so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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Gossip Friday: Not Broke
From October 1941: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are two people who are not going to be caught broke after their popularity wanes, if they can help it. Besides owning a large ranch in the San Fernando Valley, they have one to North Dakota now to price a farm with a view to buying a cow ranch. A good percentage of the stars live in the glory of their fabulous salaries with never a thought for the future.
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Gossip Friday: Clark Cleans Up
From February 1, 1942: Having just returned home from a three months vacation, Clark Gable found the desk in his dressing room piled high with all sorts of communications–most of them marked “Urgent.” As he glanced through them he saw that the urgency had passed. By that time he was deep in that job that everybody dreads–cleaning out a desk. He remembered suddenly that he had not straightened it out for eight or ten years. Memories flooded as strange mementos that told much of the story of his life, with its triumphs and defeats, were revealed. Way back in one of the drawers was a box containing a gold crown.…
