Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Gable is as Gable Does
From January 1938: Being in the business world of Hollywood and meeting stars every day, I can give you this impression of Clark Gable, not as fiction, but as a true fact from everyday life. He called at our place of business one morning dressed in sport clothes. Very businesslike, this Gable. He wandered about the store missing nothing, with our employees giving him little attention. (He prefers that.) A little girl seated in a toy automobile glanced about, and suddenly seeing Mr. Gable, called her father’s attention to him. She wanted his autograph. The father spoke to Mr. Gable, and, smiling graciously, Clark walked over to the car and…
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Gossip Friday: Hang On, Carole!
From November 1941: Clark Gable’s convertible coupe, with a canvas covered steel top as a precaution in case he turns turtle, is the fastest thing on wheels in Hollywood. And Gable has a habit of driving at terrific speed. I noticed on the right side of the car’s dashboard a heavy bar with leather finger grips and asked him about it. He grinned. “Oh, that,” he said. “Well–sometimes I turn a corner kinda fast, and Carole has to hang on.”
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Gossip Friday: Quite a Pipe
From October 1939: Clark Gable related one “something for practically nothing” incident which leads me to believe that the old, time-honored proverb “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” isn’t always sound advice. A few weeks ago, Gable received a strange, old pipe. Accompanying the gift was a note, “This is nothing more valuable than the bearer of good wishes from a fan upon your marriage.” The pipe was so unusual looking that Clark, out of curiousity, took it to an authority on such things. That gentleman placed the probable orgin of the pipe at about the time peg-legged Peter Stuyvesant came to New Amsterdam. Naturally it would be…
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Gossip Friday: Clark Gable–Forgotten Man
From April 1939: …take the [Clark] Gable burial and its ramifications. This was in Too Hot to Handle. The scene had been shot a half a dozen times, but still it wasn’t right, in the opinion of Director Jack Conway. “We’ll shoot it again,” he decreed. Clark looked pained. “Hey, what is this?” he protested. “I suppose you think I LIKE being buried alive!” Myrna Loy, cool and comfortable in her easy chair, soothed him from the sidelines. “It’s for the sake of your art,” she said. At six o’clock, they were still at it and still Conway wasn’t satisfied. Clark was dirty, dishevelled, cranky. Walter Pidgeon remonstrated with him.…
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Gossip Friday: Two Rodeo Clowns
From January 1940: Funniest sight of the month–Watching Clark Gable and Andy Devine playing cowboy at Andy’s San Fernando ranch. Any day, now, when these two screen worthies aren’t working before the cameras you can see them astride a pair of giddyapps, running here, there and about everywhere, across the broad acres of the Devine rancho vainly trying to rope a bunch of fleet-footed white-face calves. the last private rodeo ended in a startling manner when Clark tossed his lariat around Andy’s shoulders by mistake and jerked the rotund owner of Rancho Pauncho to the ground. At least Clark says it was a mistake. He hasn’t convinced Andy, however, who…
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Gossip Friday: Happy Birthday, Myrna Loy! From Kingfish
Today marks the 108th birthday of one of Clark Gable’s dear friends and frequent co-stars, Myrna Loy. Their friendship was sweet and yes, platonic. At their first meeting at a party in 1933, they danced to “Dancing in the Dark.” She said later in her life that every time she heard that song she thought of him. He made a pass on her that night when he walked her to her front door. She was flabbergasted that he would try anything when his wife (Ria) was in the car at the curb a few feet away and so she pushed him off the porch into the bushes. Clark turned out to…
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Gossip Friday: Mrs. Gable Out of the Shadows
From April 1932: When a crowd at the last opening caught sight of Clark Gable descending from a car, they raised a shout not unlike that which greeted the Trojans after their triumphant return after defeating Notre Dame. Clark, good naturedly, took a bow while his companion waited in the shadow. “We want Mrs. Gable too!” the crowd shouted. It was then that Clark gave the retort courteous. Taking his wife’s hand, he led her out under the blaze of the arc lights. “Let me introduce you all,” said he, “to Mrs. Gable.”
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Gossip Friday: Splitsville for Mr. and Mrs. G?
From May 1932: An air gossiper recently started the rumor that the Clark Gables were about to get a divorce. Immediately the studio publicity department was overwhelmed with phone calls. Whether true or not immediately after the rumor started Mr. and Mrs. Gable were seen together conspiciously at a restaurant popular with movie stars and at the opening of the musical show. It is said that their apartment in a fashionable apartment house is the object of so much curiousity, and with so many peering eyes and listening ears that the Gables have decided to move out and into a house of their own to prevent surveillance.
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Gossip Friday: Starring Gable and Swanson?
From November 1934: Clark Gable, the Hollywood marine who comes to the rescue of lady stars who want good strong support, will ogle Gloria Swanson in her first MGM picture, which won’t be Madame Glyn’s “Riff -Raff” (which will probably get a new title). ___ Interesting that Clark was considered as a co-star for Gloria Swanson! Imagine! And “Riff-Raff” was made with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow.
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Gossip Friday: Bets on Garbo
From September 1931: Bets are two ways on Clark Gable, leading man for the Northern Light. There are those who say he will fall for the enigmatic Garbo and those who say he won’t. So far he has not suffered any pulse accelerations from his feminine embraces, including Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow. Garbo, however, is different. Clark wore a white turtle-necked sweater (a favorite type of sports garment with Garbo) into the MGM commissary and three enthusiasts put their money on Garbo to win. During the heat of betting he was busy re-marrying his second wife, to make the wedding valid in California, a minor fact blissfully ignored by…