Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Try Clark Gable’s Diet!
From October 1936: Talk of Hollywood at the moment is the new “Four-Day Diet.” It’s supposed to shuck off six pounds in four days! Remember the famous 18-day-diet of a few years ago? Well, that died out. But now, all of a sudden, a lot of the stars—the male stars, particularly—have startled their acquaintances by dropping poundage over week-ends. And they all followed the same regimen—and now the 4-Day Diet is as famous in Hollywood as the 18-Day Diet was a couple years back. Clark Gable knocked off half a dozen pounds in four days via the new route. Here’s the program he followed: FIRST DAY— BREAKFAST : One large…
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Gossip Friday: A Swell Pair
From July 1936: Now what’s all this between Carole Lombard and Clark Gable anyway? It’s getting so that you can’t read or hear about one without hearing about the other one at the same time, too. They guffaw loudly at romance-whisperers and they deny there’s anything to it–and yet they’re about as inseparable as a couple of newlyweds! (and incidentally wouldn’t they make a swell pair of brand new Mr and Mrs?) Last double appearance was ar the circus when it played Hollywood–and Clark and Carole were as much eyed, if not more, than the rest of the show, the night they hand-in-handed it in the big top! Marry? Heck,…
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Gossip Friday: Bets on Clark and Carole
Since Clark and Carole were married 74 years ago this month, here’s one from November 1936: London, of all places, has the cutest new betting game. They’re betting, over there, on whether or not certain film couples will marry! ! ! They’ve even got a set of standard odds, like this: even bet that Bob Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck will wed; 90 to 1 against George Brent taking the leap with Garbo; 5 to 1 that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will; 10 to 1 that Bill Powell and Jean Harlow won’t; 5 to 3 that Ann Sothern becomes Mrs. Roger Pryor; 7 to 4 against the Jackie Coogan-Betty Grable…
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Gossip Friday: Clark Gable’s Recipe for a Perfect Wife
From September 1937: Recipe for the Perfect Wife By Clark Gable, she must: –enjoy the things hubby does, laugh at the right time only –not complain about ashes on the floor and clothes not hung up –give him his favorite dish once a week –not complain about unexpected guests brought home by hubby –not sulk when he has bad luck financially –dress up because he wants other men to admire her All right, girls, there’s Clark’s order. Can you fill it? ___ Think Carole Lombard was up to the task?
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Gossip Friday: Earthquake!
On March 10, 1933, “The Long Beach Earthquake” hit Los Angeles. From May 1933: Hollywood came through the earthquake practically unscathed. Long Beach and Compton business districts, only a score of miles away, were virtually demolished. But the sustained temblor, which wrecked these cities, caused Hollywood to shake up on its foundations, and people rushed panic-stricken into the streets. No one knew when the buildings, swaying like trees in a gale, would fall upon them. Hollywood was plenty scared. Broadway stage folk who had recently arrived stood with white faces and open mouths, terrifiedly wishing themselves back in New York. And those who had lived in Hollywood all their lives…
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Gossip Friday: Good Day for Golf
From September 1940: Living in Hollywood is more or less like renting a perpetual reserved room in a madhouse. At 8am of a Sunday this journalist drove to Fox Hills golf course for his usual weekly game, still half asleep. Approaching the first tee he saw a mob of strange creatures emerge from the morning fog, accompanied by unearthly sounds of catcalls, screeching sirens and exploding guns. Any sane person would have gone home. We hung around. Presently there appeared Clark Gable, Bob Taylor, Carole Lombard, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy and other celebrities. It turned out to be the annual MGM golf tournament. When Mickey stepped up for his first…
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Gossip Friday: Tampering with his Tobacco
From June 1932: Big he-man Clark Gable, who doesn’t pull his punches, would like to know who was the dirty so-and-so who put pencil shavings with his choice tobacco in the tobacco jar. The finger of suspicion points to Buster Keaton–but yoo-hoo Buster, you know me, I never said you really did it. I just said some folks suspect you.
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Gossip Friday: No Spat Between Gable and Harlow
From November 1935: Reports were published that Miss Harlow declared a dislike for Gable, and that she openly stated she would never appear in another picture with him. Other printed items vouched that Clark replied: “My pet name for Miss Harlow cannot be printed.” On the day those mis-facts appeared in print, Miss Harlow hurried to her studio publicity director to deny them. She arrived just at the moment when Gable telephoned from his sick-bed to voice and equally vehement denial. The truth is that Clark remarked that he preferred not to work with “a certain star.” Because he had just finished “Hold Your Man” with Jean, gossipers drew their…
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Gossip Friday: Rhett Refuses to Twang
From June 1939: Clark Gable, even, is taking his role of Rhett Butler very, very seriously. More seriously than any he’s every played before, his pals tell us. But he’s not going to try to talk with a Southern accent. So different from Vivien Liegh, the English gal who got the Scarlett O’Hara role. Vivien IS developing a Southern drawl for the film. Even to the extent of snooting her English pals, these nights. She turns down their dinner and party invitatons with this classic–“So soddy, my deahs–but I just cahn’t afford to be exposed to your broad A’s. I’ve got to talk Southern, honey!”
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Gossip Friday: Don’t Believe Your Hunches
From February 1932: Playing hunches or other psychic suggestions is not Clark Gable’s way of doing things. “I don’t believe in hunches at all,” he argued. “In fact my experience has been that hunches work out exactly the opposite way. A lot of people kid themselves into believing a hunch made them do this, that or the other thing that panned out well. As a matter of fact, it was either their own good judgement or advice from outside sources that guided them and not a hunch at all. They judt don’t stop to analyze the reasons behind their own decisions and give all the credit to an imaginary hunch.”…