Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Carole Gets Glammed Up
From November 1941: Quite the nicest gesture of any month was made by Carole Lombard during the location shooting of They Knew What They Wanted. After a particularly heavy day of shooting, Carole swished into the hotel dining room , fairly reeking of satin and glamour. With a special little nod to a family group at a corner table, she joined the rest of the company who proceeded to give her a razzing for her movie queen act. So Carole explained, “Last night I came into the dining room feeling very comfortable in slacks and no make-up. But after dinner the mother of those kids over in the corner came…
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Gossip Friday: Happy Birthday, Fieldsie
From July 1937: Screwiest birthday cake in Hollywood was the one at the birthday party of Carole Lombard’s pal-secretary-companion “Fieldsie.” “Fieldsie,” who used to work with Carole when both were Mack Sennett bathing beauties, and who has been inseparable from Carole ever since, was presented with the cake by Bob Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby, and Gail Patrick’s husband. Bob’s cake consisted entirely of hamburgers and hot dogs, with a “frosting” of mustard! The little decorations around the side were pickles. Most hilarious guests at the party were, of course, Carole and Clark Gable.
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Gossip Friday: A New Kind of Star
From March 1932: Yes sir, there’s no two ways about it: the old town’s changing. It’s no longer quite as mad as a hatter. Slowly but surely it’s gaining sense and balance. A few years ago, for instance, a star as brilliant as Clark Gable, would have set out with all his new found riches, to dazzle the town with 15 room mansions, swanky cars, yachts, scandals and parties. Listen to Gable. “I own two cars which I paid cash for. I rent an apartment. Just for six months at a time and not a year. I don’t even own furniture. I’m saving my money.” ____ This makes me think of Sunset…
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Gossip Friday: Mobbed by Fans
From May 1934: Clark Gable came home from his personal apperance tour minus dozens of handkerchiefs, twenty-seven coat buttons–and a dress-shirt sleeve. The crowd in Kansas City was so dense that the crack train he was on was delayed thirty minutes while the police broke through the mob and got Gable aboard. In Baltimore, police refused to let him sleep in his own hotel! A huge crowd had massed in the corridor outside his room. He anticipated seeing many old friends in New York–but didn’t see one of them. He had no time, and they couldn’t crash through the crowds! On that same page of gossip was this piece about…
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Gossip Friday: Gone Fishin’
From August 1935: All Clark Gable is waiting for is that two weeks between pictures. Boy, oh boy, has he got it all planned! Big excitement. Listen carefully, girls. Clark is going to leap into that old smelly fishing boat he chartered and go to sea for yellowtail! He won’t have to shave for two weeks, he will wear clothes you would probably give to the ashman, and what a time he will have. No floating around on dance floors in popular resorts for him.
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Gossip Friday: Carole Lombard’s Hair Styling Advice
From March 1937: We watched Carole Lombard swishing around on the “Swing High, Swing Low” set at Paramount the other day, attired in two inches of white chiffon and two carloads of white ostrich feathers. We thought it all looked pretty elegant, and couldn’t understand the worried look in Travis Banton’s face. “These gowns give me the jitters,” he said. “They’re strictly honky tonk fashions, but Lombard makes them look so modish that I’m afraid every woman in the country will copy them–and probably look like a herd of ostriches.” The hairdresser came up just then to arrange Carole’s blonde curls for a close-up. “This wave won’t stay in place…
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Gossip Friday: a Clark Gable Salad and a Greta Garbo Sandwich
From December 1931: Clark Gable has become a second Greta Garbo. No, no, little Oscar, he’s not walking in the rain and going mysterious on the home folks. It’s simply that he’s become so popular with the lads and lassies who go to the movies that scores of reporters follow him wherever he goes, trying to get hot news about him. Our faithful secret service makes us follow burning discoveries: He hates dark suits. If he had his way he’d only wear grey. He dislikes tuxedos because he doesn’t dare have them made in light material. His one objection to pictures is that he can’t wear grey suits on the…
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Gossip Friday: Clark Gable, Earthquake Expert
From February 1934: Clark Gable is quite the California booster. During a misplaced warm spell, someone remarked, “This is earthquake weather.” “Oh,no,” defended Clark politely, “it isn’t the weather that causes the earthquakes, it’s the earthquakes that cause the weather!” Now all he has to do is alibi the earthquakes!
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Gossip Friday: Gable’s Beauty Salon
From February 1932: Gable’s Beauty Salon across from the Paramount Studio has doubled its business since the sudden popularity of Clark Gable. Somehow the impression has circulated throughout the neighborhood that the shop is operated or financed by “What-A-Man” Gable and that he may drop in any minute. There is a large framed picture of Clark, placed in the shop by the shrewd owner of the establishment, who incidentally has never seen the Great Moment.
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Gossip Friday: Spotting the Widower
Some gossip about Clark from the August after Carole Lombard’s death… From August 1942: Our most pleasant experience in many weeks: spotting Clark Gable dining out for the first time since his loss, accompanied by friends at the Vine Street Brown Derby. Later we saw him shaking hands with young soldiers who clustered around him. Gable looks more fit than he has in a long time, lean and tanned from riding to and from work on his motorcycle. Remember that old Ford that Carole Lombard dolled with fancy paint and gave to Clark Gable for a Valentine years ago? It was so much a part of their happy love story…