Gossip
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Gossip Friday: A Mangy Mule
From February 1939: Carole Lombard’s surprise birthday present to Clark Gable was a mangy mule. Andy Devine brought five chickens and another friend, a sack of fertilizer.
-
Gossip Friday: No Clark, No Ava
From January 1956: A drive-in movie theater in San Fernando Valley marqueed it “Grace Kelly in Mogambo” following her engagement to Prince Rainier. No mention of Clark Gable or Ava Gardner, who never expected the no-billing treatment when they made the picture with a pretty, unknown blonde.
-
Gossip Friday: Easy for Kirk, Not for Clark
From June 1958: When Clark Gable, a rugged outdoorsman, recently tackled an activity-packed P.A. tour for his “Teacher’s Pet,” he came home to announce, “never again. I’ve never been through anything so rough.” I asked returning soldier Kirk [Douglas] if he shared Clark’s sentiments. His answer was both yes and no. “This kind of thing is always a rough, exhausting experience. You seldom have a minute to yourself. Your schedule is jam-packed. You meet a million people, answer a million questions, smile a million smiles. But after you make a few of these tours you learn to roll with the punch. What’s more,” Kirk quipped, “you learn what kind of…
-
Gossip Friday: A Different Clark Gable
From January 17, 1942: On the screen Clark Gable is a suave, swashbuckling hero. Nothing ever really upsets him. He has ice water in his veins. But today there is a different Clark Gable, a Clark Gable with disheveled hair and reddened eyes, a Clark Gable who looks like a broken man, a Clark Gable who spent the night nervously pacing a floor, and chain-smoking cigarettes, waiting for word about his wife, the beautiful Carole Lombard, in a TWA airliner which crashed in the Nevada mountains. Gable wanted to join the rescue party going to the scene of the wreckage, but policy persuaded him not to.
-
Gossip Friday: Got Their Limit
From December 1958: Kay and Clark Gable got their limit of quail at Catalina. Last year Clark gifted her with long cashmere underwear. She said: “He taught me to shoot. I’m one of the few wives of his gun club who goes along. When I listened to men talking about hunting in the Stork Club, I used to shudder. Now you can have the Stork Club, I’ll take hunting. We looked like Mexican bean pickers after we’d picked up our birds.”
-
Gossip Friday: Croonin’ Gable
From January 1, 1936: All the fellows are kidding Clark Gable, the actor, because he does some crooning in his next picture, “Wife vs. Secretary.” Clark can “take it,” though. He just bought a new car for $16,000. Not on time, either.
-
Gossip Friday: Tara Lives Again
From December 1958: Some 20 years ago, an acre of real estate in Culver City, Calif. hypnotized millions of movie-goers. It was the site of the mansion Tara in the silver screen epic, “Gone with the Wind.” Hollywood artizans had fashioned a structure that probably out-dazzled any of the real “plantation palaces” which dotted the southern landscape at the time of the Civil War. Two decades later, time has taken its toll on the bleak location. The once brilliant white colonades, where Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and the late Leslie Howard strolled, have become shades of faded gray. Still they stand, majestic and formidable, guarding the entrance to the make-believe…
