Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Waitress’ Choice
From February 1936: On a recent questionnaire given to waitresses at the Beverly Hills Brown Derby, it was discovered that twenty-five of the girls were willing to answer. Thirteen of them were writing poetry, three wrote plays and twenty-three thought Clark Gable the best actor. P.S. Only one little gal had any desire to be an actress!
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Gossip Friday: Holiday Greetings from…
From a fan magazine, here are hand-signed holiday wishes from several stars of the golden era, including Olivia de Havilland, Claudette Colbert, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Jeanette MacDonald, James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and more. No, Clark and Carole aren’t included, but I thought it a cute holiday gift nonetheless! Happy Holidays everyone! Click to enlarge:
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Gossip Friday: Roughing it
From February 1939: Clark Gable’s hunting paraphernalia is really something to look at. His sleeping bag is made with an extra-thick downy mattress. His gun cases were given to him by Carole Lombard. They are made of hand-carved leather. The deer gun case has hand-carved deer for decoration. The duck gun case is finished off with hand-carved ducks. Clark usually hunts up Bakersfield way and Carole often goes along. She’s such a crack shot, she usually gets the limit a few minutes after her arrival. So she spends the rest of her time playing retriever for Clark. And they used to call this “roughing it!”
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Gossip Friday: Ria’s Ready for her Closeup
From February 1939: One of the most attractive and popular matrons in Hollywood is Ria Gable. Even though she separated from Clark Gable, all their old friends clung to Ria as a tribute to her. Recently Ria returned from a trip to New York. Hollywood was happy to have her back. And Ria says the highlight of her trip was an afternoon spent in Gloria Swanson’s New York apartment. The decorating scheme and all the furnishings of her Hollywood home have been transferred East by Gloria. The same charm, the same individuality that made Gloria Swanson’s home a showplace in Hollywood, makes her new residence of the really outstanding places…
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Gossip Friday: Keeping His Promise
From April 1940: Clark Gable and a friend dashed out of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and entered a taxi, on their way to the broadcasting station. Clark was due to go on the air in a national hook-up, and they already were frightfully late. The crowd espied Gable. And that was that. They threatened to overturn the vehicle unless he emerged for all to see, and signed his autograph for then. When he didn’t leave the taxi, and the friend in his excitement shouted to the driver to go through the crowd, the mob actually started to make good their threat. The actor solved the difficulty by leaning out…
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Gossip Friday: Turkey Trouble
Since yesterday was Thanksgiving, here’s one from September 1940: Clark Gable and Robert Young both have their troubles with fowl-fancying ventures. Gable had turkey trouble, Young encountered chicken grief… Clark and wife Carole Lombard had been raising two dozen turkeys, for Thanksgiving–both their own Thanksgiving feast and as gifts to friends. BUT the other day, they decided to give something else when November rolls around. Reason: They had sprayed weeds on their ranch with weed-killing poison, and then the turkeys came along and gobbled the weeds. That was when Gable found that weed-killer is turkey-killer, too. As for Robert Young–well, he doesn’t like chicken pie anymore. This is the…
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Gossip Friday: Always the Business Man
From June 1940: Clark Gable hasn’t enough to do–with his twenty-five costume changes in “Boom Town”–but has even gone in for technical advertising, as well! Gable was an oil field worker himself, way back when, so one day on the set he offered a few tips to the director and was promptly encouraged to give out more. “Not for nothing,” said Gable. “Okay, I’ll buy your lunch,” offered the director. “Lunch and a bottle of beer,” said Gable, always the business man.
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Gossip Friday: Parnell is Serious Business
Clark on the set of Parnell From May 1937: Never has Clark Gable taken a role more seriously than “Parnell.” For the three days he was filming Parnell’s death, he went around looking like a ghost. He wouldn’t even ride his bike. He just gloomed. On top of that, he had a very bad cold. Late one afternoon frantic calls from newspapers besieged MGM demanding to know the truth about a rumor that Gable was dead. Gable replied from the Beverly Wilshire that the Gable rumor was garbled. The moment the picture was finished, Gable dashed for the Arizona mountains on a hunting trip with Ted Tetrach of the property…
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Gossip Friday: Clark’s Stand-in
From July 1940: On the set of “Boom Town”, Mickey Rooney dropped by for a visit with his idol, Clark Gable. Gable was doing a scene with Hedy Lamarr, in which the weeping actress threw herself down on a couch. Gable was supposed to come up to Hedy, pat her on the shoulder and tell her how much he loved her. The scene was just getting underway when Mickey arrived on the set, and Gable motioned to him to take his place. Imagine Hedy’s surprise when she heard Mickey’s voice, quivering from sheer nerves, saying, “I love you.” She turned quickly and burst into laughter, which Mickey blushed to the…
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Gossip Friday: The Truth about Matrimony
From April 1940: What, in a word, is the truth about matrimony on the coast? On a recent whirlwind tour of the colony I became the Marriage Reporter Pro Tem of the coast. I looked at the stars with no eye for their wardrobes, their coiffures or their conversation, if any. I studied them as wives. Not even Clark Gable’s eyelashes were able to deter me from my chosen point of view. Mr. Gable, bless his heart, was interesting to me only as a married man. And having angled some of the famous pairs from a strictly Married Love approach, I can report that things out there are just about…