Gossip
-
Gossip Friday: Where are my chickens?
From April 1940: If they weren’t so much in love it would be cause for divorce. Clark Gable, who had rather win a prize at the coming Ponoma Fair for his poultry than a gold award for his acting, recently bought some chickens from an Eastern farmer. By the time they were delivered at the Gable ranch in the valley they cost Clark approximately thirty bucks apiece. Clark was grooming them for the poultry exhibition, and could almost see the blue ribbons he was going to get at the Fair, when he was suddenly laid low with a strep throat and had to go to the hospital for a few…
-
Gossip Friday: Who’s on First
March 1940: Never has the team batting average of that girl’s softball team in that little beach town near Hollywood been os high as the day they played a team made up from the company of MGM’s Strange Cargo troupe, which was shooting there. Every gal on the high school team boosted her batting average. Because–Clark Gable was playing FIRST BASE for the MGM team! ___ From February 1940: It was an off day for the “Strange Cargo” cast on location at Pismo Beach, a small seacoast town above Santa Barbara, California, and loathing inactivity like a snail hates pace, Gable gathered together members of the crew and challeneged the…
-
Gossip Friday: Two Left Feet
From January 1939: Clark Gable, attempting to master the art of tap dancing for his role in “Idiot’s Delight”, doesn’t know an electrician hid on a high rafter of the sound stage to watch Clark, who permitted no watchers. And the electrician became so convulsed at Clark’s awkwardness he nearly fell headlong at the actor’s feet! __________ Hey now, Clark didn’t do so bad! Stay tuned– I’ll be reviewing Idiot’s Delight for the CMBA Films of 1939 Blogathon on Tuesday. New this week: I have added two new categories to the gallery– “In His Footsteps,” which has pictures of places Clark has wandered. Right now I have uploaded pictures of the…
-
Gossip Friday: I’m with the Band
From January 1941: Leave it to Hollywood to think up ways and means of having fun at parties. The newest is the musical instrument gag that develops into an amateur orchestra with big name guests furnishing the music, if such it can be called. Going on the assumption that everyone thinks he can play some instrument whether he can or not, the Jack Bennys, at a recent shindig, rented an assortment of musical noisemaners and bade the guests go to it. Clark Gable and Bob Taylor each grabbed a saxophone, Gracie Allen a flute, Barbara Stanwyck a trombone, Jack Benny a bass violin, while Mary Livingston snitched the drums. After…
-
Gossip Friday: Snooping in the Dressing Room
From Febraury 1939: It occured to us while we patiently waited in Clark Gable’s portable dressing room for Clark to finish a scene with Norma Shearer for “Idiot’s Delight”, that maybe you, too, would like to know something about that famous Gable dressing room which is wheeled from set to set. The walls, to begin with, are knotty pine. The dressing table, also knotty pine, is bare and simple , with a single mirror and two lights. There is no make-up kit anywhere in sight. Two ample-sized brass ashtrays are gastened to the walls–one by the red leather divan and one by the red leather easy chair, the only…
-
Gossip Friday: Ain’t that so?
From January 1940: When Clark Gable and Charlie McCarthy were practicing for their radio program, Carole Lombard was right on deck for the rehearsal. The script called for a discussion on how feminine hearts are won and lost, and Edgar Bergen was shushed off immediately. “Quiet, Bergen,” commanded McCarthy. “You don’t belong in this conversation. You’re listening to experts.” Then he turned to Mrs. G., sitting in the front row. “Aint that so, Carole?” ____ For those not familiar, Edgar Bergen (father of Candice, by the way) was a very popular ventriliquist on radio and films. Charlie was his dummy. Candice recalled that when she was a small child she thought Charlie…
-
Gossip Friday: Quite a Pair
An early one, from April 1932: Joan Crawford and Mrs. Clark Gable often seen lunching together at the Embassy. Don’t overlook the Mrs.–it’s important and too bad. _______________ This one is rather funny, since Joan and Clark were in the midst of quite the heated affair during this time. One wonders if the powers-that-be at MGM released this tidbit to the press just to show that Joan and Ria were bestest pals and there was no way Joan would be cavorting with Ria’s husband. I am not quite sure what they mean by “Don’t overlook the Mrs.–it’s important and too bad”—too bad that there is a Mrs. Gable, I…
-
Gossip Friday: On the set of Too Hot to Handle
From September 1938: Everywhere we turn something real inspires something romantic. Why, even Mussolini’s Ethipian adventure has landed Clark Gable a new thrill-packed adventure role! “Too Hot to Handle”, our first set invasion at Metro Goldwyn Mayer, really has nothing to do with Il Duce or his Fascisti friends. It’s an adventurous saga of a daredevil newsreel cameraman. But if Laurence Stallings, the war correspondent, and Leonard Hammond, the ace newsreeler, hadn’t sat idly for weeks sopping up Ethiopian rainfall and waiting for Mussolini to get going, Clark might very well have missed out on a dashing scenario to follow in the wake of “Test Pilot.” As it was, Stallings…
-
Gossip Friday: Surefire Miss Crawford
Since it’s April Fool’s Day and Joan Crawford’s birthday was last week… From September 1934: Clarence Brown pulled a gag on Joan Crawford that worked to perfection. In a scene for “Chained” Joan was supposed to shoot off a double-barreled shotgun. When Joan was scared practically to a state of paralysis, Clark Gable volunteered to show her all the tricks. Finally Joan got to the point where she could pull the trigger without flinching. The scene started and Joan picked up the gun, pulled it over her shoulder and fired. There was a moment’s silence and then from somewhere up above, an old stuffed duck fell at her feet. Brown…
-
Gossip Friday: Ria Holds Out
From December 1938: And now Ria Gable comes forth with a denial of all the rumors that she has been holding up divorce proceedings between her and Clark. According to a friend of hers, Mrs. G. insists that the main reason Clark hasn’t got his divorce is that he has never asked for it. The same report states that Mrs. Gable is not interested in a settlement, since she has considerable money of her own. _____________ HOGWASH. It may be true that Clark hadn’t asked Ria for a divorce yet but only because he didn’t want to pay Ria all the money she wanted. A new article is coming…