Gossip
-
Gossip Friday: Signed by Carole Gable
From January 1940: After a preview the other evening, a boy asked Carole Lombard for her autograph. The actress obligingly signed “Carole Gable”. The boy looked at it and then said, “Shucks, I can sell your Carole Lombard autograph for two bits to a pal of mine, but this ain’t worth nothing!” New this week: Articles: Will the Gable-Lombard Romance Last? written right before they married and the foreword that Clark wrote for Adolphe Menjou’s autobiography
-
Gossip Friday: On the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Want some candids and behind the scenes scoop from Carole’s film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”? Happy to oblige. Both from February 1941: Just for good luck Alfred Hitchcock always appears in one brief scene in his pictures. Just to show that he was a good sport he let Carole Lombard, the star of his picture “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” direct the scene in which he appeared. That was a big mistake, as he discovered later. Miss Lombard, the director, sat in the director’s chair, neatly placed in the shade, and for half an hour or more made Mr. Hitchcock go through his one line. The sun became hotter and hotter on…
-
Gossip Friday: Fred and Carole
Here’s some Carole scoop from September 1941: Proving there is an attraction between opposites, Fred [MacMurray]’s favorite femme fatale is Carole Lombard. He’d rather play a small part with her than co-star with her contemporaries. When an agent called to offer a radio engagement, Lily [his wife] explained that Fred was down in San Diego on location. She was sure he would like to do it. Perhaps another time. “I understand,” said the agent, “I’m sure we can find someone this time to play opposite Carole Lombard. “ Did he say Lombard? Lily was ure Fred would fly back if there was a chance to work with Carole. They were…
-
“Happy Birthday Dear Ma…”
Today is Carole Lombard’s 102nd birthday! To celebrate, here’s an interesting item printed in January 1941: When bigger and better pranks are played in Hollywood, you can be sure of one thing–Gable and Lombard will play ’em. When Lombard’s birthday rolled around, Gable had made an enormous cake carefully iced on top–“To Ma–on her 75th Birthday”. When Carole cut the cake, imagine her surprise to hear coming from the cake’s innards a conversation between Clark and a friend. “Now Clark, the gag is for you to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Carole.” “What? Me sing? Nothing doing,” said Gable’s voice. “Next thing you know the studio will have me in singing films.”…
-
Crazy for Carole
This month marks Carole Lombard’s 102nd birthday and so here at DearMrGable.com we are dedicating the month to her. Clark and Carole pictures are the most popular by far in the gallery—there is just something majestic about those two, even despite the tragedy. So this month, they’ll be Carole gossip items and I’ll do some posts featuring some Carole articles and rare Carole candids. To start, here’s a blurb from December 1940: Carole Lombard hasn’t been to a party in over a year; the Gables not being the party type. But when Lillian MacMurray threw a birthday party for Fred recently, Clark said all right, they’d get dressed up and…
-
Gossip Friday: Mr. Popularity
From November 1940: Whenever Clark Gable makes a picture his portable dressing room becomes a second Grand Central Station. All the publicity boys, the newspaper boys, his stand-in, make-up boy, and as many of the cast and crew as possible gather in his dressing room for bits of food and gossip. Poor Clark has to go out in the back alley to learn his lines. When Carole Lombard arrived at the studio the other day to visit her popular spouse, she found the gang making coffee and passing around cookies in his dressing room. She had a cup of coffee and a cookie herself, then made the boys clean up…
-
Gossip Friday: A Plain Nurse, Please
From April 1940: There never has been such a contagion of hospitalization among the celbrities of Hollywood as there has been recently. Envious eyes are turned toward the nurses who care of these famous bruised and injured. “It’s all in a day’s work,” one pretty nurse told [us], “but movie people (especially the men) are harder to nurse than other patients because the never relax from their work and worries for one minute. Joe E. Brown’s nurse had almost to hold him in bed during a big football game. Joe wanted to get out of bed to lead cheers.” “Director Leo McCarey is the worst of all. He starts at…
-
Gossip Friday: Silent Scarlett
Since TCM has selected Vivien Leigh as their Star of the Month this month (set your DVRs!), here’s some gossip on her from September 1940: …of all Hollywood’s femmes fatales, we call your attention first to Vivien Leigh. If you lived in Hollywood this wouldn’t be necessary. You’d be aware of her–with reason! It looks as if there’d be no liomit to Vivien’s conquests when–a little less enthralled by her Romeo, Laurence Olivier–she becomes aware that other men walk the earth, too. For those men who’ve managed to impress themselves on the Leigh consciousness, usually through working with her, are quick to admit her natural attraction. “There’s always something more…
-
Gossip Friday: Anniversary with Joan Crawford
From November 1936: With the first day of production of “Love on the Run”, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable celebrated the fifth anniversary of their first co-starring picture: “Possessed”. Neither Joan nor Clark could recall off-hand how many pictures they have co-starred in during the last five years. Director Van Dyke staged the party as a surprise to his two stars and provided a cake appropriately decorated with two little figures in wedding costumes. During the party the victrola played over and over again “You Are My Lucky Star.” ______ I would think that would be quite the awkward party considering that Clark and Joan were at one time romantically…
-
Gossip Friday: Boom Town Pranks
From August 1940: You may have read about Clark Gable getting a split lip in a fight scene for “Boom Town” and how the studio had to give him a few days to let it heal. Here’s the sequel to the story, which contains a typical Hollywood chuckle. Gable was called on for the closeups after the fight some time later, and after a fake blow at close quarters, when the scene was in the can, he grinned and carelessly spit out a tooth! Everyone saw the blank space in his front row of teeth and consternation reigned. When Clark had enjoyed his joke, he revealed that he had painted…