Gossip
-
Gossip Friday: Reviews on Gone with the Wind
Today starts the festivities in Marietta, GA celebrating the 70th anniversary of “Gone with the Wind”. I will be there all day and all day on Saturday as well and you know I will report back next week with details and pictures! Keeping with “Gone with the Wind” as a theme, here are two letters from June 1940 to the editor of a fan magazine: I have just seen “Gone with the Wind” and like thousands of others I thought it was grand entertainment. But unlike thousands of others, I think the picture, like the book, should have never been created. Why? Because the picture revives the Civil War, a…
-
Gossip Friday: Carole is a thief!
Many Carole Lombard fans have probably seen these pictures before. But did you know that the hat was Clark’s? From December 1937: Hold your hats, boys! Leave it to our inimitable Carole to start a new millinery trend! In playful mood she stole Clark Gable’s new winter hat right off his head and found it was just the thing to complete her sport frock of beige covert cloth. Clark had carefully selected his hat in brown velour with a matching double band silk cord knotted and fringed in back. Carole’s two-piece frock is full of fashion interest. The jacket reaches below the hips and features zipper and…
-
Gossip Friday: Boo!
In the spirit of Halloween… Hollywood is full of stories of ghosts of classic stars. Ciro’s , a popular 1940’s nightclub frequented by the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Bing Crosby and yes–Clark and Carole, is now The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and is said to be a hotspot for paranormal activity. Marilyn Monroe is said to haunt her former suite in the Roosevelt Hotel. The Pickfair Mansion, former home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, is said to be haunted by Mary. John Barrymore’s old mansion is said to be haunted by him. Famously, if you visit the grave of Rudolph Valentino’s dog Kabar…
-
Gossip Friday: Passing of the Crown
As any fan can recall, Clark was selected as “The King of Hollywood”, alongside Myrna Loy as “the Queen” in 1938. The contest continued year after year, with new kings and queens elected. But the king label stuck on Clark and Clark alone (although, unfortunately, the queen label did not stick on Miss Loy), as he is still known as “The King of Hollywood” today. In 1939, Tyrone Power was elected the king and Jeanette MacDonald the queen. Here’s what a columnist had to say in April 1939: …Take Clark Gable who ran second to Ty in this voting and who won out last year. 1938 Gable had one…
-
Gossip Friday: On the set of The Call of the Wild
From June 1935: “The Call of the Wild” company was in a dreadful dilemma–in fact, it threatened to be a major calamity. Though Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Jack Oakie and several others were in the cast, one important role was not filled. The story called for a jackrabbit, but one could not be found for love or money! Finally, after much brow-beating and heavy thinking, the director hit upon the solution. Taking a meek old tabby cat, he tied on some floppy paper ears–and it looked as wild as any jack rabbit you’d ever hope to see! After all, “The show must go on!” New this week: A new…
-
Gossip Friday: Miss Lombard on the Set
Since this week was the 101st birthday of the love of Clark’s life, Carole Lombard, here’s a bit of gossip about her from February 1937: A very colorful set is the one for “Swing High, Swing Low”, co-starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray. It is a street scene, but built entirely indoors. It is a hot, soiled street somewhere in Panama. Carole has been having a salary quarrel with Paramount. It is now settled. Jut how completely it is settled is testified by a brand new portable dressing room behind the false front of a Panama bodega. It is a gift to Carole from the director of the picture, Mitchell…
-
Gossip Friday: Speaker Shenanigans
From January 1940: The funniest thing in all Hollywood is that loud speaker attached to the locked gates leading into Clark Gable’s ranch home. Since his experience with an impudent intruder, Clark is taking no chances. The speaker in itself, which connects to a telephone inside the house, isn’t funny of course, but the conversations that can be heard for acres around are a panic. Andy Devine’s cracked-voiced pleas of, “Clark, it’s me—open the gates,” scare even the chickens out of their feathers. “Here’s your steak,” comes the booming voice of the butcher through the speaker. But the pay-off came when a car salesman went through his whole sales speech…
-
Gossip Friday: A Fan’s Apology
Letter to the editor of Photoplay Magazine, November 1939: I’m one of those individuals who seldom sees good in things enjoyed and persons admired by other people. Our American screen actors, I felt, were mostly hams who could do little better than smirk into a camera, and marry and divorce every few weeks. Clark Gable, in particular, roused my ire and resentment. This prominent-eared individual, as I liked to term him, was only a trumped-up bag of wind, in my estimation. But, against my will, as I see more and more of his pictures and read of his activities, he is forcing me to admit that he is a genuine…
-
Gossip Friday: Elusive Garbo
Since today is the anniversary of the birth of Clark’s Susan Lenox costar, Greta Garbo, here’s some gossip about her from November 1939: Our demon photographer, Hyman Fink, is still recovering from the joyful shock of getting the camera scoop of the year pictured here. It came about, as such surprises usually do, at the most unexpected time, in the most unexpected place. The stylist, Irene, gave a fall fashion show at Bullock’s-Wilshire in Los Angeles, which Hymie attended in line of duty. Things were going along very calmly and uneventfully until the last number went on. Then, suddenly, from a tiny dressing room behind the main salon, emerged three…
-
Gossip Friday: Carole outsmarts Clark
From October 1937: Clark Gable thought it would be fun to turn the tables on Carole Lombard–in payment for some of Carole’s jokes on her friends. So he called fifteen of the leading feminine lights of Hollywood and invited them to a tea the next day at Carole’s house. He explained that Carole and her secretary were busy on a picture that day and had asked him to do the planning. The fifteen guests promptly accepted. Not a word was said to Carole and the next day (Sunday) Clark gleefully “dropped in” to see Carole in the afternoon–and incidentally of course to watch her face when the guests began…