{New Article} 1936: Gable Returns

When coming upon this article and seeing it’s line under the title: “Clark Escaped the Senoritas of the Argentine Only to Be Captured by a Broadcasting Station”–you would expect an exciting article about Clark Gable’s recent trip to South America. And you would be disappointed. Initially, we are treated to these tidbits about Clark’s trip:

Clark, you see, had suddenly taken it into his head to hop off to South America by plane, and his journey, started in Hollywood with so much secrecy at the ungodly hour of four-thirty one cold morning, by degrees took on the semblance of a romantic good-will tour.

Everywhere he stopped he was mobbed by adoring fans. Beautiful Argentine flappers and matrons, some of whom should have long since reached the age of discretion, followed him along the main thoroughfares of Buenos Aires and other cities and hamlets which he visited. They tore off bits of his clothing for souvenirs until he had to seek shelter in his hotel room for common decency’s sake. While he registered at the desk of a certain hotel two avid admirers opened up his two small suitcases and carried away portions of his under-clothing and pajamas leaving the rest of his extremely personal belongings strewn over the floor for amused onlookers to gape at.

One evening—after replenishing his wardrobe through dire necessity—he left two pairs of shoes, one brown, one black, outside his bedroom door to be polished. The next morning only one shoe of each pair remained—and they weren’t mates.

Oh my. Does this mean that down below the Equator there are some elderly grandmas who have Clark Gable’s knickers in their attics?

The article then delves into Clark’s past. Born in Cadiz to Pennsylvania Dutch parents, breakout role in A Free Soul, redefined his career in It Happened One Night…we’ve heard it all before. The author seems doubtful of Clark and his star power until they spend their lunch hour together.

Even a movie hero has to eat, and I finally caught up with Mr. Gable on his way to the commissary on the last day of rehearsals and, in between mouthfuls of an enormous ham sandwich and generous gulpings of hot coffee, he pleasantly informed me that he was planning to return to Hollywood immediately after his broadcast—which, by the way, he was enjoying immensely. And he was particularly tickled about the nice big lump of money he was getting for it—even as you and I. That he was going to do a picture called “San Francisco,” woven around the earthquake of 1906, with Jeanette MacDonald, and another with Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy called “Wife vs. Secretary,” (you can figure out this story yourself!) but that he didn’t know which was to be done first.

And while he talked, I suddenly understood why women all over the world fall for the Gable charm and personality. Why, he’s just like the boy you first fell in love with. He has the same amused chuckle, the same earnest way of looking straight into your eyes with that same earnest expression while he talks, and he makes you feel, for the moment at least, that you are the only person in the world that matters. And that’s an achievement which all women enjoy alike. Besides which, he really had a grand sense of humor, and women love that, too.

A rather humdrum article, but I do adore that last paragraph!

You can read the article in its entirety in The Article Archive.