Gossip Friday: Good Exercise

From May 1940:

“Gone with the Wind” [director Victor Fleming] is now directing Clark (Rhett Butler) Gable in “Boom Town”–and thereby hangs a chucklesome anecdote. Seems that Clark, who unmercifully ribbed Fleming during the filming of “Gone” by charging him with slave-driving tactice, has been harping on the same theme during “Boom Town.” The other day, with visitors on the set, he commented loudly on the “cruelty” Fleming displayed by making him carry Vivien Leigh up a flight of stairs 22 times or “GWTW.”  “Clark,” retorted the director, “I’ll let you in on a secret–just to prove that ribbing often backfires. The third take was okay–you carried her upstairs the other 19 times for exercise!”