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 to arrive.

But somehow Carole got wind of it–followed by two hours of frantic preparation, and when Clark appeared, a slightly breathless but triumphant Carole, attired in a lovely tea gown, met him at the door. Neither spoke of the impending “party”. When the guests began to arrive Carole met them with all the composure in the world and conducted them to a beautifully appointed table that simply groaned with an elaborate tea!

Clark’s face got redder and redder and when Carole suggested sweetly that he must feel out of place with “all these girls”, he beat a hasty retreat.

 Don’t kid a kidder, Clark! He definitely met his match…

A few updates this week:

A section for Clark’s first wife, Josephine Dillon, has been added to the Wives section. A new article, Subject: Carole Lombard, has been added to the Article Archive. And lots of new pictures in the gallery.