{Photos} Carole Connection: Idiot’s Delight (1939)

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard weren’t married yet when Clark started filming Idiot’s Delight. He had just signed on the dotted line to play Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, but had time to kill before GWTW started. Norma Shearer had personally requested him for the lead in Idiot’s Delight, as she could no longer be counted on to bring in the big crowds based on her name alone.

Clark was leery of the film. He had seen the play when it had been in Los Angeles, with Alfred Lunt in the role, and knew it required singing and dancing, neither of which he was confident in doing.  Director Clarence Brown stuck Clark in two weeks of dance training with George King, a renowned instructor. Clark struggled with the routines at first, but as he gained confidence he got better. Carole spent many a night helping him master the moves.

Carole came to the set the day the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” number was filmed. When Clark nailed the number in one take, Carole said, “I’ve seen it, but I still don’t believe it.”

From “Gable: A Pictorial Biography” by Carole and Clark’s longtime personal secretary, Jean Garceau:

Clark’s popularity led [Norma] Shearer to choose him as her leading man for “Idiot’s Delight,” which began shooting in the fall of 1938. Carole was helping him with the dance routines when I went to work for her.

“Clark isn’t the happy-go-lucky, carefree man the public sees,” she told me one day. “He’s not had a very happy life and is inclined to be depressed and worried. I want to make it up to him if I can and you’ve got to help me. Let’s keep the gags going, get him to relax and be happy.”

Carole really worked at it. She sent Clark a full ballet outfit including some outsize dancing slippers while he was rehearsing the “Idiot’s Delight” dances. Corney Jackson was on the set when the dance sequences were shot.

Carole had a huge bouquet delivered to him when the ‘take’ was over,” Corney says. “Just as if he were a prima donna. Clark thought everything she did was terrific.

Carole herself gave Clark the bouquet of roses on the set after he finished the dance number: