Gossip Friday: On the Up and Up

From July 1931–

(Clark is pictured as one of “Four Newcomers Who are On the Up and Up.” The other four are Wynne Gibson, Joel McCrea and Mae Clarke):

“Your ears stick out–“

“Your hair isn’t curly–“

“You aren’t good looking–“

This is the song producers sang to Clark Gable six years ago when he tried crashing the movies.

Today, they are singing a different tune–to the sum of $750 weekly and a five-year contract with Metro.

The styles in movie heroes change. Then, the sheik reigned, Valentino. Now, it’s the big he-man with the rough and tumble personality, Clark Gable.

They wouldn’t give him a chance then. Now, he’s completed: “The Painted Desert,” “The Easiest Way,” “The Mob,” “Dance Fools Dance,” “The Secret Six,” “A Free Soul” and “Laughing Sinners,” in which he took Johnny Mack Brown’s part opposite Joan Crawford. At the moment he is Garbo’s latest leading man, playing opposite her in “Susan Lenox.”

His entire thirty years have unwittingly developed that he-man angle. He was on his own at fourteen; drilling oil at twenty. One time he threw all he had at a station agent with, “How far will this take me?”

It took him to Butte, Montana, where he joined other unemployed. A pawnbroker gave him seven dollars for his “other” suit when he couldn’t get a job. He rode the rods to Oregon. Lumber camps. Out of work again. A wandering stick troupe without pay–a split of profits when there were any.

He liked the gamble of stage life and stuck to it. Played Sergeant Quirt with Louis Wolheim in Los Angeles, and the newspaper reporter in “Chicago” with Nancy Carroll.

Hit Broadway as he had hit Butte. They needed a he-man for “Machinal.” He looked the part and got it.

In Hollywood, the girls rate him with sex-appeal. Even Joan Crawford.

His two wives have nothing to do with it. The ex teaches school in Los Angeles.

The current Mrs. Gable was a stock-professional.