Gossip Friday: Playing Scrabble
From 1954:
Interiors were shot in London and exteriors in Holland. At all times, in all places, longtime friends Lana Turner and Clark Gable had a ball working together on “Betrayed.” Clark brought back old copper pieces for his Encino ranch fireplace. Lana collected rare. cut crystal mugs. Between shots the Hollywood pair taught English cast members how to play Scrabble!
2 Comments
Dan
There is something about that woman that really grates on my nerves. Maybe it is all of the rumors of her and Clark and the speculation that she may have been one of the reasons Carole rushed home on her last flight, but I just cannot stomach her. I know that if there was an affair or flirtation, it would have been Clark’s fault as much as Lana Turner’s but I just can’t get past it. The irony is some of my favorite Gable films star her as well (ie. Honky Tonk was fun and Homecoming was so poignant).
DMGAdmin
I like Lana fine. She had a tumultuous life. She wasn’t the greatest actress that ever lived and doors were definitely opened to her just because of her pretty face and she had to prove she was more than that. I’ve done years of research on Clark Gable as evidenced here and I have never found one lick of proof of the Clark and Lana affair. Books repeat the same rumors over and over again. I have read many classic film autobiographies and the majority are fluff. Not Lana’s. Hers was refreshingly raw and honest. She denied any affair with Clark and continued to do so in all interviews afterward. She became a born again Christian later in life and I have always doubted that she would feel the need to lie about an affair with Clark but yet admit to messing around with married Robert Taylor (and the scorn she earned from Barbara Stanwyck as a result), getting pregnant by married Tyrone Power and having to abort his baby, even calling Tyrone the “love of her life”—while his widow was still alive to read such things. No, it just doesn’t add up. Carole may have been jealous because Clark was sharing the screen with a pretty blonde thing, but I don’t think she had anything to worry about as far as Lana was concerned.