Gossip Friday: Not Very Romantic

From October 1933:

The very romantic Clark Gable doesn’t like being the very romantic Clark Gable because he isn’t the very romantic Clark Gable.

This business of being a great lover is exactly that to Gable–just business. It annoys him to have to look dark and romantic and be the object of worship from giddy women.

“Do you find that a nuisance in some way?” I asked Gable.

“In every way,” he retorted. “You just can’t have any private life or go anywhere without having to run the gauntlet. That’s all right for the guys who like it, but I don’t.”

Gable prefers seclusion and Getting Away From It All. Hunting and fishing trips far in the mountains are his favorite recreation. He doesn’t read a great deal and when he does its hunting and fishing magazines.

Gable is strictly a two-feet-on-the-ground young fellow who knows the penalties of stardom and resents paying them. Gossips try to part him from his wife, women chase after him, his life isn’t his own. It is the big money they pay him that makes him stick it out, but he hopes to retire in a few year and be able to hunt and fish whenever he wants to.

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This is one of the typical blurbs about Clark that the MGM-publicity-machine shot out around this time, forming their new manly star’s persona. He scoffs at stardom! He just wants to hunt and fish! He doesn’t read!

In reality Clark was an avid reader, especially poetry. He loved his profession, and although the fame element exhausted him, he was always thankful for his fans.