Gossip Friday: Don’t Try Too Hard

From December 1934:

If you would be successful, don’t woo success too hard. This is the only moral Clark Gable has gained from his astonishing career.

“Success–this kind of success-was the last thing in my mind,” the star explained frankly. “I liked acting and wanted to make a living at it, but I never once believed I would accomplish more than that.”

Gable made these remarks on the set of “Forsaking All Others,” the new all-star picture in which he shares honors with Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery. The picture, which opens Sunday at the Strand Theatre, was directed by W.S. Van Dyke.

“Few professional actors look forward to any great fame,” Gable stated. “They know that the odds are stacked too high against them. Intense ambition for stardom is usually found in amateurs who do not realize the pitfalls between a berth in a stock company and starring contract.

“To me, it never made much difference,” said the star candidly. “I was happy so long as I didn’t have to do routine work…I mean the kind of work I did when I was out of an acting job.

“I just rolled along and happened to roll into this lucky break. It might have been anyone else. So sometimes I think it is the best not to try too hard. There seem to be natural forces which if left unhampered, have a way of making things turn out all right.”

That they turned out all right for him, he readily admits. “I’m as happy as any man has a right to be,” he grinned, “and mighty grateful for it.”

Good-natured and easygoing, Gable did all kinds of work prior to his screen success, from acting to logging in the North woods. The year before MGM placed him under contract he was working in the subscription department of a Portland, Oregon newspaper.

With the tri-starring cast in the new picture are Billie Burke, Charles Butterworth, Frances Drake and Rosalind Russell.