Gossip Friday: Light a Match

From December 1938:

Tyrone Power and Clark Gable exchanging reminiscences abut their South American travels at the Jack Benny party to Ruby Schinasi…”What gave you your greatest kick, Ty?” asked Gable…”At Colombia,” said Power, breaking into a grin. “The manager of the local theatre told me that he wanted to show me what happened when we made bad pictures in Hollywood…A picture was just starting, I won’t tell you the name of it, and it was pretty bad. All of a sudden, the audience started lighting matches and holding them up like torches. ‘You see,’ said the theatre manager, ‘if they don’t like a picture, instead of booing or hissing, they light matches and if the picture isn’t off the screen by the time those matches burn down to their fingers, they start tearing up the theatre seats.’ Sure enough, the picture flickered off and a new picture started. The manager explained that, as a precaution, he always has three pictures and perhaps five shorts in the projection booth. Some nights, he has to use them all to save his theatre.”….Gable chuckled: “Can you imagine the blaze of matches the night they saw ‘Parnell.'”