Gossip Friday: Purple Shorts Exposed!

From June 1940:

Clark Gable would just as soon let the past rest in peace so far as the picture “San Francisco” is concerned. Not because he didn’t play one of his greatest roles. It was a shooting of the earthquake scene that neither he nor 500 extras will forget—even if the film that recorded it ended up on the cutting room floor. Buildings were crumbling, water-mains bursting, horses running madly, and Clark was avoiding falling wreckage. He sprang aside, and as he did so, his trousers caught on the nail of a wooden beam.

With a rip they came off. And there was Mr. Gable caught short. Extras broke into hysterical laughter. Clark ran for cover—swearing he’d never wear purple shorts again!