Photo Mystery Solved!

As a fan of both Clark and Carole (and classic Hollywood in general), I have always been puzzled by these pictures:

They are of a mustache-less Clark conversing with Carole, It Happened One Night director Frank Capra, and his IHON costar, Claudette Colbert. So what’s so peculiar? Well, Claudette is dressed in her IHON costume and since they are with Capra, one would assume that these are on-the-set candids. But a few things have always puzzled me about them: First, Clark was sporting a mustache in IHON and had been for over a year prior. Second, while during the film’s production in 1934 Clark and Carole were not romantically involved yet (or so they say),  I had considered that maybe Carole had dropped by the set to visit Robert Riskin, IHON’s screenwriter whom she began dating around that time. BUT a fly in that ointment is that the Carole in these pictures isn’t 1934 Carole. As Lombard fans will testify, Carole was sporting a platinum blonde ‘do through most of that year, not the more natural honey blonde hair depicted in these pictures.  I had resigned that perhaps Claudette had nothing to wear one evening and threw on an old costume dress (not likely) or that it was indeed an IHON on set shot and maybe Claudette was there doing retakes, Carole was visiting Riskin on set (with a new hairdo?) and Clark was visiting, having shaved off his mustache post-role (still not very likely as he wouldn’t shave it off again until he began filiming Mutiny on the Bounty a year later).

So what’s the answer? These pictures were taken in January 1937  backstage at the Actors’ Fund Benefit.  Here’s a press account of the festivites:

Before a wildly enthusiastic audience of more than 11,000 people, the greatest benefit performance ever staged was held in Hollywood recently. Hollywood, used in spectacles, has never seen anything like it. The most brillant collection of stars ever assembled gave their services for free for the Actor’s Benefit Fund to establish a Western home for the aged of the motion picture profession similar to the one now established at Saranac Lake.

The list of stars and their acts is too huge to mention, but some of the highlights were:  Mary Pickford taking a bow at the head of twenty well known stars of silent days in remembered characterizations,  Charles King opening the second act with “Singing in the Rain,” Eddie Cantor and Rosa Ponselle singing. The “It Happened One Night” scene with Frank Capra stalling his car brought down the house. James Melton led the finale with “Marching Along Together.”

And that is just what the whole motion picture industry was doing, “marching along together” to show their love, interest, and devotion to the aged of their own profession–a thoroughly heart-warming spectacle.

Clark and Carole were a hot item at that point and she was indeed his date. Clark is mustacheless because he was on a break after completing Cain and Mabel.

Here’s a shot of Clark and Claudette performing the scene from IHON:

Mystery solved!!

And here’s some more shots from the evening:

Jimmy Stewart and Eleanor Powell in the audience:

Claudette and husband Dr. Joel Pressman in the audience:

Performers Toby Wing, Tom Brown, Betty Furness, Dick Cromwell, Olivia De Havilland, James Blakely and Pat Ellis.

And who’s this? Why it’s a future Mrs. Clark Gable, Lady Sylvia Ashley (then a brunette, I see!) with her then-husband Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Gilbert Roland and Constance Bennett.