Gossip Friday: Praise from a Barrymore

Since the Oscars were Sunday…”Look Lionel, what I’ve got!”

From October 1940:

These Barrymores are picturesque mimes. A question to Jack will bring you any intimate detail about his personal life that you may want. Ask Lionel and he will devote his comment to boosting someone else. I asked Lionel what he thought of the 1940 films as compared to the silent pictures of 1909 and 1910 when he started performing before the cameras. And he turned the whole reply into a eulogy of Clark Gable. Here it is: “I am often asked whether or not the motion picture has improved. There is only one answer to that. Nothing stands still. It must either go forward or backward. It has been my great privilege to watch and appear in pictures from infancy of the business. Out of all my experiendces, I think the one I have enjoyed most has been the success of Clark Gable. Gable’s career, in a very real sense, is an indication of how the screen has progressed. I first knew Clark when he was a struggling young actor, appearing on the stage with me in ‘The Copperhead’. Between times he was doing extra work in pictures. In 1932 I played with him in ‘A Free Soul’, the picture that made him a star. Now he has become one of the truly all-time favorites of the screen. Gable, more than any other star in the business, exemplifies the progress of the screen. When I first knew Clark, the screen was just beginning to find itself. Now it is a mature screen, willing to tackle mature and important subjects. I hope to be a part of it for a long time because the motion picture business never has been doing a better job of entertaining.”

New this week:

Pictures in the gallery

Under Info, new section with quotes from Clark