Gossip Friday: Lost in Mexico

From May 1940:

Getting “lost” in Mexico has been a favorite pastime among Hollywoodites recently. Oh well–it’s good for a headline–and sometimes for a laugh. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, vacationing south of the border in a station wagon, were mildly surprised to learn that their studios had been worrying about them–all over the country’s newspapers. Eddie Albert, whose publicity department lost track of him while he was sailing off Mexico in his boat, returned to Hollywood with a tale that ties the two Mexican mysteries together neatly. A Mexican deckhand on his boat, Eddie claims, asked him for a big favor. “Please,” begged the Mexican, “when you get back to Hollywood send me a picture of el Senor Don Gable. Un magnifico hombre. Magnifico!”  “I pay him his wages,” Eddie laments, “but it’s Gable’s picture he wants. Fine thing!”