{New Article} 1932: “I’m No Saint,” Says Clark Gable

This article from 1932 is mainly focused on Clark complaining about how reporters dig into his past…to a reporter. There isn’t a lot of substance here but it is interesting to hear Clark’s own voice saying what he feels about fame and it’s pitfalls. Unlike many articles of this period, it is at least filled with direct quotes and not fluffy backstory. Here are some quotes by Clark from the article:

“I don’t like to have people asking me about the women I’ve fooled around with, trying to dig into my past. I’m willing to talk to people, and the press has given me some great breaks—but whose business is it what I did before I got up out of the ruck? Why can’t they leave my past alone? And so far as that is concerned, whose business is it what I do now, after I take my greasepaint off?”

“I am glad I got a break, but I worked hard for
it. And I’m glad I can give people something they like on the screen, but
outside the studio I do want to live my own life. My wife and I live quietly,
we don’t go to many parties, and we feel that we have the same right to privacy
as the surgeon across the court of the lawyer down the hall.”

“Out here in California in the old days, a man’s past was his own affair and it was as much as your life was worth to be too inquisitive about such things. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if that was still the fashion. A man comes out here and gets a break. The next day the whole world demands to know every detail of his history. If, while we were on the way up, all of us knew that some day our past would be of so much interest, we might be more careful. But we don’t, and once we’ve arrived, why don’t people give us a break and, so long as we please ‘em on the screen, take the attitude they did in ’49—that it’s not what a man was that counts, but what he is?”

Clark struggled with the battle for privacy all his life. He always did remain a certain level of it–staying withdrawn from social events for the most part, not allowing photographers inside the ranch house, always giving interviews about what he wanted, when he wanted. I’ve always thought that if Clark was around nowadays, he would be like a George Clooney–no Facebook, no Twitter,  not commenting too much on personal issues, living remotely, still with an air of mystery.

You can read the article in its entirety in The Article Archive.