Gossip Friday: Quite a Pipe

From October 1939:

Clark Gable related one “something for practically nothing” incident which leads me to believe that the old, time-honored proverb “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” isn’t always sound advice.

A few weeks ago, Gable received a strange, old pipe. Accompanying the gift was a note, “This is nothing more valuable than the bearer of good wishes from a fan upon your marriage.” The pipe was so unusual looking that Clark, out of curiousity, took it to an authority on such things. That gentleman placed the probable orgin of the pipe at about the time peg-legged Peter Stuyvesant came to New Amsterdam. Naturally it would be prized by a collector.

Gable, feeling the fan had unwittingly sent him a very valuable gift, returned it with his newly acquired information. However, the pipe was returned to Gable.