Gossip Friday: Gable in Grand Hotel?

From December 1931:

What do you think of this for a cast? Great Garbo…John Gilbert…Joan Crawford…Clark Gable in “Grand Hotel.”

Irving Thalberg (MGM executive and husband of Norma Shearer) thinks so much of it that it is practically set that these four stars will be united in Vicki Baum’s sensational story.

Anyway, the folks have had a lot of fun casting the parts. Garbo as the dancer, Gilbert as the young crook, Crawford as the stenographer–everybody agrees on that line-up. But what part is Gable to have? the only other important role in the book is the invalid from the country. Does Gable look like an invalid to you?

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And of course he didn’t. The invalid role went to Lionel Barrymore, the crook role to John Barrymore, and Garbo was indeed the dancer and Crawford the stenographer. Clark was not in the cast, of course. I’ve heard these rumors of his casting before and always wondered what role they were really considering him for. The only one that remotely would fit would be the crook.