Gossip Friday: Who’s on First

March 1940:

Never has the team batting average of that girl’s softball team in that little beach town near Hollywood been os high as the day they played a team made up from the company of MGM’s Strange Cargo troupe, which was shooting there.

Every gal on the high school team boosted her batting average. Because–Clark Gable was playing FIRST BASE for the MGM team!

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From February 1940:

It was an off day for the “Strange Cargo” cast on location at Pismo Beach, a small seacoast town above Santa Barbara, California, and loathing inactivity like a snail hates pace, Gable gathered together members of the crew and challeneged the girls’ softball team from a nearby high school for a match.

Well, it was a bit of something as you can imagine with Di Maggio Gable holding down first base and Joan Crawford rooting for the girls from the side lines.

It became pretty obvious that the girls didn’t make much effort to get past first base, but finally one cute blonde struck the ball a wallop and slid for first base.  Gable caught the ball from the picther a second after the blonde hit the base.

“You’re safe,” the umpire cried.

From the side lines came the moan of a cute onlooker. “Yeah, that’s us all right. Safe even with Gable around.”

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Lots of new pics in the gallery this week!