Gossip Friday: Beauty Shop Chatter
From May 1940:
Carole Lombard was at Westmore’s the other day having her hair shampooed and waved. After the star had left, Miss Lombard’s hairdresser took her next appointment–a woman almost too excited to talk. “Tell me all about her,” begged the customer. “Is she going to have a baby like the newspapers say? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Clark and Carole had a baby? Why, America would go wild!”
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Shucks, I, for one, am so sad that never happened. Wouldn’t it be something if there was a person walking around today, probably in their 60’s, who was half Clark and half Carole? Talk about hitting the genetic lottery. And having the coolest parents ever to boot!
3 Comments
connie
More likely in their 70’s but it would have been nice. I for one have never believed the story that Clark was Judy Lewis’ father, (with Loretta Young). Lewis recently died in 2011. No one seems to remember that Spencer Tracy had a high profile affair w/Young in the 30’s. It was even acknowledged by Katharine Hepburn in A.Scott Berg’s biography of her. I had read this in another bio of Tracy. He even went as far as to publicly state he’d leave his wife and children for Young. Could someone verify this for me please ? I read Lewis’ book in our library. Sure she could look like Gable, but she looks more like her mother; and the big ear thing…so every kid born with big ears during Gables time might be his offspring? Please…Besides the fact Young lied to her for so many years and then late in her life Young tells her Gable is her father and now she believes her. I’m sure Ms Lewis would never have gotten her book published or been on Larry King in the early 2000’s had her father been a camera man on one of Young’s movies. King had even asked her if she would get a DNA test done and Lewis said she would not; her mothers word was enough for her. Sorry I’m going on about this but since reading her book, it seemed like she tried to bring Gables memory down. Another article about her states she even approached his son John Gable at a GWTW revival and introduced herself as his stepsister. How insensitive can you be? The poor man never even had the chance to meet his Dad. Her whole way of handling the situation seemed to smack of sensationalism and retribution. I know Judy Lewis is dead now and I mean no disrespect to her or her family but what about Gables family? I would appreciate some comments please. Anyway, I’ve always been a fan of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable. She could be beautiful and comedic at the same time and yet never seemed to let her beauty go to her head. It seems from articles I’ve read that neither Gable nor Lombard ever took their mega stardom seriously. I think this is what endures me to them to this day. I wish we had more of her films. I could watch her movies over and over again.Sorry this was so long winded. Love your web-site.
admin
Thank you Connie.
I have noticed, as well, that people seem to forget that Loretta had an affair with Spencer that was long and heated and ended right before she left for location work on Call of the Wild. I have always considered the possibility as well that Spencer could have been Judy’s father. Loretta said it was Clark, but she also said she only gave in to Clark once and seems to maintain that other than that she was pure and innocent, while that is hardly the case. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know, especially now that Judy is dead and John Clark never did a DNA test with her.
The new Spencer Tracy biography is on my wishlist right now, but I do know that it mentioned in Loretta’s authorized biography that Susie, Spencer’s daughter, came to Loretta after Spencer’s death and said, ” To my father there were only two women in his life: my mother and you.”
The Judy thing has always bothered me because Clark was a very honorable man and loved children. It has always seemed unlikely to me that he would turn his back on his own flesh and blood. I know that he couldn’t have divorced Ria in time to marry Loretta in time if he had wanted to, but it seems that if he had known Judy was his he would have sent money and tried to have some sort of distant relationship with her, maybe never admitting to being her father, but still trying to see her occaisonally. It has always baffled me that he completely turned his back. I read somewhere recently that in an interview with Tom Lewis (Judy’s stepdad, Loretta’s husband) that Tom said that Loretta never told him that Judy was Clark’s and that once he even asked Clark about it and Clark said something to the effect of, “You think I’d deny her if I knew she was mine?”
We’ll never know, unfortunately.
Anne
It has always been my understanding that Loretta called all the shots regarding her post-“Call of the Wild” relationship with Clark – including that Clark not be a part of Judy’s life – except for that one visit of his to her home when Judy was a teenager. I’d love to know what the reason was for that visit!!!