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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 5: Mrs. Gable is Nice
For the last segment of our series of interviews Clark Gable gave at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, it appears that as the female reporters were hounding Clark asking him mundane questions, a male reporter managed to talk to Kay Gable. Mrs. Gable is Nice, Male Reporter Says by Leland Hawes, Tribune Staff Writer I had Mrs. Gable all to myself–for 10 nice minutes while her crinkle-browed husband was nearly “skwushed” by a squad of inquiring reporters, female variety. A cool, cool blonde with blue, blue eyes, Kay Gable didn’t twitter an eyelash at the spectacle of her chunk-of-man surrounded by palpitating pulchritude. “It’s really rather refreshing to…
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Gossip Friday: Most Nervous
From June 1945: Clark Gable’s studio made it a sort of public unveiling when reported for his first camera assignment after having spent more than three years–all of them after he was 40–as a buck private-to-major in the air forces. Most nervous man on the set: Clark Gable.
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 4: His Ears Aren’t So Big After All
Continuing in our series of Clark Gable being interviewed at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, here’s Part 4, in which you find out he loves huckleberries, if he still loves acting, and if he’d consider going to the moon: His Ears Aren’t So Big After All by Ramona Demery, Tribune Staff Writer I’m rather new at this thing, I guess you call it a cub reporter. Well, not even that, for my job is to keep the floor clean, file weddings and write garden club notices. Then along came a chance to interview Clark Gable. What a madhouse: four women firing questions at once. This one just gave…
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Gossip Friday: Good Picture
From September 1947: Clark Gable has finally seen “Gone with the Wind.” He was telling on the “Homecoming” set how he happened to miss it. At the world premiere in Atlanta he was so weary from the civic celebration that he put his feet up on the railing before the front row and slept right through the picture. When it came to the premiere here [in Los Angeles], his wife, the late Carole Lombard, said she didn’t want to sit through the four-hour show again. So they walked through the crowds, down the aisle and right out the back exit. Recently a friend arranged a showing and invited Cark. “Good…
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 3: Scarlett Never Got Rhett Butler Back
Continuing our series of articles from Clark Gable being interviewed at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, here’s Part 3, in which he gives an answer to whether he thinks Rhett ever goes back to Scarlett, and he spoils the end of Run Silent Run Deep: Scarlett Never Got Rhett Butler Back By Panky Glamsch, Tribune Staff Writer Just as Rhett Butler never returned to Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, Clark Gable may never return to The Tribune Woman’s Department. But at least four women staff members will never be the same. The day it was announced The King would arrive at Tampa International Airport, the air was…
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Gossip Friday: Very Much All Right
From March 1941: Wouldn’t you think that, after coming 3,000 miles to see Clark Gable (and a few others), and, after rearranging a whole week so as to be able to get out to MGM, when he would be working on a picture–wouldn’t you imagine that we’d have something very serious and important to talk about? Something like the Rhett Butler portrayal which climaxed his career. Or like the shoulder which gave him so much trouble a few months ago. Or like his home life. Or Carole Lombard. Well, we did touch on those subjects, of course, but lightly. No need to say much about Rhett Butler, since Gable put…
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 2: He Looked at Me–And I Reached For The Wall
Continuing in our series of articles posted in the Tampa Tribune in February 1958, here is Part 2 of Clark being interviewed at the Tampa International Airport: He Looked at Me–And I Reached For The Wall by Lee Winter, Tribune Staff Writer Clark Gable’s whiskery glance stirred up a thick batter of longing among women waiting in the cold wind at the airport. Mostly, they were older women who strained for that first look at the tall figure striding from the plane. One woman tore a button off her glove as she leaned on the wire fence. Later, she told me that her first memory of Clark Gable was a…
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Gossip Friday: Easy to Handle
From January 1936: Clark Gable is easy to handle, Lionel Barrymore is difficult and Norma Shearer is “sweet and stoical about pain.” That is how Peggy Coleman, who sees the stars when they are suffering, sizes up stellar response to the first-aid treatment she administers in her capacity as studio nurse. For 11 years Peggy Coleman has ministered to common colds, minor ailments, injuries and sometimes serious accident cases that befall the workers on her lot. If an actor has a headache on the set, they send for Peggy. If an actress fears her cold will show in her eyes, Peggy hastens over to give treatment. She may be dressing…
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 1: Virility and Charm–And His Voice is Husky Yet Soft
Since it’s Clark Gable’s birthday month, we will be featuring a series of small articles that were printed in the Tampa Tribune in February 1958. It was around his birthday that Clark Gable and wife Kay Spreckels arrived at the Tampa International Airport, en route to a cruise to the West Indies. Is any of this earth shattering information? No. But if you wanted to know what Clark thought of chemise dresses, if he ever unclogged sinks at home, if he thinks women should know how to cook, if he thinks Rhett ever came back to Scarlett, what his favorite cake is and if he likes to die in movies,…
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Happy Birthday, Mr. Gable
Clark Gable was born 121 years ago today, on February 1, 1901, in Cadiz, Ohio. The only child of William and Adeline Gable, Clark or “Billy” as he was called growing up, would one day be one of the biggest movie stars in the world. And 121 years later, we still remember him. Director Mervyn LeRoy once said, “The tough thing about describing Clark Gable is that there’s nothing bad to say.” There was a general consensus around Hollywood that Clark was a stand-up guy–remarkably unpretentious and without an ounce of self-importance. A rare type of man whom men wanted to be friends with and women were automatically smitten with. A…
