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{New Article} 1932: An Open Letter to Clark Gable
These “open letters” that editors of fan magazines would write to stars are quite eye roll-inducing. Usually they mildly insult the stars in some way, then the star offers a rebuttal. This one is at least short and I didn’t find Clark’s rebuttal in any subsequent issues of this magazine so I guess “Delight’s” opinion didn’t matter much to him, eh? From Screenland magazine editor Delight Evans: Dear Clark: This is going to hurt me more than it does you. I like you a lot—just because I’m an editor doesn’t mean I can’t pick my favorites—and I hope you like me, too. (I should think you would after all those…
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Movies of the Week: The Painted Desert (1931), The Easiest Way (1931) and The Finger Points (1931)
This week, since it’s Clark Gable’s birthday this week, we’re highlighting his first speaking role and two of his early roles: The Painted Desert, The Easiest Way and The Finger Points, all from 1931. The Painted Desert, Clark’s first speaking role, is not very memorable. Western partners Jeff (MacDonald) and Cash (Farnum) find a baby boy in an otherwise deserted emigrants camp, and clash over which is to be “father”. They are still bitterly feuding years later when they own adjacent ranches. Bill, the foundling whom Cash has raised to young manhood, wants to end the feud and extends an olive branch toward Jeff, who now has a lovely daughter.…
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{New Article} 1931: By Popular Request
When this short article was published in the summer of 1931, Clark Gable had just busted onto the screen with several small but memorable roles in films such as The Secret Six, Dance Fools Dance and A Free Soul. I am guessing that the magazines had a lot of requests for more information on this new heartthrob and the magazines didn’t have much to say yet… Clark Gable’s face is undoubtedly his greatest asset. No, this newest recruit from the New York stage isn’t a handsome young man, with curly hair and chiseled features. If he were, you probably wouldn’t remember him, because leading men do have a way of…
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Gossip Friday: Punished
From July 1934: Clark Gable was punished by a Santa Barbara newspaper the other morning. Clark, it appears, was dining in a hotel when a reporter sent over a note urging an interview. The actor made a “Humpfh–a reporter” noise, which was heard by the scribe. Gable also refused the interview, and the reporter got even, by golly. He put Gable on the front page, center, with a teasing tale of remembering the old days when Gable would have been glad to get publicity. Alongside the story was space for one-column photograph of the actor, but no likeness was used. Instead it said: “This space reserved for picture of Clark…
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{New Article} 1936: Clark Gable Warns Stenos What Happens When Husbands Get Caught in a Triangle
This article (and yes that is actually the long, rambling title) is quite obviously just a piece to promote Clark Gable’s latest film, Wife vs. Secretary. Clark, who never worked in an office, is asked about husbands having affairs with their secretaries. “The office husband problem is a tougher subject to talk on than politics—unless you stick to the fence, and I don’t like people who do that. Anyway, I’ve never worked in an office so I wouldn’t know much about that, but, just from the way you have to figure these things out for a picture, I’d say that office wives have to be as careful as office husbands—and…
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Movie of the Week: Cain and Mabel (1936)
This week, Clark is a mechanic-turned boxer who hates-loves-then-hates-again Marion Davies’ waitress-turned Broadway star in Cain and Mabel (1936). Clark Gable is Larry Cain, a heavyweight boxer, whose publicity team cooks up a fake romance with Mabel O’Dare (Davies), an aspiring musical star, for publicity. .Clark wins the heavyweight title but his fights aren’t popular enough to earn much of a profit. Marion gets a starring role on Broadway but her shows are hardly sell-outs. “The ushers are quitting because they’re scared of being alone in the dark!” her employer scoffs.So his support team and her support team decide that if they throw them together in a romance, the…
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{New Article} 1957: Memories of a Great Lover
This article from 1957 is about Clark’s “slowed-down” lifestyle. I’d say that’s understandable for a 57-year-old, wouldn’t you? In 1958—on February 1—Clark will be fifty-seven years old. He’s still one of the biggest at the box-office—and as lusty a he-man to the ladies in the audience as he ever was. But Clark is slowing but he still stands as straight as an Indian and can make a muscle on any part of body lie. He tips 200 on the scale—only twenty-five more than twenty years ago—and his middle finger doesn’t bulge. But Clark has mellowed. “He’s seen it and done it and had it in spades,” one friend said, “and…
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Gossip Friday: Coming in Third
From December 1940: Mickey Rooney, the cigar smoking toughie of Mickey McGuire two-reelers 15 years ago, has been voted the nation’s foremost box office attraction for the second consecutive year, the Motion Picture Herald reported yesterday. The tousled, 20-year-old Rooney won the Herald theater poll by an overwhelming vote over 200 actors and actresses–the handsomest leading men and the prettiest girls of the motion picture industry. This year he carried young Judy Garland with him from relative obscurity in 1939 to the No. 10 moneymaker. The Garland parade began early in 1940, when she and Rooney were cast in “Babes in Arms.” The film was such a smash hit countrywide…
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{New Article} 1936: Gable’s New Freedom
This article, from 1936, arrived on newsstands after it had been announced that Clark Gable and his second wife, Ria Franklin, were divorcing. “The only possession I have ever craved, the only goddess I can serve faithfully for all my life is freedom!” So said Clark Gable. “I’m a tramp at heart,” he continued. And with these words he gave the real “inside” story of himself, of all that he wants from life, even of the marital events recently headlined and hysterics-lined. For though Clark, in due course of time, will be “in circulation” again—he won’t be. Not really. He looked magnificent as he sat there, in his dressing room.…
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Goodbye, Carole
Today marks 77 years since Carole Lombard perished in a plane crash at the young age of 33. Every year I mark this anniversary, and every year I marvel at the fact that she has been dead for such a long time. There is just something timeless about Carole. Carole’s death anniversary over the years: 2010: Memorial poem 2011: Excerpt from “The Story Gable Wouldn’t Tell” 2012: Photo gallery of Carole 2013: Excerpt from “This Was Carole” 2014: Excerpt from “What the Loss of Carole Lombard Means to Clark Gable” 2015: Excerpts from articles about Carole’s death 2016: For the 75th anniversary of her death, I did a day-by-day recap…
