-
Gossip Friday: Splitsville for the Gables
Ria and Clark Gable Since July 19 marks 80 years since Clark married Ria Franklin, here is a gossip column’s statement on their break-up, from February 1936: There is heartbreak in Hollywood over the official separation of the Clark Gables. The whispers have been flying for months, but the whole town hoped that these two grand people would never definitely part. Everyone is so fond of both of them. In one of the most difficult spots in the world, Ria Gable has presided with dignity and humor. She seemed the perfect wife for a famous man and no one out here is more charming. The separation will inevitably be blamed…
-
{Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier Appreciation Blogathon} Spotlight on: Vivien Leigh
As is Gone with the Wind folklore, producer David Selznick’s search for the perfect Scarlett O’Hara reached far and wide, cost thousands of dollars and took years. Every female star auditioned for the part, regardless of how qualified she was. People on the street debated on who should play her. Southern debutantes took acting lessons and bought train tickets to Hollywood. It caused a nationwide frenzy. Then appeared the dark horse: British Vivien Leigh–whose casting surprised some, and rattled others. Civil War descendants decried her casting in letters to newspapers, stating, “The selection of Vivien Leigh is a direct affront to the men who wore gray and an outrage to the memory of…
-
Gossip Friday: A Handsome Pair
Since Clark and Kay were married 56 years ago on July 11, here’s some gossip on them from June 1944, when they were dating the first go-round: At an Army and Navy dinner dance recently [we] sat kitty-corner from Captain Clark Gable who had pretty Kay Williams as his girl friend. [We] thought the two a handsome pair but couldn’t help comparing the quiet, almost demure Kay to the vivid, magnetic Carole. What a contrast.
-
{New Article}1940: At Home with the Gables
After some rather depressing articles detailing Clark’s emotional spiral after Carole’s death, it’s nice to go back and look at the good times they had together, in their favorite place to be–their Encino ranch. Carole didn’t marry Rhett Butler. With her eyes wide open, she married a farmer. Clark likes the movies. Nobody forced him into his profession. He wanted to be an actor. But his first and deepest passion is for the soil. He could talk all day about fertilizer and tractors. It’s like pulling teeth to get a couple of words from him on his next picture. Without the movies, he could still be happy. Without a piece…
-
July Movie of the Month: It Happened One Night (1934)
I began “Movie of the Month” last July after the site’s first anniversary. I try to bounce around Clark’s filmography as I figured it would be rather dull to start from the beginning and end at his death. The films featured so far: June: But Not For Me May: Idiot’s Delight April: Band of Angels March: Saratoga February: China Seas January: Hold Your Man December: Red Dust November: The Secret Six October: No Man of Her Own September: Teacher’s Pet August: Never Let Me Go July: Wife vs. Secretary So, I thought it was fitting to celebrate two years of the site and one year of “Movie of the Months”…
-
Clark Croonin’ with Bing
Clark singing with Bing Crosby. That is one of those things that seems unlikely to have ever happened. And I wouldn’t believe it either, if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears! And “Ragtime Cowboy Joe”, of all things! We have a new clip that is from a private recording, circa 1938. A special thank you to Kurt for the clip and to David of The Bing Crosby Media Archive for determining where it came from! If you are a Bing Crosby fan, you should definitely follow his blog. You can hear it on the Audio page. Clark doesn’t exactly keep up with Bing tone-wise, but at least he’s…
-
We’re Two!
DearMrGable.com is two years old today! I can hardly believe it has been two years since I decided to create a little Clark Gable niche on the internet. In two short years, this site has come a long way. Over 9,000 pictures, a page for every one of Clark’s 66 films, lots of information pages, 20 radio shows, a Facebook page and weeks and weeks of “Gossip Fridays’! And there’s so much more to come! I have a stack of CDs of radio shows waiting to be uploaded and my most prized possessions at the moment are these scrapbooks. What’s in them? Well, they were kept by a very devoted Gable fan…
-
{Reference} Gable Films on DVD
I should do more posts about recent Gable DVD releases. Here’s my way of making up for it–a complete list of what Gable films are available on DVD. Thanks to the Warner Brothers Archive Collection, many of his films have been made available the past few years. There are still a few that I can’t believe aren’t available, such as Red Dust, Hold Your Man and Saratoga. I have often thought perhaps WB was holding on to those to release a big grand Jean Harlow centennial boxed set, but her 100th birthday has come and gone and there is no such set. Grumble, grumble. Well, us Gable fans don’t have much to grumble…
-
Gossip Friday: Comrade X Currency
From November 1940: In “Comrade X”, Hedy Lamarr plays a street conductor in Russia. Clark Gable gets on her car and gives her some “rubles” for his carfare. We just happened to be looking at the “rubles”–and they turned out to be Marie Antoinette coins, last used in [the 1937 Norma Shearer picture] “Marie Antoinette”. _____ Interesting piece of film trivia there! New this week: Photos in the gallery Four new articles, all from the 1940’s
-
{New Article} 1942: Why Gable Wants to Fight
This article drums over the reasons Clark would want to join the army and whether or not he should. A mute point, of course, since by the time this article was published in October 1942, Clark was already sworn in and in officers school. If this were a time of peace in the world, Clark Gable would probably seek escape on a desert island. It would have to be an island that offered excitement, however, because, at heart, Gable is an adventurer, a man who loves the mystery of the unknown, who has lived close to nature and knows her changing moods—a man who has always been able to find…