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{New Article} 1932: The Trials of a Hollywood Ex-Wife
This piece is about Clark and Boris Karloff’s ex-wives and how they are “persecuted” by the press to tell dish about their favorite ex-husbands. I was delighted to come across this article because my very dearest friend is a classic horror movie freak and I was quite happy to be able to say to her, “Here’s an article for the both of us!” as Boris Karloff is to her as Clark Gable is to me. Onto the article. Clark’s only ex-wife at this time was Josephine Dillon, a matronly acting coach 17 years his senior. He was newly married to Ria Langham. The story of Josephine Dillon’s persecution by yellow…
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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! ___ 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…
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Spotlight on: Myrna Loy
I have a crush on Myrna Loy. That wasn’t hard to admit. Miss Loy (nee Williams) was one of the biggest stars of the studio era, largely due to the hugely successful Thin Man series, in which she was Nora to William Powell’s Nick. In 1938, she was elected the Queen of Hollywood along with the King–Clark, of course. After their crowning, from then on he affectionately called Myrna “Queenie.” Sadly, as Clark carried the King title to the end of his life (and beyond!), the Queen title slipped off Myrna quickly and unfortunately most non-classic movie lovers have no idea who she is. She has over 100 films in her filmography and…
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CMBA Movies of 1939 Blogathon: Idiot’s Delight
Idiot’s Delight, one of those classic films where one might say, “What kind of a title is that?”, was based on a hit Broadway play starring Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was revered for its strong anti-Nazi themes. When MGM bought the film rights, all anti-Nazi references were removed, leaving just the structure of the story. Pre-World War II America wouldn’t want to see such negativity, after all, and who wants to ruin the foreign receipts by risking it being banned in Europe? Gable is Harry Van, a World War I vet and struggling vaudeville performer when he meets Irene (Norma Shearer), while…
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{New Article} 1943: Captain Gable, Grim and Gay
I have so many WWII-era articles to upload it will probably take me until I am old and gray to get them all up on the site. Let’s hope not. For now, here’s a new one from 1943, about Clark when he was stationed in London. “It’s a grand job,” he pronounced, “I’m proud to be helping with it.” He said it with quiet sincerity that needed no emphasis, for the long unpublicized trip that brought him across the Atlantic was his own choice, just as he originally decided to give up the second highest screen salary in America in order to become Captain Gable of the U.S. Army Air…
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Gossip Friday: Two Left Feet
From January 1939: Clark Gable, attempting to master the art of tap dancing for his role in “Idiot’s Delight”, doesn’t know an electrician hid on a high rafter of the sound stage to watch Clark, who permitted no watchers. And the electrician became so convulsed at Clark’s awkwardness he nearly fell headlong at the actor’s feet! __________ Hey now, Clark didn’t do so bad! Stay tuned– I’ll be reviewing Idiot’s Delight for the CMBA Films of 1939 Blogathon on Tuesday. New this week: I have added two new categories to the gallery– “In His Footsteps,” which has pictures of places Clark has wandered. Right now I have uploaded pictures of the…
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Gossip Friday: I’m with the Band
From January 1941: Leave it to Hollywood to think up ways and means of having fun at parties. The newest is the musical instrument gag that develops into an amateur orchestra with big name guests furnishing the music, if such it can be called. Going on the assumption that everyone thinks he can play some instrument whether he can or not, the Jack Bennys, at a recent shindig, rented an assortment of musical noisemaners and bade the guests go to it. Clark Gable and Bob Taylor each grabbed a saxophone, Gracie Allen a flute, Barbara Stanwyck a trombone, Jack Benny a bass violin, while Mary Livingston snitched the drums. After…
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April Movie of the Month: Band of Angels (1957)
Clark Gable plays a rich, witty, romantic, dashing Civil War-era rogue who sweeps a beautiful brunette off her feet with his charms. Gone with the Wind? Nope, not even close, it’s Band of Angels. Gone with the Wind was still quite popular and had recently been re-released, so producers were anxious to capitalize on it’s popularity. Clark had suffered quite a few flops in the 1950’s and was probably not too keen on accepting a Rhett Butler-type role, but saw their point that it could be a success. It wasn’t. Yvonne De Carlo is Amantha Starr, a Kentucky belle who has lived a life of privilege on her father’s plantation. While…
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Gossip Friday: Snooping in the Dressing Room
From Febraury 1939: It occured to us while we patiently waited in Clark Gable’s portable dressing room for Clark to finish a scene with Norma Shearer for “Idiot’s Delight”, that maybe you, too, would like to know something about that famous Gable dressing room which is wheeled from set to set. The walls, to begin with, are knotty pine. The dressing table, also knotty pine, is bare and simple , with a single mirror and two lights. There is no make-up kit anywhere in sight. Two ample-sized brass ashtrays are gastened to the walls–one by the red leather divan and one by the red leather easy chair, the only…
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{New Article} 1942: How Clark Gable is Conquering Loneliness
Here is a new article that will isn’t exactly the most uplifting, but it sheds some light on how Clark was struggling in the months following Carole Lombard’s death. This is the truth considering Clark Gable today; he is not going into active military service. He is not selling the ranch. He is going on with pictures. But the reasons that have determined these decisions reveal the changed Gable, this strong and complex man who after his exquisite wife’s death discovered through his tragic loneliness that he had loved her even more than he had ever realized. Well, by the time this issue hit newstands in August of 1942, Clark…