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February Movie of the Month: The Hucksters (1947)
Voted on by you Gable fans…The Hucksters is the Movie of the Month for February! And the winner of The Hucksters on DVD is Debbie Moore, who voted via Facebook! The Hucksters is my personal favorite of Clark’s films after he returned from the war. The script is good and with a cast that includes Deborak Kerr, Ava Gardner, Sydney Greenstreet and Adolphe Menjou, Clark is surrounded by talent. It was the first script offered to him after the war that he actually liked. The film is considered a drama, but it has some comedic moments and is really more of a satire, ridiculing the advertising industry. Clark’s character, Victor “Vic” Norman…
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{Rumor Mill} Clark Gable and Lana Turner
Clark Gable has been linked to a lot of women. Pretty much every co-star he ever had in the 1930’s was labeled as his off-screen romance too. Sometimes, in the case of Joan Crawford or Elizabeth Allan, it was true. Other times, in the case of Myrna Loy or Jean Harlow, it was not. But there’s one costar of his that seems to be a point of contention: Lana Turner. Lana, Clark’s pretty blonde co-star in Honky Tonk, Somewhere I’ll Find You, Homecoming and Betrayed, was known for dating her co-stars. Married seven times, she also reportedly had a flirtation with Robert Taylor, had an affair with Tyrone Power, hit the nightclubs with…
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Gossip Friday: Good Lux from Carole
From September 1936: The latest gag present from Lombard to Gable was delivered to a somewhat bewildered Mr. G. at the close of a radio broadcast in which he was appearing in a dramatic skit with Marlene Dietrich. Just as the show ended an attendant brought in a huge floral horseshoe–the kind gangsters used to send their deceased colleagues. The card from Carole read “Good Lux.”
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{New Article} 1961: Clark Gable as I Knew Him
I’ve had this magazine for years and years. I never posted this article in the archive on the site because it is just an abridged version of Kathleen Williams’ book, Clark Gable: A Personal Portrait, so I figured it wasn’t necessary. Recently, I have had quite a few people email me and ask me if I knew where they can find the book, as it is out of print (Ebay and Amazon usually have copies). So I figured it would be worthwhile to put up this article so everyone could at least read the abridged version if they can’t get their hands on a copy. I turned down the first invitation…
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Happy Birthday, Dear Mr. Gable!
Today is Clark’s 111th birthday. I suppose it is slightly feasible that he could still be alive today…but not very likely! Knowing him and his modest ways, I am sure he would be shocked that anyone in the year 2012 remembers him and his movies. But we all do! Here’s what Clark was doing every 11 years on his birthday: 1912: Living in a house his father built on Mill Street in Hopedale, Ohio, young Clark was in the fifth grade, playing the horn in the school band and thriving under the attention of his beloved stepmother, Jennie Dunlap. 1923: Clark (or as he was called then, “Billy”) was working at…
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Gossip Friday: Purple Shorts Exposed!
From June 1940: Clark Gable would just as soon let the past rest in peace so far as the picture “San Francisco” is concerned. Not because he didn’t play one of his greatest roles. It was a shooting of the earthquake scene that neither he nor 500 extras will forget—even if the film that recorded it ended up on the cutting room floor. Buildings were crumbling, water-mains bursting, horses running madly, and Clark was avoiding falling wreckage. He sprang aside, and as he did so, his trousers caught on the nail of a wooden beam. With a rip they came off. And there was Mr. Gable caught short. Extras broke…
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Articles are Back!
Thank you everyone for your patience while this site gets a much-needed facelift. I am happy to announce that the Article Archive is back up and running! Here you will find over 100 articles on Clark’s life and career, ranging from 1932 to 2008. Some highlights: Learn about Clark’s favorite pot roast and how to make his favorite pancakes in The Modern Hostess (1934). Read about one lucky contest winner’s date with Clark in I Had a Date with Clark Gable (1936). Hollywood’s Unmarried Husbands and Wives (1939) is the infamous article that called out Clark and Carole, among other celebrity couples, for “acting like they are married even…
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{January Movie of the Month} Key to the City (1950)
Key to the City is only notable really for the re-teaming of Clark Gable with Loretta Young, his co-star in Call of the Wild fifteen years earlier…oh, and the mother of his daughter, Judy. Loretta was suggested as his leading lady because the studio was trying to bring back some of Clark’s romantic luster as the grim Any Number Can Play and female-less Command Decision has darkened it. Gable is Steve Fisk, the boorish mayor of Puget City, who meets Clarissa Standish (Young), the stuffy mayor of Winona, Maine at the annual mayors conference in San Francisco. They fall in love despite their differences but trouble arises as they try…
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Gossip Friday: Hypnotic to Most…
From July 1941: Clark Gable to most women would be hypnotic. Not so to Rosalind Russell, whom he kisses in “They Met in Bombay.” Before shooting, Roz called to her maid: “Bring me my sex appeal!”—perfume atomizer, gum. ____ Roz is hilarious! There’s a great article in the archive in which Roz discusses working with Clark.
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Goodbye, Carole
Carole Lombard Gable died 70 years ago today. Amazing to think that it has been that long, as Carole left in her wake films and tales that seem so modern. I’ve often thought you could drop Carole down in this day and age and she wouldn’t miss a beat. There is no denying that her death infintely shaped Clark Gable’s life from that day on. He was different…and he was never quite the same. From “The Story Gable Wouldn’t Tell”, Modern Screen magazine, November 1942: Dorothy Canfield Fisher once wrote a story about a girl whose parents’ love and dependence on each other grew with every passing year. Then her…