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Happy Veterans Day
Happy Veterans Day! Clark said of his time in the Army Air Corps: “You know, that was the thing I am most proud of. Not only because I helped in a small way, and believe me, it was a small way–but because it was the first thing I felt that I did completely unselfishly and not caring about my own hide. And I know Ma would have been proud. Makes me feel a bit better.” Read about Clark’s time in the army here. Recently updated with his registration card and service certificate.
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Gossip Friday: On the set of Gone with the Wind
From May 1939: We said we didn’t believe it. “Tell us,” we said, “that Greta Garbo is hunting autographs; that Shirley Temple has been sent to reform school; that Jimmy Cagney is baking a cake. Tell us anything. But don’t tell us ‘Gone with the Wind’ is actually shooting!” “Come over and see for yourself,” said the Selznick-International man. How could we resist making “The Wind”, as Hollywood knows it, our first stop on the monthly set circuit? After these months of waiting and waiting–false hopes, phony Scarletts, reluctant Rhetts and so forth–a mere peep at the champion never-never movie in actual production is like a preview of the millennium.…
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Meet Me in St. Louis…
Well, Friday I am boarding a plane and heading to St. Louis for the Gone with the Wind “Gateway to the Wind” event! The itinerary is as follows: Friday, November 5 2:30 p.m. “Antebellum Plantation Life; Perception vs. Reality”- White Haven Ulysses S. Grant National Historical Site 7400 Grant Rd. St. Louis, MO – Learn all about GWTW author Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War relatives and how their lives inspired her to write “Gone With The Wind” 5:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception At Drury Inn For Those Staying At The Drury 7 p.m. “Blog With The Wind”- Drury Inn Forest Park. Find out about the social media out there. 8 p.m. “Fiddle-Dee-Dee Follies” –…
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TCM Moguls and Movie Stars Exhibit
A few days ago I went to the TCM Moguls and Movie Stars exhibit in Atlanta. From TCM.com: Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is bringing a bit of Hollywood history to five cities across the United States this fall as part of a special tour tied to the network’s landmark seven-part documentary series, MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD, which premieres Monday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. (ET). The multimedia exhibit was created to let film lovers across the country experience the MOGULS & MOVIE STARS series through interactive displays on the history of filmmaking in America. The exhibit will feature unique memorabilia, including an Oscar®…
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From Glamour Girl to Mud Lover
Clark often gets blamed for changing Carole to his liking. After all, before they got serious, she was a lounge lizard, a party animal, the go-to girl for a good time in Hollywood. After falling for Clark, she started hunting, fishing, skeet shooting, gardening and farming with the best of them. She always said, “Whatever makes my Pappy happy!” I don’t see Clark forcing her to do these things—really, do you think Carole was the type that could be forced to do anything?!–I think she wanted to be the ideal woman for Clark and she really wanted him to be happy. And every once in a while he did put…
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Movie of the Month: No Man of Her Own
No surprise, since we’re having Carole Lombard month, that this month’s movie is the only Clark and Carole film, No Man of Her Own, from 1932. Thanks to the legendary romance of Clark and Carole that would begin about four years later, this film has now become a fan favorite, whereas maybe if Clark’s co-star hadn’t been Carole it would be dismissed as another soapy melodrama. But actually there is some substance in it, and even overlooking the Clark and Carole legend, it’s a good little pre-code. Clark is Babe Stewart, a womanizing card cheat. As he says to a pining Dorothy Mackaill early on, “You know I’m a hit…
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Clark: Private and Undisclosed!
Few things excite me as much as being told that there are FIVE HOURS of previously unreleased home movies of Clark that were found! It is true! I received an email last week from Michelle Morgan, who is the author of the 2007 book Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed. She is helping produce a documentary and corresponding book on Clark, using aforementioned footage. The footage includes Carole Lombard, as well as him hunting and fishing, and military footage. Michelle descibes the project as “exploring Clark through the eyes of those who knew him best.” It should be completed in 2011. You can follow the project yourself on her blog: www.ClarkGableProject.blogspot.com I, for one, can not…
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“Happy Birthday Dear Ma…”
Today is Carole Lombard’s 102nd birthday! To celebrate, here’s an interesting item printed in January 1941: When bigger and better pranks are played in Hollywood, you can be sure of one thing–Gable and Lombard will play ’em. When Lombard’s birthday rolled around, Gable had made an enormous cake carefully iced on top–“To Ma–on her 75th Birthday”. When Carole cut the cake, imagine her surprise to hear coming from the cake’s innards a conversation between Clark and a friend. “Now Clark, the gag is for you to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Carole.” “What? Me sing? Nothing doing,” said Gable’s voice. “Next thing you know the studio will have me in singing films.”…
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Gossip Friday: Mr. Popularity
From November 1940: Whenever Clark Gable makes a picture his portable dressing room becomes a second Grand Central Station. All the publicity boys, the newspaper boys, his stand-in, make-up boy, and as many of the cast and crew as possible gather in his dressing room for bits of food and gossip. Poor Clark has to go out in the back alley to learn his lines. When Carole Lombard arrived at the studio the other day to visit her popular spouse, she found the gang making coffee and passing around cookies in his dressing room. She had a cup of coffee and a cookie herself, then made the boys clean up…
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Scandalously Unmarried!
If you’ve read any biography of Clark or Carole, you’ll come across a mention of a certain Photoplay Magazine article titled “Hollywood’s Unmarried Husbands and Wives”. This seemingly innocent article caused quite an earthquake among the studios. It lists Hollywood couples who conduct themselves as if they are married—but they aren’t! The article scolds: And that, it seems, would point a lesson to the unique coterie of Hollywood’s unwed couples—Bob Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck, who could get married if they really wanted to; George Raft and Virginia Pine, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable and the other steady company couples who might swing it if they tried a little harder. You…