from August 1941: When Clark Gable takes a vacation he doesn’t fool. Last scenes of “Honky Tonk” in the can,  Clark and Carole Lombard are now somewhere in the wilds of Arizona, not to return to pictures until Dec. 1. Wrapped up in Gable’s $5500-a week contract is a clause specifying a three-month annual vacation to occur at “such a period as prescribed by party of the second part.” The hunting season is always Gable’s choice for the layoff period. Business is combined with pleasure this time. The star hopes to complete a deal, long hanging fire, for 2400 acres  of ranch property in Arizona. Deep in the wilderness, the…

From March 1938: This business of being a famous star has its drawbacks. Last night I covered a big preview and happened to park my car alongside Clark Gable’s.  He and Carole Lombard started for the theatre with me, took one look at the swarming mob of autograph hunters, and stopped short.  “Listen,” begged Gable, “be a friend and get the manager to let us in a side door.” I saw them sneak in and, as the picture neared an end, I saw Gable begin to fidget. With at least a reel of the film still unseen, he suddenly clambered out of his seat and dragged Carole to the side…

From December 1941 (Hedda Hopper): Be Prepared is Motto for Carole and Clark Through these tense days, Carole Lombard has certainly kept the crew and cast on the stage of “To Be or Not to Be” in a howling good humor with all her gags. When I asked her what she’d do if she caught a Japanese parachutist landing on her ranch, she said, “Let ’em come! Pappy and I haven’t been banging away at ducks and skeets all these years for nothing. We’ve put the ranch on a wartime basis, sold a couple of horses, are growing vegetables instead of alfalfa.” Atta girl, Carole! And very soon, too, you’ll…

From February 1941: Xenia, OH–Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, famous movie couple, rate ace high with 29 members of the fifth grade geography class, taught by Miss Hannah McKenzie, in the O.S. and S.O. Home schools.  The youngsters, ranging in age from nine to 11 years, proudly exhibited in their classroom Wednesday six boxes of citrus fruits sent to them by Mr. and Mrs. Gable, in reply to 29 individual letters written by the pupils to the film celebrities. The gift arrived by express and consists of nine varieties of oranges, lemons and other citrus fruits. There were navel and blood oranges, sweet lemons, Myer’s lemons, Ponderosa lemons (about the…

From September 1940: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have just taken a census of the pets at their ranch. They find they now have five dogs and 14 cats. The dogs are all hunting dogs but the cats, beginning with two to hunt gophers, just “assembled.”

From October 1941: Watertown, South Dakota–With a promise that they will return again to hunt in South Dakota, Clark Gable and his actress wife, Carole Lombard, were preparing this morning to leave for home. They planned to go by automobile this afternoon to Sioux Falls where they will take a plane for the west coast. Their original plans to leave from Watertown by plane were upset by weather. Both were enthusiastic over South Dakota pheasants and ducks after hunting every day during their five day visit here.

From January 1941: Nashville, TN: Gable, Lombard Smilingly Give Autographs in Stopover Here Clark Gable and Carole Lombard smilingly gave autographs and had a cheery greeting for nearly a hundred persons who had gathered to see the movie stars in their brief stopover at Berry Airport last night. The two were en route to Hollywood via American Airlines from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore where Gable underwent an operation for an abscessed tooth and where Mrs. Gable had taken a room to be near him.  They were accompanied by Howard Strickling, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer representative, who said Gable’s next starring vehicle will be “Soapy Smith,” a roistering romance of the Colorado mineral…