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Gossip Friday: Cigar Squabble
From November 1938: The pretty brunette who works the cash register at the Beverly Hills Brown Derby reports, “Clark Gable and Carole Lombard come in, usually arguing about the silliest things. The other night it was about what kind of cigar Clark should have as an after-dinner smoke.”
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Gossip Friday: Hoping to Baffle
From November 1941: Hoping to baffle autograph hunters, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard gave out three destinations–all wrong–for their current hunting trip. Only star with a “hunting clause” in his contract, Gable is due back December 1 to do “Cimarron,” a remake of the pioneer story which revived Richard Dix and rocketed Irene Dunne to a feminine top spot. ____ That’s interesting. Clark never was in a remake of “Cimarron” and it was not remade until 1960!
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Gossip Friday: Nice to Meet You
From 1948: Deborah Kerr: “It’s been told before, but I think it bears repeating–how I got to meet Clark Gable, with whom I starred in my first American picture, THE HUCKSTERS. I was introduced to him at the studio, but not by any of its officials; instead, by my own husband! Imagine Tony not ever telling me that he and Clark were old friends, having worked together when Clark was a member of the US Army Air Force in England! We were in Mr. Mayer’s office when Clark strode in. I took a quick breath and prepared to be my most charming self, but before anyone could say anything, Clark…
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Gossip Friday: Not Very Romantic
From October 1933: The very romantic Clark Gable doesn’t like being the very romantic Clark Gable because he isn’t the very romantic Clark Gable. This business of being a great lover is exactly that to Gable–just business. It annoys him to have to look dark and romantic and be the object of worship from giddy women. “Do you find that a nuisance in some way?” I asked Gable. “In every way,” he retorted. “You just can’t have any private life or go anywhere without having to run the gauntlet. That’s all right for the guys who like it, but I don’t.” Gable prefers seclusion and Getting Away From It All.…
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Gossip Friday: Best Dressed Man
From December 1935: Virginia Bruce Fires Broadcast at Men’s Dress Virginia Bruce fired a broadside at Hollywood men’s fashions yesterday. Declaring that men, much more than women, are “slaves to convention” in the matter of dress, the blonde player said she was “disgusted” with formal dark business suits, shoes and hats for every day wear. She held Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Jack Oakie were outstanding “best dressed men” of Hollywood–because they are entirely informal and know how to wear light colors and contrasting shades becomingly.” Men, she said, may belittle women because of their fondness for accessories, but men would be much more attractive if they adopted some of…
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Gossip Friday: Nobody Like Clark Gable
From 1947 (Louella Parsons): Say what you will, there’s nobody like Clark Gable. With his charm, it will be a long time before the King is displaced. Younger men have come along to dazzle the gals, but none has yet hit with the force of a Gable. Oh, sure–there have been times when Clark has miffed me, and long periods would go by when we didn’t see one another. But it is impossible to be in his company more than a split second, and not fall under his fascinating spell again. Not long ago, he came to see me and we had a grand time drinking coffee in the garden…
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Gossip Friday: Not Taking Credit
From January 1940: Miss Josephine Dillon, first wife of Clark Gable, is newly appointed dramatics instructor at Christian College, Columbia, Mo. [She says] Clark had a number of faults when she began coaching him. For two things, there were his ears, as someone suggested to her. His voice was too high. “All athletic men, Dempsey, Weismueller and others, have high voices,” she observed. “Then, too, the greatest fault was Clark had a big body and he didn’t know how to handle it. He also had the accent of that part of Ohio from which he came.” Miss Dillon fixed up everything except the ears, but she refused to take credit…
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Gossip Friday: His Biggest Fan
From September 1940: It takes more than bombs to keep a Gable fan down. The star has just received from a girl in Lancashire, England, a cigarette case inscribed: “To Clark Gable–from his most ardent English fans.” While blitzkrieg impended, she went on to explain she has 10,000 photos of him, 172 magazine articles, 1,434 press clippings, 62 biographies and two authentic signatures of Gable. ___ No, that was not me. I promise I was not alive in 1940!
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Gossip Friday: Why the Sudden Crush?
From June 1943: Clark Gable says that Mickey haunted him for two weeks once. He followed Gable all over the lot. When Gable looked up from his bowl of special chicken soup in the studio commissary, Mickey’s eyes were bored into Gable’s face. Clark couldn’t figure it out. Why the sudden crush? The mystery was solved when Rooney did a devastating impersonation of Clark on the screen. “I had to look away a couple of times when I saw it,” Gable said. “He was more like me than I am like myself. I recognized mannerisms that I did not know I had.” Incidentally, it got Clark over these same mannerisms.
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Gossip Friday: Mighty Pleased
From February 1949: We hear that Clark Gable would be mighty pleased if Marilyn Maxwell would say yes to a request for a date. Seems Clark tried but failed to get a date with the blonde singer. Whatever happened to Marilyn’s planned marriage to Mike North? ______ Marilyn Maxwell had a small role in Key to the City with Clark. And they did date for a little bit!
