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Nutshell Reviews: Key to the City (1950) and To Please a Lady (1950)
In a Nutshell: Key to the City (1950) Directed by: George Sidney Co-stars: Loretta Young, Frank Morgan Synopsis: 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 to make their relationship work outside the convention. Best Gable Quote: “I don’t start anything I can’t finish. If I tell you I love you, I mean it.” Not-So-Fun Fact: Young and her husband hosted the film’s wrap party at their home on September 18, 1949. It was during the…
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June Movie of the Month: Night Nurse (1931)
This month, Clark Gable is ruthless, one-dimensional Nick the chauffeur to Barbara Stanwyck’s plucky young nurse in Night Nurse. A quintessential pre-code, the film centers around Lora Hart (Stanwyck) as she struggles to keep her ideals while getting through nursing school. After she graduates, she is assigned to be a night nurse to two little girls suffering from malnutrition and anemia. Clark does not appear until halfway through the film and only appears for a few minutes, as Nick, the evil brute of a chauffeur. Lora becomes suspicious of the doctor treating the children and of Nick. Nick throws her around, bullies her and the children say they are scared of…
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Gossip Friday: Comparing Salaries
From September 1940: Players who came to the Hollywood feast early get most of the gravy. The highest salaries go to firmly established stars like these: Clark Gable hits the cash register for about $7,500 weekly, 52 weeks a year, with fat bonuses. Ronald Colman pockets $150,000 per picture, plus 10% of the world gross when it goes over a certain amount–and it usually does. Robert Taylor brings Barbara Stanwyck an envelope containing about $5,000 weekly, plus bonuses. Bette Davis earns not less than $3,500 a week the year round. Deanna Durbin, who blossomed before the economy blight, earns over $2,500 a week, and bonuses. Claudette Colbert draws $150,000 per…
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1939 Newlyweds
Since Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married 74 years ago this week, here is a vintage article I found that lists the celebrity couples that were newlyweds in 1939. So let’s see who else would be celebrating 74 years together this year… Ronald Colman and Benita Hume They were included in this article, but apparently they were married in September 1938, so not sure why they were included but… Benita was Ronald’s second wife. They were married until his death in 1958, and had one daughter, Juliet. Nelson Eddy and Ann Denitz Married in January 1939, celebrated singer Nelson and Ann were married until his death in 1967. They had no…
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Gossip Friday: Bets on Clark and Carole
Since Clark and Carole were married 74 years ago this month, here’s one from November 1936: London, of all places, has the cutest new betting game. They’re betting, over there, on whether or not certain film couples will marry! ! ! They’ve even got a set of standard odds, like this: even bet that Bob Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck will wed; 90 to 1 against George Brent taking the leap with Garbo; 5 to 1 that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will; 10 to 1 that Bill Powell and Jean Harlow won’t; 5 to 3 that Ann Sothern becomes Mrs. Roger Pryor; 7 to 4 against the Jackie Coogan-Betty Grable…
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1938: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Attend the Marie Antoinette Premiere
74 years ago this month, lovebirds Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were among the throngs of celebrities attending the world premiere of MGM’s Marie Antoinette at the Carthay Circle Theater in Hollywood (no longer standing, sadly.) The film has been on MGM’s drawing table for years; a pet project of producer Irving Thalberg, who died in 1936 before a camera ever rolled on the project. His wife, Norma Shearer, was set to be the star of the picture. After her husband’s death, the project was shelved while Norma grieved and was ill with pneumonia. The film finally started production in December 1937 and was a lavish affair, with a $1.8 million budget–practically unheard…
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{Gossip Friday} Mr. Gable Excites Miss Stanwyck
From September 1940: Movie stars must have their little jokes. When Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor did “Nothing Sacred” on a radio broadcast recently they arranged it so that several lines of dialogue would read thusly: Bob says: “Is there nothing that will excite you?” Barbara answers: “Yes, put me in a room with Clark Gable.” Bob then says: “What’s the matter with Robert Taylor?” To which Barbara replies: “I never heard of him.”
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{Photos} Kiss Me, Clark
I’m sure you’ve heard the song by the Postal Service, which is titled “Clark Gable.” The line that features his name is “I’ll kiss you in a way Clark Gable would have admired.” Say what you want about Clark and his acting limitations, but that man was a born onscreen lover! Rosalind Russell recalled: “The only man who could make a love scene comfortable was Clark Gable. He was born graceful, he knew what to do with his feet and when he took hold of you, there was no fooling around.” Let’s get a lesson in the fine art of onscreen lip locking from Mr. Gable himself…
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Gossip Friday: Happy Centennial, Mr. Taylor
Today marks the 100th birthday of one of Clark’s close friends, Robert Taylor. Taylor started gaining fame on the MGM lot in 1936, after appearing in the classic romance Camille with queen of the crop Greta Garbo. His romance with and subsequent marriage to Barbara Stanwyck paralleled Clark and Carole in hype. After adopting a mustache in 1940, he was dubbed “The new King of Hollywood” and “The Next Clark Gable” by the press. There was no rivalry between the two men, despite what fan magazines said. Their ranches were near each other in Encino and they shared the same desire of a simple life. Clark and Carole and Bob and Barbara were fast…
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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…