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Gossip Friday: Number One Guest
From July 31, 1938: Clark Gable is the nation’s Number One guest. Name any kind of a beauty contest, rodeo, festival, benefit or fraternal clam bake and the chances are 10 to 1 Gable has been invited to attend it. Ten percent of the Gable fan mail consists of invitations–conventions, personal appearances, cornerstone layings, graduation ceremonies, banquets and purely social events. It runs a close second to the 12 percent who won’t believe he prefers Carole Lombard to them–and daintily offer their hand and heart in marriage.
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Gossip Friday: You Beat Us
From June 1940: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are confirming the baby item to close friends. They sent one pair of new parents a congratulatory wire saying: “Nice going, you beat us but not by much. ___ Sadly, not true.
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Gossip Friday: Don’t Got Milk
From July 1940: I hate to tell this on Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, nor does it seem possible, but when they built their barn, they bought a cow, which turned out to be a heifer (ingenue to you). Never having had a calf, it couldn’t give milk. Carole learned the truth, and exchanged it for a cow. Then they bought everything that Goes into a first-class commercial dairy, so they would have fresh milk daily.
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Gossip Friday: Our Home is Our Own
From July 1939: There is something of a race on among some hundred or so journalists and magazine writers to get a description of the Clark Gable-Carole Lombard estate. There seems to be a distinct catch in it, or the newlyweds absolutely refuse to have their place photographed in detail. “It isn’t that we want to be mean,” explains Carole, “but we like to feel that our home is our own, and anyway it isn’t finished yet. Possibly it never will be finished. That’s why it keeps us interested.” Gable admits he has always wanted to farm. It has been a suppressed desire for years and now that he has…
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Gossip Friday: First Quarrel
From October 1939: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are said to have had their first quarrel. Seems Clark won’t use the tonic on his hair Carole bought for him.
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Gossip Friday: The Honeymoon is Over
From May 1939: That the honeymoon is over when the bride goes back to work is the reputed observation of some evidently petty-minded anti-domestic philosopher. Only last week, for instance, a young bride went back to work in high glee after a weekend honeymoon with the statement that for her, the honeymoon would last forever. She was Mrs. Clark Gable, nee Carole Lombard, and she went back to cinema work at RKO Rdio Studio to star with Cary Grant and Kay Francis in “Memory of Love,” a story of a man married to a woman who doesn’t love him, who is determined to hold him even against his insistent demands…
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85 Years Ago, Meet the Newlyweds
85 years ago today, March 30, 1939, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, married less than 24 hours, posed happily for the press on the lawn of her Bel-Air home. Two things that are misconceptions about that day: 1. No, they did not spend their wedding night in Oatman, Arizona. I don’t know who started that rumor to generate tourism to Oatman, but NO they did not. They drove all night back to Los Angeles. 2. The March 30 pictures were not taken on the lawn of their Encino ranch house. They were still renovating and had not moved in yet. The newlyweds stayed at Carole’s home on St. Cloud Rd…
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Gossip Friday: Mr. and Mrs. Gable’s First Easter
Happy Anniversary Clark Gable and Carole Lombard! Hollywood’s golden couple officially tied the knot 85 years ago today, March 29, 1939. They eloped to Kingman, Arizona and drove all night back to Los Angeles where they spent the next morning beaming at each other in front of the press, still in their wedding clothes. You can read more about their wedding day here. A month later, the newlyweds spent their first Easter together as a married couple. From April 30, 1939: Easter Sunday found most of Hollywood’s famous celebrating the day at home with their families and friends. Andy Devine used the first Sunday he’s had off in weeks from…
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Gossip Friday: He’s Sorry Now
From April 1939 (gossip columnist Sheilah Graham): Do you recognize Andy Devine in the role of Cupid? Well, take another look. When I talked to him on Paramount’s “Geronimo” set, he told me that he was responsible or the Kingman, Ariz. elopement of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. “Gable called me up the night before and said, ‘Well I think we’re going to do it tomorrow, but we don’t know where. Can you suggest any place?’ ‘Sure,’ I replied, ‘my home town–Kingman, Ariz. And I can get everything fixed for you.’ “But I’m sorry I suggested it now,” Andy added, “they used to say of Kingman–‘this is where Andy Devine…
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Gossip Friday: She’s the High Earner
From April 1939, columnist Sheilah Graham: I have heard many localities wonder how it happened that Carole Lombard earned more than Clark Gable in 1937. Clark is a bigger draw, but Carole was in the happy position of being lent to David Selznick at the rate of $150,000 for “Nothing Sacred,” which is why Carole received $314,000 and Clark $289,000. Both were definitely worth their pay to their employers. Carole made three pictures. “Swing High, Swing Low,” which I did not like personally, but which I am told made money; “True Confession”–very good; and “Nothing Sacred,” a box-office success. Clark’s output of two included the very terrible “Parnell”—but the other…
