-
Gossip Friday: Pays on Time
From March 1932: Well, well, well, Mrs. Clark Gable certainly pays her bills on time. She was in Magnin’s shortly after the first of January and gave the saleslady a check to take to the accounting department to see if it checked with the store’s figures of what she owed them. She had kept track of her bill and brought in the check before she received an accounting! And was she getting attention! Seven salesladies hovering over her at once. And the customers whispering to each other, “That’s Mrs. Clark Gable.” I couldn’t help but remember Clark’s remark, “And a year ago I could have walked down Hollywood Boulevard munching…
-
Gossip Friday: Theme Song?
From August 1932: Professor, please strike up “Falling in Love Again!” It’s the Clark Gable theme song! About a week after the missus got back from New York and the Gables decided to let bygones be gone-byes, they tooled off on a second honeymoon. Away to sun-kissed Del Monte for a month, there to golf, fish and ride horsies. No parties–no social fuss. Just Clark and the madame getting together again. And also it gives “What a Man” a chance to recuperate from a bad case of flu which smacked him down not long ago.
-
Gossip Friday: Inseparable
From July 1936: Now, what’s all this between Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, anyway? It’s getting so you can’t hear or read about one without hearing about the other at the same time, too. They guffaw loudly at romance-whisperers, and they deny there’s anything to it–and yet they’re about as inseparable as a couple of newlyweds! (And, incidentally, wouldn’t they make a swell pair of brand-new-mr-and-mrs?) Latest double appearance was at the circus, when it played Hollywood–and Clark and Carole were as much eyed, if not more, than the rest of the show, the night they hand-in-handed it in the big top! Marry?–heck, I wouldn’t bet a tin dime on…
-
Gossip Friday: Things That May Never Happen?
From October 1932: Things that may never happen: That threatened Constance Bennett retirement. That Clark Gable divorce. A movie comeback for Alice White. A wolf at Charlie Chaplin’s door. ___ Well. Constance Bennett didn’t retire from the screen until 1966. Clark and second wife Ria divorced in 1939. Alice White worked pretty steadily through the 1930’s, puttered out in the 40’s. And I don’t know what they mean by the Charlie Chaplin comment. Might be about the fact he was reluctant to do talkies….which we all know he eventually did.
-
{New Article} 1936: Gable’s New Freedom
This article, from 1936, arrived on newsstands after it had been announced that Clark Gable and his second wife, Ria Franklin, were divorcing. “The only possession I have ever craved, the only goddess I can serve faithfully for all my life is freedom!” So said Clark Gable. “I’m a tramp at heart,” he continued. And with these words he gave the real “inside” story of himself, of all that he wants from life, even of the marital events recently headlined and hysterics-lined. For though Clark, in due course of time, will be “in circulation” again—he won’t be. Not really. He looked magnificent as he sat there, in his dressing room.…
-
Gossip Friday: Waiting It Out
From November 1938: Clark Gable, rumored to be building a mansion in the valley, denies this with “I’m not building anything until I know exactly what’s happening.” He can be referring only to his long held-up divorce from Mrs. Rhea Gable.
-
Gossip Friday: Take a Hint
From December 1938, Walter Winchell’s column: Mrs. Clark Gable speaks up: “I am still the wife of Clark Gable, the question of a divorce has never even been broached to me!” Gable hasn’t lived under the same roof with you for years–can’t you take a hint? ___ That’s hilarious, nobody puts it quite Winchell! Despite what a lot of bad biographies and terrible films will have you believe, the movie-going public and the press wasn’t scandalized by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s romance and sympathizing with poor Ria Gable. Quite the opposite–they found Ria to be an old battle ax and wanted nothing more than her out of the way…
-
{New Article} 1935: Gable Selects The Ten Most Attractive Women
This article is from 1935 and is a fluffy piece in which Clark Gable is asked to select the ten most attractive women in Hollywood. I have a bit of difficulty believing that this article is quoting Clark verbatim as it includes the following sentence: “A woman’s features may be perfectly moulded, her skin a peach-blown dream and her body perfect, but unless her character shines through, she can never be truly beautiful. It takes more than mere perfection of face and figure for a woman to be beautiful.” Can anyone imagine Clark saying “her skin a peach-blown dream” ???? Me neither. At first Clark picks the ideal characterisitics these…
-
{New Article} 1934: Clark Gable’s Real Family Life!
Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing new-to-the-site articles from the year 1934. We’ll start out with this one, which proclaims with an exclamation point that it’s about Clark Gable’s Real Family Life! A rather deceptive title. Clark at this time was a superstar; 1934 saw him win national acclaim for his performance in It Happened One Night, and his films with Joan Crawford that year had been hits. His studio, MGM, was not too pleased that their manly man star that had women falling at his feet came with a much older, matronly wife with two kids in tow. But that’s what they had to work with, so…
-
Gossip Friday: Pending Engagement
From August 1938: Clark Gable’s second wife, Rhea, has accepted his financial compromise and Mr. Gable will announce his engagement to Carole Lombard before the end of this year. ___ Not so much, as the divorce was not final until March 1939.
