• Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Letter from Movita

    From November 1941: Remember Movita, who played in “Mutiny on the Bounty” and who afterwards married Jack Doyle and went to live in England? Clark Gable and Carole Lombard have just received a letter from her. She says she was injured slightly in an air raid last October but that her narrowest escape was more recent–a bomb struck the back of a theater while she and Doyle where on stage.

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Quite the Chicken Rancher

    From March 1939: You’ve never heard of a more enthusiastic rancher than Clark Gable. He has bought 1200 chickens to go with the five that Andy Devine gave him as a gag birthday present, also some pheasant and a plow for the mule, Bessie, the gift of Carole Lombard.

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Not For Sale

    From December 1941: The dilapidated automobile that Carole Lombard gave Clark Gable is “not for sale at any price,” Gable told salesmen and souvenir hunters. Specifically, he refused $1,000 for the ancient chariot. 

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Informality Rules

    From April 1941: If Carole Lombard calls you on the phone and tells you that she and Clark Gable would like to have you come up to their San Fernando ranch for dinner, by all means don’t get yourself all gussied up. When the Gables are at home, informality is the law. Clark likes to loaf around in gray slacks without any semblance of a press. Carole, while always smartly dressed, still gets a big kick out of being garbed like a rancher’s wife.  Don’t tell Clark he is a great actor. He’ll think you’re kidding him. Do suggest seeing his newest car. He’s like a little boy about automobiles and…

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Glare from the Audience

    From January 1938: My eyes are still weak from the glare of the diamond bracelet Clark Gable gave Carole Lombard and which she wore when her hero appeared on a recent Chase and Sanborn broadcast. Carole sat in the control-room for a while watching Gable rehearse. She got so nervous she couldn’t stand it and so spent the rest of the afternoon in the Jack Benny rehearsal studio. As for the comedy spot Gable did with Charlie McCarthy (and which was a dilly, if ever there was one); the star’s managers frowned on the sketch on the grounds that it was undignified but Gable  overrode the negative nods and went…

  • Anniversary

    Happy Anniversary, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

    Clark Gable and Carole Lombard finally tied the knot 77 (can you believe it) years ago today! Associated Press, March 30, 1939: Happy Ending Written to Courtship of Hollywood Stars Fun-loving Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who wrote the long anticipated happy ending to the story of their courtship in a little Arizona town late yesterday, returned early today to the bride’s Bel-Air home. Exhausted by their 750-mile trip, they retired, to wait until later to move into the home on his One-Mule San Fernando Valley ranch which Gable redecorated in preparation for the wedding. Friends were not surprised when news of the ceremony reached here last night, although their…

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Clark and Carole, Together Again?

    From January 1934: Clark Gable and Carole are to be teamed again in “Shoe the Wild Mare.”  ___  Of course that didn’t happen and that film doesn’t exist, but interesting that it was contemplated. Their chemistry didn’t go unnoticed. Too bad Clark and Carole themselves didn’t notice for another two years…