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Gossip Friday: Up For Sale
From September 1941: The beautiful ranch home of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard is for sale. The asking price is to be $130,000. The reason? The Gables have bought a ranch in Ventura county. They plan to build there and raise about 1200 head of cattle. They’d like to make only one picture a year, preferably both at the same time. During that period they’d rent an apartment in Beverly Hills. And once upon a time Carole was known as a party girl! ___ The ranch was on and off the market in 1941. After Carole’s death, Clark put it back up for sale, but could never bring himself to…
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Gossip Friday: His Best Girl
From July 1936: And whom do you think Clark Gable took to the circus? None other than Carole Lombard. And it’s a well known fact that the boys always take their best girls to the circus.
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Gossip Friday: Teaming Up
From April 1940: 1940 is going to be a great year for husband wife teams. Joan Blondell and Dick Powell start things going in April when they co-star in “I Want a Divorce” for Paramount. Then Metro will follow with a picture co-starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, and another with Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck. ___ Shame that never happened!
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Remembering Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard Gable died 73 years ago today, at the young age of 33. Her sudden death in a plane crash shocked the nation, stunned Hollywood and devastated her husband. This article that was published a few months after Carole’s death, appears in the Article Archive, What the Loss of Carole Lombard Means to Clark Gable: Gable was working on that fateful afternoon of January 16, 1942. He felt wonderful about it. He’d had five months lay-off since the production of “Honky Tonk,” the longest vacation he’d experienced since his first real click in 1931. It was swell to be back and he liked the new picture. It was…
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Merry Christmas, from Carole to Clark
75 years ago, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were celebrating their very first Christmas as a married couple. To commemorate the occasion, Carole gifted Clark with a silver cup: The item was recently auctioned, with an estimate of $400-$600 and ended up going for $3,250! The auction listing stated: Silver loving-cup trophy attributed as a 1939 Christmas gift from Carole Lombard to Clark Gable. (Dec. 25, 1939) Silver “loving-cup” style trophy, 10 x 11 in. (on later-added octagon scallop base for lamp conversion) engraved “Carole to Clark” 12-25-1939” and attributed by recent owner Billie Nelson Tyrrell of the Antique Doll Emporium as a Christmas 1939 gift from…
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Gone with the Wednesday: Repost–Gone with the Wind Hits Los Angeles
This week, here is a repost of a post I did in 2010 detailing the Los Angeles premiere of Gone with the Wind, which took place December 29, 1939. Carole Lombard, in a gold gown, was the belle of the ball on Clark Gable’s arm! See who else attended and what the wore… http://dearmrgable.com/?p=591
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Gone with the Wednesday: Merry Christmas from David O. Selznick
Clark Gable and Gone with the Wind producer David O. Selznick didn’t exactly always see eye-to-eye (to put it mildly), but nonetheless David let bygones be bygones and gifted Clark with this gorgeous Tiffany’s cigarette case for Christmas in 1939: “Presented to Clark Gable at the completion of “Gone with the wind” Atlanta–Dec. 25, 1939 David O. Selznick.” I wonder if he gave it to him at the Atlanta premiere, which was just ten days before Christmas? The case went for $20,000 at auction a few years back (complete with the unfiltered cigarettes). Quite a priceless artifact! Here’s hoping maybe it pops up in a museum one day…
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Gone with the Wednesday: 45 Atlanta Premiere Facts
1. Tickets for the premiere went on sale at Loews Grand Theater on November 18, 1939. 2. The premiere festivities lasted from December 13-15, 1939. 3. Ann Rutherford (Careen O’Hara) was the first star to arrive, on December 13. She was given the key to the city. 4. One of Ann’s first stops was at the Atlanta Journal newspaper offices, where she requested to see where Margaret Mitchell worked. She had her picture taken at the typewriter Ms. Mitchell used. 5. Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O’Hara) arrived on December 13, accompanied by Olivia de Havilland (Melanie Wilkes), Mr. and Mrs. Selznick and Laurence Olivier. 6. Evelyn Keyes (Suellen O’Hara) and Ona Munson (Belle…
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Very Sincerely Yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt
After Pearl Harbor, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were scared, like most Americans, and felt they should do something for their country. They wasted no time in sending President Roosevelt a letter and telling him of their willingness to help in any way, shape or form. On December 16, 1941, he wrote them the following letter: Dear Carole and Clark Gable: Many, many thanks for your fine letter of December tenth. It is most encouraging to have this pledge of loyal support, as well as the assurance of your desire to be of service in this time of grave crisis. For the present, at least, I think you can both…
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{New Article} 1939: The Clark Gables at Home
What we have here is a largely fictional article written to prove that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard had a simple home life–just like you do, the American public! When Clark and Carole bought that ranch and set up their home miles from Hollywood, spending time feeding chickens and mowing grass rather than attending premieres, the studio publicity depts and fan magazines decided to just play that up. So what you find are endless amounts of articles about their rustic domestic tranquility. This one is written by “Liza,” one of those first-name-only fan magazine writers that is probably not a real person. Nonetheless, it’s a cute little article: I drove…