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Gossip Friday: A Fan’s Plea to the Widower
A reader’s letter in a fan magazine, from August 1942: An Open Letter to Clark Gable Dear Clark, First of all, I want to extend to you my deepest sympathy. I can imagine, to some small degree, how much Carole meant to you, how you miss her cheery companionship, her contagious sportsmanship. We’ll all miss her—so please feel that we are eager to share your sorrow. But I want to ask you to think of us—the millions of your friends and hers—and beg you not to make that loss twofold. We can’t bring Carole back, but we can try to persuade you not to leave us. Won’t you please…
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Remembering Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard Gable died 72 years ago today, in a horrific plane crash. She was 33 years old. It’s always difficult to realize that she died such a long time ago, as she always comes across as so modern. This memorial article from Hollywood magazine sums her up quite nicely. Rather than being sappy about her death, it is rather a tribute to the person that she was. “This Was Carole,” Hollywood magazine, April 1942: Carole Lombard was a great woman. The president of the United States paid tribute to her and the service she gave her country in time of need. International press associations wrote in praise of her and named…
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Holiday Wishes from Clark Gable and Carole Lombard
Happy Holidays to all!
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Gossip Friday: Santa Checks Up on Good Boys and Girls
In the January 1935 issue of Hollywood magazine, they printed “Santa’s book” of good and bad points for film stars. So who’s getting what they wanted for Christmas and who is getting coal? CLARK GABLE Good Points: For giving is It Happened One Night. Being always thoughtful of others. When a friend had no place to keep her dog, he gave it a home on his ranch. Bad Points: Balks at picture assignments with women stars. Drives studio frantic by disappearing between pictures, when he is wanted for story conferences. Gifts: More dogs to take care of CAROLE LOMBARD Good Points: Proved she could act in Twentieth Century. Came…
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{New Article} 1937: The Utterly Balmy Home Life of Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was wacky. This was an adjective that would be used to describe her for years and, I think, often exaggerated. I know she did have a menagerie of animals and liked to play pranks, but I doubt her home was a virtual funhouse every day of the year. BUT this is a cute article anyway, describing the crazy antics of Carole’s humble abode. Take—if you can stand it! Carole Lombard’s household— There’s Carole and Fieldsie, her secretary-pal-confidante-companion-advisor-manager-sparring-partner-critic-et-cetera; then there’s two dachshunds, one bantam rooster, six doves, two ducks, one Pekinese named “Pushface the Killer,” two hens, one cocker spaniel, three goldfish, one cat named “Josephine,” which insists on…
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Gossip Friday: Carole Lombard–Mrs. Kanin?
From January 1941: [When Garson Kanin was directing Carole] in “They Knew What They Wanted,” he’d say when he wanted her in a sad mood: “Just imagine you had married me instead of Gable.” [He] says it always worked!
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{New Article} 1939: Lombard Unlimited
She’s harum-scarum, she dances in the park at three A.M., she dotes on practical jokes, she hates pink, and she’s so impulsive she almost lives behind the eight-ball. Meet Carole, screw-ball comedian, dramatic actress, and radio’s new star. Continuing in our Carole Lombard theme for the month of October, here’s one from 1938. This article is from Radio Mirror magazine and was written to promote the fact that Carole was a newly minted radio star on the new Kellogg-sponsored program “The Circle.” Well, unfortunately for Radio Mirror, Carole left the show just a few weeks after it premiered, so calling her the new radio star is a bit foolish. But, nonetheless, it’s…
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Gossip Friday: Joke’s on Clark
From December 1940: The town is chuckling over a gag that Carole Lombard recently pulled on Clark Gable. Clark couldn’t see the humor of the prank, they say, and he left the gathering in a huff. He and Carole were entertaining some friends at dinner and afterwards say down to see some home movies. Instead of the usual color shots of mountain streams and snow-clad peaks there appeared on the screen the first test Clark ever made for MGM. He was playing a native lover in nothing but a loin cloth and a hibiscus back of his ear. Gable couldn’t take it, but his guests had a hilarious evening running…
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{Photos} Clark Gable and Carole Lombard on a Picnic
By 1938, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were madly in love, and everyone knew it. The stories of “Will Their Romance Last?” were starting to dissapate and the “When Will Ria Gable Give Clark the Divorce so These Lovebirds Can Marry?” stories were roaring. So, no surprise, Carole was Clark’s date to the annual MGM company picnic that year (I think I am mostly surprised Clark attended at all–maybe Carole convinced him to be a good sport?). The pictures of them from this event are some of my very favorites. Clad casually in sweaters and Carole with very little make-up and her hair pushed off her face, they look like…
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Gossip Friday: Keeping Miss Lombard Waiting
From May 1941: Chief among the 1941 Academy Award winners whose name does not appear on the official honors list is your present correspondent, who won an Oscar for perpetrating the outstanding bonehead play of the year. In the interests of her millions of fans he arranged to interview Miss Carole Lombard. A rendezvous was promised in a quiet sitting room on a side street in Beverly Hills for a certain Thursday. The hour, the date and the place were as clear as a blueprint in his mind. He thought. The momentous day arrived. Your correspondent, methodical as ever, leaped into his motor car well ahead of schedule and went…