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Clark Gable and Carole Lombard–Married, Married At Last
On March 29, 1939, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were finally married, after three years of will-they-or-won’t-they by the press and their fans. Clark, who emerged on the Hollywood scene just eight years earlier, had been saddled down with an older wife nobody could quite figure out and some secret lovers the press helped him keep hidden. Carole, around Hollywood since her teens, had long been America’s beloved screwball and everyone was breathlessly anticipating her next chapter. Here is Photoplay magazine wishing Carole best wishes on her new role as Mrs. Gable: The little guy who spills the moonlight Over every garden trail, Who plugs our hearts with silver…
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1939 Newlyweds
Since Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married 74 years ago this week, here is a vintage article I found that lists the celebrity couples that were newlyweds in 1939. So let’s see who else would be celebrating 74 years together this year… Ronald Colman and Benita Hume They were included in this article, but apparently they were married in September 1938, so not sure why they were included but… Benita was Ronald’s second wife. They were married until his death in 1958, and had one daughter, Juliet. Nelson Eddy and Ann Denitz Married in January 1939, celebrated singer Nelson and Ann were married until his death in 1967. They had no…
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Gossip Friday: Bets on Clark and Carole
Since Clark and Carole were married 74 years ago this month, here’s one from November 1936: London, of all places, has the cutest new betting game. They’re betting, over there, on whether or not certain film couples will marry! ! ! They’ve even got a set of standard odds, like this: even bet that Bob Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck will wed; 90 to 1 against George Brent taking the leap with Garbo; 5 to 1 that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard will; 10 to 1 that Bill Powell and Jean Harlow won’t; 5 to 3 that Ann Sothern becomes Mrs. Roger Pryor; 7 to 4 against the Jackie Coogan-Betty Grable…
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Gossip Friday: Earthquake!
On March 10, 1933, “The Long Beach Earthquake” hit Los Angeles. From May 1933: Hollywood came through the earthquake practically unscathed. Long Beach and Compton business districts, only a score of miles away, were virtually demolished. But the sustained temblor, which wrecked these cities, caused Hollywood to shake up on its foundations, and people rushed panic-stricken into the streets. No one knew when the buildings, swaying like trees in a gale, would fall upon them. Hollywood was plenty scared. Broadway stage folk who had recently arrived stood with white faces and open mouths, terrifiedly wishing themselves back in New York. And those who had lived in Hollywood all their lives…
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Gossip Friday: Good Day for Golf
From September 1940: Living in Hollywood is more or less like renting a perpetual reserved room in a madhouse. At 8am of a Sunday this journalist drove to Fox Hills golf course for his usual weekly game, still half asleep. Approaching the first tee he saw a mob of strange creatures emerge from the morning fog, accompanied by unearthly sounds of catcalls, screeching sirens and exploding guns. Any sane person would have gone home. We hung around. Presently there appeared Clark Gable, Bob Taylor, Carole Lombard, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy and other celebrities. It turned out to be the annual MGM golf tournament. When Mickey stepped up for his first…
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{CMBA Films of the 1940’s Blogathon} February Movie of the Month: Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942)
This month, as Movie of the Month as well as my submission to the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Film of the 1940’s Blogathon, the focus is on 1942’s Somewhere I’ll Find You. Clark Gable is Jonny Walker and Robert Sterling is Kirk Walker, brothers who work together as war correspondents for a New York newspaper, and are just returning from overseas. They aren’t home for long before they are competing for the affection of Paula Lane (Lana Turner), a reporter who flip-flops between the two. When Paula is sent on assignment to Indochina and disappears, the brothers are commissioned to find her. Once they do find her, Pearl Harbor happens and…
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On Valentine’s Day, Clark Gable Drives Carole Lombard Crazy!
On Valentine’s Day in 1936, Clark Gable was heading to the studio for a day on the set of San Francisco when he found an old, dilapidated Model T Ford in his parking space, painted white with big red hearts on it. The note attached to the steering wheel was unsigned–saying only “You’re driving me crazy!” It could be from nobody but Carole Lombard–the reigning queen of gags. The car had cost her fifteen dollars at a junk yard and five hundred to be decorated and put in working order! Her and Clark had begun quite the flirtation over the past few weeks–at The Mayfair Ball and at Jock Whitney’s house party just…
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{The Brown Derby Restaurant} Part 1: The History
This post is Part One of a series of posts I will be doing regarding Clark Gable’s favorite restaurant in Hollywood, The Brown Derby. The Brown Derby Restaurant was a Hollywood standard. In its heyday, it was as famous and as symbolic of Hollywood as as the Hollywood sign or Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I don’t think I have read a single book on a Hollywood star yet in which the Brown Derby wasn’t mentioned, even in passing. A 1932 article described it as such: The Brown Derby is more than a Hollywood institution. It is not only a place to meet and talk over contracts and plan divorces and further romance under…
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{New Article} 1938: Lombard as She Sees Herself
I try very hard to make sure that, while I have a lot of information about Carole Lombard, this website doesn’t become a Clark and Carole website because it isn’t, after all. I come across a lot of Carole articles and usually if they are before she was with Clark or don’t mention Clark, I don’t include them. When this article was written in 1938, Clark and Carole were very much together, although he doesn’t get too much of a mention. But this article is wonderful and yet somehwat sad; it paints such a lovely picture of Carole–young, vibrant, full of life and talking about looking forward to old age.…
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Gossip Friday: The Grieving Husband
From February 24, 1942: Clark Gable today was expected to report back to work at his studio within a few days to begin work on “Somewhere I’ll Find You.” The production was postphoned indefinitely when the actor’s wife, Carole Lombard, perished in a plane crash in Nevada. From February 27, 1942: Clark Gable did not actually work before the cameras the first two days after returning to MGM for “Somewhere I’ll Find You.” He sat quietly on the set talking to his director, Wesley Ruggles, and watching various scenes. From March 2, 1942: What can Hollywood offer Clark Gable–without Carole Lombard? It certainly can’t tempt him with more money, more fame,…