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Gossip Friday: It’s Going to Be Murder
From February 1950: Clark Gable hasn’t been in the Metro commissary since he wed. He did show up once in the studio barber shop. Clark’s got a pretty fair idea of what his buddies will do to him. Its going to be murder. Among other things, he’ll get an Ashley crest gone rusty with a note: “Maybe you can shine it up and use it on your car door like Doug Fairbanks did when he was married to Sylvia.” Clark’s next-door neighbor in the valley was asked if he wouldn’t sell his home. Seems Sylvia wants it for her sister, husband and two children.
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85 Years Ago, On the Set of Gone with the Wind…
85 years ago today, the newspapers were reporting what was going on on the the set of the hotly-anticipated Civil War drama. Gone with the Wind Cast Loses Self-Consciousness by Harrison Carroll Hollywood, April 29–Some of the self-consciousness has worn off the “Gone with the Wind: company and they are now having fun just as if they were making an ordinary picture instead of an American classic. This week, they are shooting the scene in the library of the Wilkes plantation, Twelve Oaks, where Scarlett discovers that Rhett Butler had overheard her confession of love to Ashley. In sudden anger, Vivien Leigh tosses a vase at Clark Gable, who is…
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Gossip Friday: First Quarrel
From October 1939: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are said to have had their first quarrel. Seems Clark won’t use the tonic on his hair Carole bought for him.
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Gossip Friday: Didn’t Have a Chance
From January 1950: Yep, Clark Gable and Sylvia Ashley stole a march on everyone. Five days before the wedding, one scribe wrote that Clark had been seeing Sylvia frequently, “but it is no romance. Neither Sylvia nor Clark is marriage minded. Sylvia ever has cared for anyone but Douglas Fairbanks and Clark cannot forget Carole Lombard.” On Clark’s wedding day, a friend moaned to me, “It’s bad, but it would have been worse had he married Paulette Goddard.” Well that’s debatable. Another friend said, “Sylvia didn’t have a chance when he was wooing Dolly O’Brien, who kept saying no; but when Sylvia returned here three months ago, she rolled up…
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Gossip Friday: The Honeymoon is Over
From May 1939: That the honeymoon is over when the bride goes back to work is the reputed observation of some evidently petty-minded anti-domestic philosopher. Only last week, for instance, a young bride went back to work in high glee after a weekend honeymoon with the statement that for her, the honeymoon would last forever. She was Mrs. Clark Gable, nee Carole Lombard, and she went back to cinema work at RKO Rdio Studio to star with Cary Grant and Kay Francis in “Memory of Love,” a story of a man married to a woman who doesn’t love him, who is determined to hold him even against his insistent demands…
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Gossip Friday: Ask to Get
From April 1946: ‘Tis said that Clark Gable is asking for a new contract at Metro that will give him the right to make one independent picture a year. Clark has only to ask, to get, but I hope Clark will call in experts to guide him on choice of story. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, an actor is usually too close to his subject to know what is good for him at the box office. It is hard for him to see the movie as a whole with himself as a unit, and not the entire works.
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85 Years Ago, Meet the Newlyweds
85 years ago today, March 30, 1939, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, married less than 24 hours, posed happily for the press on the lawn of her Bel-Air home. Two things that are misconceptions about that day: 1. No, they did not spend their wedding night in Oatman, Arizona. I don’t know who started that rumor to generate tourism to Oatman, but NO they did not. They drove all night back to Los Angeles. 2. The March 30 pictures were not taken on the lawn of their Encino ranch house. They were still renovating and had not moved in yet. The newlyweds stayed at Carole’s home on St. Cloud Rd…
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Gossip Friday: Mr. and Mrs. Gable’s First Easter
Happy Anniversary Clark Gable and Carole Lombard! Hollywood’s golden couple officially tied the knot 85 years ago today, March 29, 1939. They eloped to Kingman, Arizona and drove all night back to Los Angeles where they spent the next morning beaming at each other in front of the press, still in their wedding clothes. You can read more about their wedding day here. A month later, the newlyweds spent their first Easter together as a married couple. From April 30, 1939: Easter Sunday found most of Hollywood’s famous celebrating the day at home with their families and friends. Andy Devine used the first Sunday he’s had off in weeks from…
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Gossip Friday: He’s Sorry Now
From April 1939 (gossip columnist Sheilah Graham): Do you recognize Andy Devine in the role of Cupid? Well, take another look. When I talked to him on Paramount’s “Geronimo” set, he told me that he was responsible or the Kingman, Ariz. elopement of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. “Gable called me up the night before and said, ‘Well I think we’re going to do it tomorrow, but we don’t know where. Can you suggest any place?’ ‘Sure,’ I replied, ‘my home town–Kingman, Ariz. And I can get everything fixed for you.’ “But I’m sorry I suggested it now,” Andy added, “they used to say of Kingman–‘this is where Andy Devine…
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Gossip Friday: She’s the High Earner
From April 1939, columnist Sheilah Graham: I have heard many localities wonder how it happened that Carole Lombard earned more than Clark Gable in 1937. Clark is a bigger draw, but Carole was in the happy position of being lent to David Selznick at the rate of $150,000 for “Nothing Sacred,” which is why Carole received $314,000 and Clark $289,000. Both were definitely worth their pay to their employers. Carole made three pictures. “Swing High, Swing Low,” which I did not like personally, but which I am told made money; “True Confession”–very good; and “Nothing Sacred,” a box-office success. Clark’s output of two included the very terrible “Parnell”—but the other…
