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{New Article} 1940: Two Happy People Part II
This article is the second in a series of four articles about Clark and Carole that appeared in Movie and Radio Guide in May 1940. You can read Part Three here. Mr. Gable has a seven-year contract with MGM for $2,000,000. He has Carole Lombard! Gentlemen, if luck does that to a man, then here’s one fellow who begins today to make his troth with Lady Luck. We have an idea that ability and hard work had something to do with Mr. Gable’s success. Luck may get a man to the top, but luck can’t keep him there. “Have you met Mrs. G?” Mr. Gable asked. “She’s not working right…
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A Photographer’s View on Gone with the Wind and Carole Lombard
In 1940, Fred Parrish, a well-known Hollywood photographer, mused on some of his favorite moments. Gone with the Wind For a scene of the evacuation of Atlanta in GWTW, a horse-drawn ammuniton wagon was to come down the street and explode just as the horse passed [a lamp post]. I picked the safe side of the street, but when the bomb in the wagon went off, the horse went the wrong way so fast he made Seabiscuit look sick. If it had not been for the iron safety bowl used in the wagon, I would have been blown right off the lot! I’ll bet the hardest work [Clark Gable] ever…
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{Photos} Kiss Me, Clark
I’m sure you’ve heard the song by the Postal Service, which is titled “Clark Gable.” The line that features his name is “I’ll kiss you in a way Clark Gable would have admired.” Say what you want about Clark and his acting limitations, but that man was a born onscreen lover! Rosalind Russell recalled: “The only man who could make a love scene comfortable was Clark Gable. He was born graceful, he knew what to do with his feet and when he took hold of you, there was no fooling around.” Let’s get a lesson in the fine art of onscreen lip locking from Mr. Gable himself…
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{Rumor Mill} Clark Gable and Lana Turner
Clark Gable has been linked to a lot of women. Pretty much every co-star he ever had in the 1930’s was labeled as his off-screen romance too. Sometimes, in the case of Joan Crawford or Elizabeth Allan, it was true. Other times, in the case of Myrna Loy or Jean Harlow, it was not. But there’s one costar of his that seems to be a point of contention: Lana Turner. Lana, Clark’s pretty blonde co-star in Honky Tonk, Somewhere I’ll Find You, Homecoming and Betrayed, was known for dating her co-stars. Married seven times, she also reportedly had a flirtation with Robert Taylor, had an affair with Tyrone Power, hit the nightclubs with…
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Gossip Friday: Good Lux from Carole
From September 1936: The latest gag present from Lombard to Gable was delivered to a somewhat bewildered Mr. G. at the close of a radio broadcast in which he was appearing in a dramatic skit with Marlene Dietrich. Just as the show ended an attendant brought in a huge floral horseshoe–the kind gangsters used to send their deceased colleagues. The card from Carole read “Good Lux.”
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Goodbye, Carole
Carole Lombard Gable died 70 years ago today. Amazing to think that it has been that long, as Carole left in her wake films and tales that seem so modern. I’ve often thought you could drop Carole down in this day and age and she wouldn’t miss a beat. There is no denying that her death infintely shaped Clark Gable’s life from that day on. He was different…and he was never quite the same. From “The Story Gable Wouldn’t Tell”, Modern Screen magazine, November 1942: Dorothy Canfield Fisher once wrote a story about a girl whose parents’ love and dependence on each other grew with every passing year. Then her…
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Gossip Friday: Puss in Splints
From January 1941: Latest freak at the Gable-Lombard zoo (which is what Hollywood is calling that amazing San Fernando Valley ranch of the stars) is a cat with one hind leg in splints! Seems that Clark and Carole have no less than twenty cats about the place—and the population is going up steadily. But even so, the famous couple can’t find the heart to dispose of any of them, no matter how steady the rate of production. And when one of them meets disaster—well, the other day one of the cats got in a trap and came out with a broken leg. Instead of having her killed, Carole and Clark…
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Gossip Friday: Beauty Shop Chatter
From May 1940: Carole Lombard was at Westmore’s the other day having her hair shampooed and waved. After the star had left, Miss Lombard’s hairdresser took her next appointment–a woman almost too excited to talk. “Tell me all about her,” begged the customer. “Is she going to have a baby like the newspapers say? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Clark and Carole had a baby? Why, America would go wild!” ________ Shucks, I, for one, am so sad that never happened. Wouldn’t it be something if there was a person walking around today, probably in their 60’s, who was half Clark and half Carole? Talk about hitting the genetic lottery.…
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Snowed in with Clark
Clark Gable never made a Christmas movie. Not even a movie with a legitimate Christmas scene! Surprising but true. So, we’ll have to settle for some shots of Clark in the snow to make things festive around here…
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Gossip Friday: Roughing it
From February 1939: Clark Gable’s hunting paraphernalia is really something to look at. His sleeping bag is made with an extra-thick downy mattress. His gun cases were given to him by Carole Lombard. They are made of hand-carved leather. The deer gun case has hand-carved deer for decoration. The duck gun case is finished off with hand-carved ducks. Clark usually hunts up Bakersfield way and Carole often goes along. She’s such a crack shot, she usually gets the limit a few minutes after her arrival. So she spends the rest of her time playing retriever for Clark. And they used to call this “roughing it!”