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Gossip Friday: Too Many Eggs
From August 1940: Clark Gable’s such a successful farmer that his valley neighbors often drop by for advice on their alfalfa crops. Mrs. G. gets their wives into a huddle and begs them for “recipe counsel” . Seems that Clark, proud of his record-laying hens, likes the fruits of their labor used for his own table. “After you’ve fried, boiled, scrambled, baked and even eaten them raw,” Carole moans, “then what’s to do?” And don’t think she doesn’t slip them a dozen or two!
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{Hollywood} Clark Was Here
Let’s follow Clark around Los Angeles… Culver Studios. Formerly Selznick International Studios, this is where Gone with the Wind was filmed. The white house and manicured gardens are well-remembered as the opening shot of GWTW, then with a white sign in front that said, “A Selznick International Picture.” The scene where Mammy, Prissy and Pork stand in front of Scarlett and Rhett’s enormous Atlanta mansion and exclaim over its size (“Lordy, she sure is rich now!”) was filmed right here, in front of this building, with a matte painting standing in for Scarlett and Rhett’s mansion. Carole Lombard made Nothing Sacred and Made for Each Other here. It was later home…
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{Hollywood} The Academy Library Clears Up a Clark and Carole–Gone with the Wind Mystery
People sure did look at me funny when I said that one of the things I was most looking forward to on my Los Angeles trip was a visit to the library. Sounds strange, but this is not just any library, it’s the Margaret Herrick Library, the library for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars). If you’ve read a bio on a classic star (a reputable one, anyway) bet your bottom dollar they did their research here. They house thousands of original scripts, screenplays, correspondence, you name it. Many, many people have left their personal papers to the library, including Katharine Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Billy Wilder, Esther Williams, …
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{Hollywood} Warner Brothers Studios
All the major studios offer tours: Sony (formerly MGM), Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount. We of course knew we wanted to do MGM (blog post forthcoming), since that was home to Clark and so many other of the “brightest stars”. We wanted to do one other one and it was a toss-up between Warner Brothers and Paramount. We ultimately picked Warner Brothers because it was the highest rated studio tour. We weren’t disappointed. It is a tram tour, but our guide was very knowledgable and I felt he mixed the old with the new quite well. We saw the set of Friends’ Central Perk, the outside set of ER, and heard…
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Until Next Year, Carole…
As Carole Lombard month comes to a close, I’d like to thank everyone for the nice emails I have received about the content this month. Carole is one of the only golden age stars that I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say they didn’t like. It seems she was that way in person too; I don’t recall anyone having anything nasty to say about her. Carole was an important piece of Clark’s life for sure and her death singlehandedly shaped the rest of his life. I’m not so sure he would have joined the Army if not for her death, although Carole might have eventually talked him…
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Gossip Friday: Closed Set
From March 1937: People thought Carole Lomabrd was going Garbo on them when she had the ‘Swing High, Swing Low” set closed to visitors. As a rule the Lombard sets are wide open to anyone with a pass and a desire to watch Lombard antics. But when “Swing High, Swing Low” started, nine-tenths of the visitors cornered Carole to ask her about the Clark Gable romance. So now Lombard is behind locked doors where she can keep her romance and her acting to herself. ____ Over 60 new pictures added to the gallery this week!
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Carole This and That
Some fun and random Carole things: Carole recommends this products! Carole in some advertising: (Click to enlarge) Carole’s brother Fred suffered some marital woes…among them, his dogs slept in bed with him instead of his wife and referred to his wife as a “second hand car”! I found this particulary interesting because it confirms that Carole indeed had a nephew…a fact that I hadn’t heard confirmed. Newspaper article from 1942: (Click to enlarge) A cute magazine page advertising Carole’s 1941 film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”: (Click to enlarge) An adorable headshot from her 1941 drama “They Knew What They Wanted”: (Click to enlarge) Gorgeous headshot from a sitting for “Made for…
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Photogenic Clark and Carole
To date, there are nearly 9,500 pictures in the gallery. Of these, the most popular album of the entire gallery is in the “Wives” section. Is it Josephine Dillon at 76 views? No… Is it Sylvia Ashley at 80 views? Nope… Is it Ria Langham at 94 views? Nah… What about Kay Williams at 119 views? Still not… The winner, by a landslide, would be Mrs. Carole Lombard Gable, with 263 views! What is it about these two lovebirds? Maybe the fact that they usually look so happy and carefree and well, in love! I’ve added nine new pictures of Clark and Carole to the gallery today so make sure to log in and…
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{New Article} 1938: What’s Become of the Good Scout?
This article is lamenting the chatterbox lounge lizard Carole of the past–the pre-Clark Carole! Carole is the needle in the Hollywood haystack, and press, public and photographers all find her hard to track down. What’s happened to that good scout who was always available for a laugh, a picture, a gag or a cocktail? That’s what everyone is asking now. And not only us get-arounds in Hollywood, but fans write and want to know, too. “What about Carole? Why no interviews? Has she gone high hat? Where is she? What is she doing?” Well, here it is finally, not the awful truth, but the very acceptable truth which explains briefly,…
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The Mayfair Ball
As Clark and Carole fans all know, the 1936 Mayfair Ball was the site of the beginning of their love story. David O.Selznick (producer of Gone with the Wind) was the president of the Mayfair Club at the time and asked Carole to head up the annual ball, as she was known for throwing the best parties in town. Carole decided to make it a white ball, and all ladies were asked to wear white gowns, and the men white ties. White flowers of every variety filled the room. Tickets were $20 apiece, and for that you got dinner (alcohol was extra though, thankyouverymuch), dancing, a show and some pretty fine…