-
{Photos} Carole Connection: Idiot’s Delight (1939)
Clark Gable and Carole Lombard weren’t married yet when Clark started filming Idiot’s Delight. He had just signed on the dotted line to play Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, but had time to kill before GWTW started. Norma Shearer had personally requested him for the lead in Idiot’s Delight, as she could no longer be counted on to bring in the big crowds based on her name alone. Clark was leery of the film. He had seen the play when it had been in Los Angeles, with Alfred Lunt in the role, and knew it required singing and dancing, neither of which he was confident in doing. Director…
-
Gossip Friday: Holy Toledo!
From December 1941: Since they’ve established that swear kitty on Carole Lombard’s set, her favorite expression has become “Holy Toledo!”
-
{In the News} 1941: Carole Lombard Declares Open Season on Gossipers
Here’s a syndicated newspaper article from October 1941 (similar to this article in the Archive from 1940: “Help Kill Crazy Rumors about Me!”) Carole Lombard Declares Open Season on Gossipers Goes Hunting After Denying She’s Dead or Is to Divorce Clark Gable Hollywood, Oct. 13–Carole Lombard went gunning today, not only for birds with feathers on ’em, but also for the radio oracles who claim she’s about to divorce Clark Gable, or die, or both. Miss Lombard will get the ducks when the season starts Thursday. On the gossipers she has declared open season. They’re causing her phone to ring so much she’s not getting enough sleep. Last week Miss…
-
Movie of the Week: Idiot’s Delight (1939)
You get to watch Clark Gable dance the very best he can and Norma Shearer do her very best Greta Garbo impression in this week’s film, Idiot’s Delight (1939). Gable is Harry Van, a World War I vet and struggling vaudeville performer when he meets Irene (Norma Shearer), while performing in a traveling show in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the assistant to the hilariously inept Madame Zulieka (Laura Hope Crews), she an acrobat. They have a brief romance before going their separate ways. Many years pass as Harry tries different acts and odd jobs in between. Fast forward to 1939 and Harry is on a train in Europe with his current act, Les…
-
Gossip Friday: Better Think Twice
From March 1936: The next time Carole Lombard goes to give anybody a dog, she’ll think twice. The day after she bought a dachshund for Walter Lang, he left for the Orient and deposited the pooch with Carole. Now she has to cart it around the studio with her own two mutts. To make it worse, there is bad blood between Lang’s dachshund and Carole’s Pekingese, “Pushface.”
-
{Photos} No Man of Her Own (1932)
Here’s some pictures from this week’s movie, No Man of Her Own (1932). The portraits from this film are stunning. Although Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were not supposedly romantically involved at the time, the still camera sure did capture a lot of their heat! I think it knew something they didn’t… There’s a few publicity shots of Clark and Carole with Dorothy Mackaill looming strangely over them. And there’s this one, which looks like Clark is about to strangle Carole. On the last day of shooting, notorious prankster Carole gave Clark a ham with his face pasted on it. In return, Clark gave Carole a giant pair of shoes,…
-
{In The News} 1941: Anything for a Laugh
Here’s a little newspaper piece that was too long to be considered a “Gossip Friday” but not quite long enough to be considered a full article really. It goes on for a while at first talking about a man named Vince Barnett, who was “the undisputed top ribber of the movie industry. He has made a career out of being a professional insulter.” From December 1941: The only time Barnett ever got socked was at a party Douglas Fairbanks Jr. gave, with Clark Gable in mind as the victim. Gable was just too quick for them. Barnett was there, this time in the guise of a French film producer. He…
-
Movie of the Week: No Man of Her Own (1932)
Well, it being Carole Lombard Month and all, naturally our first Movie of the Week for October is Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s one and only film together, No Man of Her Own (1932). Gable is Jerry “Babe” Stewart, a crooked card shark on the run from a police investigator when he stops in on the sleepy small town of Glendale. There he meets the bored town librarian, Connie Randall (Lombard) who is just waiting for something exciting to happen to her. “Sometimes I go out in the woods and scream.” She says dryly. And declares the most exciting thing to happen in Glendale recently is that the drug store…
-
It’s Carole Lombard Month!
Starting tomorrow, October 1, it is Carole Lombard Month here on DearMrGable.com! Carole Lombard Month comes around annually every October to celebrate Carole’s birthday. So hang around for Carole-related articles and photos. And all the “Movie of the Week”s will be Carole-related. Any guesses what the first one will be? Hmmm…
-
Gossip Friday: See Ya Later, Polly
From December 1931: Temperament–long quiet in the studios of Hollywood–is having its fling, and plenty, at the present time. Clark Gable walked out on the production of “Polly of the Circus”–not satisfied with his salary, it seems. This man is the greatest box office pull of the moment. Writers have said so, unhesitatingly, authorities on the box office have declared it, he has been fought for by the leading ladies of the lot who know that their pictures will have a better chance if the only matinee idol de luxe since Valentino and talkies is in it. But Clark Gable gets $350 a week salary plus a $500 a week…