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85 Years Ago, Clark Gable is Set Free
On March 8 1939, Clark Gable’s second wife, Maria “Ria” Franklin Gable, and her atrocious hat, obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada. Clark and Ria’s marriage had been “in name only” for years. Clark had left the family home to live at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in the fall of 1935 and famously began a romance with Carole Lombard the following year. Ria had been confident Clark would not divorce her, stating to reporters that Clark had never mentioned divorce. As the years wore on and the romance between Clark and Carole blossomed, the press began to loudly criticize Ria for clinging on and not allowing Carole to become Mrs.…
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Gossip Friday: Scared of Crawford
From October 1933: Clark Gable tells an amusing story about Joan [Crawford]. “The only time I ever have been scared in my life was the first time I worked with her,” he declares. “I wasn’t worth a nickel those first few days, couldn’t remember my lines and even acted scared. “It’s funny when I look back, because the one person of whom I should have been frightened, Garbo, didn’t bother me in the least. The first four days I worked with her I never even spoke to her except when we were doing scenes together. And it was during those four days that we shot all the hot love scenes…
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Gossip Friday: New Contract
From February 1940: Clark Gable can declare a moratorium on worry until 1948 under the terms of his new contract with MGM–a contract that will net him $2,000,000 for seven years work! This agreement sets a new record for the movie capital, according to Hollywood historians, in that it is the first screen contract to run for seven straight years without options. Only the fact that the law forbids it prevented its being filled out for a longer period. The nearest thing to it is the $1,500,000 five year contract, sans options, which was signed last year by Joan Crawford. The new agreement with Gable provides that he is to…
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Gossip Friday: Nothing is Sacred
From January 1950: Sylvia Ashley, Gable’s missus, avers that she went to see a Carole Lombard movie, Nothing Sacred, a month before her marriage to Clark. And that did it. She’s now doing over the Gable ranch house–with plans for entertaining on a more formal scale. She’s ordered expansion of the living room to include a grand piano. ___ Well that’s disturbing.
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Gossip Friday: Look Out Carole
From April 1937: It’s a shame to spoil Clark Gable’s fun, but Carole Lombard is a friend of mine, too, and I think she should be warned that Clark has just purchased that two-wheeled carriage they used in “Parnell.” Whenever Gable purchases one of these gags for his “personal use” it usually turns up in Carole’s swanky front yard with a goat tied to it or something. In fact, I hear Clark is dickering for an old thin nanny goat right now, Carole–so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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{New Article} 1940: Gable vs. Crawford
This is a new short little article gossiping that Clark Gable and Joan Crawford were not getting along on the set of Strange Cargo. This was actually mentioned in a few Gable biographies. Clark did not want to be in the film as he did not like the script (I can’t say I blame him). Joan’s career was on a downturn and she needed a hit so she was paired with Clark, who was just coming off Gone with the Wind success. Joan was a bit miffed at this, since just nine years earlier, she was the big star and Clark was getting his feet wet playing her love interests…
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Gossip Friday: Not Broke
From October 1941: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are two people who are not going to be caught broke after their popularity wanes, if they can help it. Besides owning a large ranch in the San Fernando Valley, they have one to North Dakota now to price a farm with a view to buying a cow ranch. A good percentage of the stars live in the glory of their fabulous salaries with never a thought for the future.
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Gossip Friday: Clark Cleans Up
From February 1, 1942: Having just returned home from a three months vacation, Clark Gable found the desk in his dressing room piled high with all sorts of communications–most of them marked “Urgent.” As he glanced through them he saw that the urgency had passed. By that time he was deep in that job that everybody dreads–cleaning out a desk. He remembered suddenly that he had not straightened it out for eight or ten years. Memories flooded as strange mementos that told much of the story of his life, with its triumphs and defeats, were revealed. Way back in one of the drawers was a box containing a gold crown.…
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Happy Birthday, Clark Gable
William Clark Gable was born February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio. The only child of William “Bill” and Adeline “Addie” Gable arrived at 5:30am in the middle of a raging snowstorm, and weighed ten and a half pounds. To celebrate, there is a new series of articles on the site that were written by Adela Rogers St. Johns, a dear friend of Clark’s (so much so that there were rumors for years that one of her sons was not her husband’s but Clarks…she always denied it). Adela wrote them after Clark’s death in November 1960 to eulogize her friend. Some snippets: The king is dead. Long live the king, because…
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Gossip Friday: Dozed Off
From January 1938: Clark Gable is an actor who knows how to relax. In “Test Pilot” there is a sequence in which he is supposed to be asleep while other players carry on action and dialog. For the rehearsal, Gable lay down and really dozed off. Director Victor Fleming woke him up, saying: “I’m afraid you might ruin a take by yawning, or talking in your sleep, or snoring.”
