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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…
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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.
