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November Movie of the Month: Love on the Run (1936)
This month, Clark is a rogue newspaper reporter (again) and Joan Crawford is a spoiled heiress (again) in Love on the Run. Gable is Mike Anthony, a newspaper reporter always in competition with his college buddy, Barnabus Pell (Franchot Tone) who works for a rival paper. When Mike attends the wedding of socialite Sally Parker (Crawford) to a European prince, he becomes her confidante and helps her escape the nuptials. With Barnabus hot on their trail, Mike and Sally steal a spy’s plane and head across Europe. The spy wants his plane back (and his secret plans) and Barbabus wants his piece of the story, keeping them on the run,…
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Gossip Friday: No Dinner Parties!
From January 1932: Clark Gable and his wife are pretty well reconciled to the fact that they are going to have to fight off divorce rumors from here on in. But just by way of keeping down the quantity, Clark has let it known that Mr. and Mrs. Gable “do not do any entertaining.” In other words, there wll be no chance for curious “friends” to be present at a party and mistable an innocent little difference of opinion for what would later pass as a “first-hand” report of an argument between the Gables. Social affairs are a hotbed of Hollywood gossip. You know how the whisper goes: “So-and-So arrived…
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Gossip Friday: Gable in Grand Hotel?
From December 1931: What do you think of this for a cast? Great Garbo…John Gilbert…Joan Crawford…Clark Gable in “Grand Hotel.” Irving Thalberg (MGM executive and husband of Norma Shearer) thinks so much of it that it is practically set that these four stars will be united in Vicki Baum’s sensational story. Anyway, the folks have had a lot of fun casting the parts. Garbo as the dancer, Gilbert as the young crook, Crawford as the stenographer–everybody agrees on that line-up. But what part is Gable to have? the only other important role in the book is the invalid from the country. Does Gable look like an invalid to you? ____…
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August Movie of the Month: Forsaking All Others (1934)
This month, Clark Gable plays the heartbroken guy to Joan Crawford’s wide-eyed heiress and Robert Montgomery’s selfish but lovable cad in Forsaking All Others. Clark is Jeffrey Williams, who still harbors a childhood crush on Mary Clay (Crawford). Upon returning from a two year jaunt in Spain, he has plans to finally propose to her until he learns that she is set to marry his best friend, Dillon “Dill” Todd (Montgomery), the next day. He swallows his feelings and agrees to give the bride away. Dill gets an unexpected visit from an old flame, Connie Barnes (Francis Drake), and ends up running off to marry her, sending Mary a telegram…
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Gossip Friday: Oh, Buster!
From December 1931: Buster Keaton got generous one day and invited the entire cast of “Possessed” to be his guests for luncheon. Joan Crawford and Clark Gable were the honored guests. Then he served them corned beef and cabbage and onions. And that afternoon Joan and Clark had to do a big love scene. Oh, Buster!
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Clark Gable’s Star Rises in MGM Publicity
It’s interesting to see what a few short years in Hollywood will do to one’s stardom! Clark Gable burst on the scene in 1931 and literally went from a nobody to a somebody over night. His path can be traced through MGM’s magazine advertisements…. In 1931, he was a newbie and certainly didn’t merit a picture in the stars at the top or even listed in bold among names such as Marion Davies, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or Norma Shearer (all of which would be Clark’s leading ladies!). No, Clark is listed in the small print among names such as Dorothy Appleby, Gus Shy and Edwina Booth. But also among…
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The 1932 Mayfair Ball
The Mayfair Ball was annual event held every February by the exclusive Mayfair Club. It was the seen-and-be-seen event of the year, taking place in one of the posh Hollywood hotels. The event is best remembered by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fans for being the birthplace of their spark, as they began flirting for the first time at the Mayfair Ball in 1936. Well, it turns out that that wasn’t the first time Clark attended the ball. In 1932, he attended with Ria on his arm, and the magic of the night was descibed by Picture Play magazine: Beauty, Fashion and Fame Assemble on That Night of Nights, The Mayfair…
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September Movie of the Month: Dancing Lady (1933)
In 1933, Clark was in a musical–but no singing and dancing for him…just brooding and yelling. In Dancing Lady, Clark is Patch Gallagher, a short-fused Broadway producer who hires down-on-her-luck ex-burlesque dancer Janie Barlow (Joan Crawford) for the chorus line of his latest show. Janie is constantly pursued by a rich playboy admirer, Tod Newton (Franchot Tone). Patch begins to have feelings for plucky Janie, but grows bitter as it becomes obvious she is wrapped up with Tod. When he promotes her to the lead in the production, Tod becomes impatient (Janie said she’d marry him if the play fell through) and pays off the Broadway powers-that-be to shut the play…
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Gossip Friday: “One Honey of an Actor”
From February 1940: ….we beat it for the “Strange Cargo” [set], which [includes] not only Gable and Crawford, but also Paul Lukas, Ian Hunter, J. Edward Bromberg, Peter Lorre, Albert Dekker, Eduardo Ciannellu, and John Arledge. They are all on the set as we mosey in and a worse looking crew you never lamped. They are escaping from the jungle. They have one small boat and Crawford between them. The idea is that the men are escaping convicts. Crawford is a babe from the streets whom Gable has picked up and dragged along, and love is beginning to gnaw them. You practically can’t see What-a-Man Gable behind the three days’…
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April Movie of the Month: Laughing Sinners (1931)
Clark Gable is third billed in this syrupy drama behind Joan Crawford, naturally, and Neil Hamilton (who?) Unlike most of this roles of 1931–A Free Soul, Dance Fools Dance, Night Nurse–Clark is far from a thug; he plays the ultimate good boy out to save Joan Crawford’s soul. Clark is Carl, a saintly Salvation Army officer who rescues Ivy (Crawford), distraught over being dumped by her boyfriend (Hamilton), from jumping off a bridge. Under Carl’s influence, Ivy gives up her hard-drinking, hard-partying nightclub lifestyle and joins the Salvation Army. Temptation proves to be too great though, when her ex-lover returns and she falls back into old habits. If you are…