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Gone with the Wednesday: Olivia Knows…Clark is a Softie
Since Olivia de Havilland’s 98th birthday was yesterday (and yes, she is still alive and kicking in Paris!) here’s a snippet Olivia told a fan magazine in November 1939: Clark Gable is just an old softie. Olivia de Havilland made that discovery when she was working on “Gone with the Wind” with him. According to Olivia, (whose “Melanie,” they say, is something out of this world it’s so wonderful) there was an old worn-out horse, called “Marse Lee,” used in the flight-from-Atlanta sequence. The horse was so skinny it’s bones rattled, but everyone at the studio had definite instructions not to feed it as they had to keep him starved…
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1961: Clark Gable’s Baby: This is a Story of Faith and Immortality
Clark Gable’s Baby: This is a Story of Faith and Immortality Modern Screen magazine, May 1961 Kay Gable ignored the advice of her doctor. “Your own heart’s not in such great shape, you know,” he’d said. She ignored the advice of her friends. “It will be too much of a strain for you, Kay—with the baby only four weeks away,” they’d said. But it was February 1, 1961. And Clark Gable—her husband of five years, till the night of his death six weeks earlier—would have been sixty this day. And she was going to celebrate his birthday, her way, exactly the way she wanted to celebrate it. Just her.…
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Nutshell Reviews: The Painted Desert (1931)
Every February, I try my hardest to bring new (and hopefully interesting) content to this site, as a birthday celebration for Clark Gable. This year, I decided on something a little different. I am constantly asked what Gable films I would recommend. I started “Movie of the Month” four years ago, and I still have years to go before I have devoted a month to every one of Clark’s 66 credited roles. I also do those in a rather random order, zipping back and forth through the decades. So, in the meantime, this month on DearMrGable.com will serve as a sort of Clark Gable Filmography Bootcamp! So, starting today and in chronological…
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Gossip Friday: Clark Gable, True Aquarius?
It’s Clark Gable’s birthday tomorrow! In October 1939, a fan magazine published a chart of different male stars and what their astrological signs meant about their personalities. It was meant as a guide for women: “Check up on the man in your life, and see whether he should be treated like a Robert Taylor of a Gary Cooper!” Clark was the representative for Aquarius. Outstanding Characteristics: Philosophical, independent, original. What Kind of a Husband Would He Make? Faithful but neither sentimental nor domesticated. Not recommended for romantic, possessive women. What Kind of Boss Would He Be? A good friend to his employees, and is strong for laor-saving devices. How He…
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2013 Year in Review
The following films were Movie of the Month in 2013: January: Test Pilot (1938) February: Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942) March: After Office Hours (1935) April: Polly of the Circus (1932) May: Boom Town (1940) June: Night Nurse (1931) July: Parnell (1937) August: Forsaking All Others (1934) September: Night Flight (1933) October: Comrade X (1940) November: Love on the Run (1936) December: Any Number Can Play (1949) In News this year: A three-part series on the Brown Derby Restaurant–Part One, Part Two, Part Three This website turned four! We celebrated the 100th birthday of Vivien Leigh. Audrey Totter died. Joan Fontaine died. The following articles were added to The Article Archive this…
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Gossip Friday: Santa Checks Up on Good Boys and Girls
In the January 1935 issue of Hollywood magazine, they printed “Santa’s book” of good and bad points for film stars. So who’s getting what they wanted for Christmas and who is getting coal? CLARK GABLE Good Points: For giving is It Happened One Night. Being always thoughtful of others. When a friend had no place to keep her dog, he gave it a home on his ranch. Bad Points: Balks at picture assignments with women stars. Drives studio frantic by disappearing between pictures, when he is wanted for story conferences. Gifts: More dogs to take care of CAROLE LOMBARD Good Points: Proved she could act in Twentieth Century. Came…
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1937: The Utterly Balmy Home Life of Carole Lombard
By Harry Lang Motion Picture, February 1937 Listen! Wanna step into the merriest, maddest home in Hollywood? Then get a look-see at Lombard’s. It’ll sure slay you! Take—if you can stand it! Carole Lombard’s household— There’s Carole and Fieldsie, her secretary-pal-confidante-companion-advisor-manager-sparring-partner-critic-et-cetera; then there’s two dachshunds, one bantam rooster, six doves, two ducks, one Pekinese named “Pushface the Killer,” two hens, one cocker spaniel, three goldfish, one cat named “Josephine,” which insists on sleeping with the dogs; also there’s a nice “comfy” mammy cook named Ellen, from Memphis, Tennessee, a butler named Edmund who’s also colored, and Carole’s personal maid named Eleanor, who never knows what her mistress is gonna do…
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{New Article} 1935: Into a White Hell For You
Yes, that is actually the title of this article! It is about the horrendous working conditions the cast and crew faced on Washington state location shoot for Call of the Wild. Most of it is a brief interview with Loretta Young: “Nobody expects to believe that a pampered film player ever is exposed to real hardships,” Loretta told me, “but if you could have seen what we went through–! It was no press agent’s dream, the rigors of that location trip. “It might not have been so difficult for me had I been accustomed to cold. Although I was born in Salt Lake City, where winter is frigid enough, I was brought…
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{New Article} 1941: Why Clark Gable is Today’s Topic for Gossip
This article (along with this image of Clark on the cover of the magazine) appeared in December 1941. 1941 being a year of peace for Clark, for the most part. Clark and Carole were happily settled in the ranch, trying to have a baby. Life was more calm. Up until the following month, of course. The premise of this article is one that is usually used for Carole: to talk about how Clark has gone into hiding. William H. Gable, a plain man from Ohio, had a birthday the other week. His son Clark had given him a little car to use on hunting and fishing expeditions and Gable, Sr.,…
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1935: Into a White Hell for You
By Jack Smalley Hollywood, June 1935 Loretta Young and Clark Gable had never faced such hardships as they endured upon this amazing journey As you movie goers sit back in a comfortable seat in your favorite theatre, do you ever think of the hardships—sometimes almost incredible hardships—that a group of film workers suffered to make your possible entertainment? When 20th Century’s Call of the Wild company left the studio, they planned to be gone ten days or two weeks. But they reckoned without the frigid grasp of a northern winter. Held by the icy blasts of blizzard after blizzard, the weeks lengthened into more than a month of privations from…