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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: Poetry for the New Sheik
From October 1931: Metro is letting its news about its new screen sheik, Clark Gable, trickle out slowly to a breathless world. The latest bulletin is this: Clark’s dressing-room is filled with books of poetry with many underlined passages.
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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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In Memory
After a long and tedious shooting schedule for The Misfits, Clark Gable was ready for a rest. He was set on not doing another movie until after his child was born, in March. On November 6, 1960, he spent what would be his final day at his beloved ranch. He toiled away the day working with his hunting dog, playing with his step-children, and relaxing. He told his wife Kay he felt tired and went to bed early. He tossed and turned all night. At about 8:00am, Kay awakened to see Clark standing in the doorway, pale and sweating. “Ma, I have a terrible pain.” he said simply. He told her not to…
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Gossip Friday: Attacked by Small Town Vamps
From December 1931: Clark Gable almost had his coat and vest and golf knickers torn off at the preview of “Susan Lenox” in a small town near Hollywood. The only reason Clark didn’t come home in a barrel is because he managed to outrun the hysterical femmes who were waiting for him at the finish of the picture. Poor Gable! He tried to smile and “be nice” to the crowd until the ladies began to tear and pull at his necktie and his shirt. When one of the small-town vamps began to shout, “Give us a kiss,” and all the other small-town vamps seemed bent on putting the suggestion into…
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{New Article} 1934: Are Women to Lose Clark Gable?
This article is from 1934 when Clark was the #1 heart throb, and it threatens that he may be jumping the Hollywood ship! Gasp! Eh. This one is really PR and I am pretty doubtful about most of the quotes in it as they don’t really sound like him. Women have idolized him, and women have made him what he is today. “So what?” asks Clark. What matters except living his own life again? He wants to escape from Hollywood and all that it means. He had time to think it all over, when he was ill! Clark Gable told me, “If I had enough laid aside so that I…
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Gossip Friday: Grand New Rifle
From August 1935: Clark Gable has been hunting again–with that gr-r-rand new rifle of his, which has gold sights and mountings that catch the sunlight and warn any animal with range that he is on its trail. The plan to have his debutante step-daughter, Georgiana, screen-tested seems to be in abeyance for the moment. We understand that Clark is wholly in favor of the idea, but wants to take the tests with her and have her gowned by Adrian first. ______ This rumor of Clark’s stepdaughter being screen-tested appears quite often. I am not sure if it ever really happened, but “Jana” never became an actress. It also seems out…
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Happy 100th Birthday to Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh was heralded as one of the great beauties of her time, won two Best Actress Oscars (especially impressive since she starred in only 19 films), and was the wife of one of the most celebrated actors of the century, Sir Laurence Olivier. Despite all of the above, to most she was simply Scarlett O’Hara. When she died at only 54 years old, many of the world’s headlines proclaimed “SCARLETT O’HARA DEAD!” I’m sure she would have cringed at that headline. Not that she wasn’t proud of hving played Scarlett, but the role became suffocating in a way that she couldn’t escape. Vivien was always Scarlett and sometimes she…
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“The Misfits” through the lens of Eve Arnold
It was on November 4, 1960, 53 years ago today, that Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe filmed what would be their final scene ever onscreen. Sitting in the cab of a pick-up truck and gazing at the night sky as they traveled through the desert, Marilyn inquires, “How do you find your way back in the dark?” Clark, in a grainy and rather husky tone, responds, “Just head for that big star straight on. The highway’s under it, it’ll take us right home.” The music swells, the screen fades to black, and two stars are gone from us. I’ve had many a Clark Gable fan say to me that…
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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? ____…