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Gossip Friday: Salesmanship Going in for Showmanship
From December 1936: Salesmanship is going in for showmanship. Door-to-door salesmen and street vendors are imitating the stars to get their products across. Clark Gable was the first to discover the new sales method. As he was driving to his MGM “Parnell” set the other morning, Clark noticed a man dressed like Charlie Chaplin, with mustache, big shoes, cane and a derby hat. The fellow would ring a doorbell, do a Chaplin routine, and then go into a sales talk. Clark, interested by the demonstration, stopped to talk to the salesman, who, it developed, was selling Christmas cards. “It’s a swell way to get the attention of customers,” said the…
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Gossip Friday: Things That May Never Happen?
From October 1932: Things that may never happen: That threatened Constance Bennett retirement. That Clark Gable divorce. A movie comeback for Alice White. A wolf at Charlie Chaplin’s door. ___ Well. Constance Bennett didn’t retire from the screen until 1966. Clark and second wife Ria divorced in 1939. Alice White worked pretty steadily through the 1930’s, puttered out in the 40’s. And I don’t know what they mean by the Charlie Chaplin comment. Might be about the fact he was reluctant to do talkies….which we all know he eventually did.
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{Hollywood} The Former Homes of…
Instead of hopping on a tour bus to be driven around, snapping photos and hoping to catch today’s stars in their bathrobes watering their front lawns, we were on a mission to find the homes of the past. Let’s start with two of Clark’s wives… Here is the house on Landale that Clark’s first wife Josephine Dillon lived in from her arrival in Hollywood until her death. Clark owned this property, paid the property taxes and let Josephine live there rent-free. He left her the house in his will. After Clark’s widow Kay Williams sold the Encino ranch to developers in 1970’s, she moved into posh Beverly Hills to this house on…
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Scandalously Unmarried!
If you’ve read any biography of Clark or Carole, you’ll come across a mention of a certain Photoplay Magazine article titled “Hollywood’s Unmarried Husbands and Wives”. This seemingly innocent article caused quite an earthquake among the studios. It lists Hollywood couples who conduct themselves as if they are married—but they aren’t! The article scolds: And that, it seems, would point a lesson to the unique coterie of Hollywood’s unwed couples—Bob Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck, who could get married if they really wanted to; George Raft and Virginia Pine, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable and the other steady company couples who might swing it if they tried a little harder. You…
