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Remembering Clark Gable
Clark Gable died 64 years ago today, after suffering a fatal heart attack. He was 59 years old. Still full of life, he had just completed The Misfits and was eagerly awaiting the birth of his son. You can read about his death and funeral here. After Clark’s death, the newspaper the Atlanta Constitution interviewed some Atlantans who had met Clark when he was in town for the premiere of Gone with the Wind. Atlantans Who Entertained Gable in 1939 Comment on His Death by Yolande Gwin Clark Gable whispered to one of the newspaperwomen and said: “Do you suppose I could have a few words with her? (Margaret Mitchell).…
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Gossip Friday: Rhett’s Horse
From July 1939: Clark Gable is becoming so attached to the splendid five-gaited horse which he rides in “Gone with the Wind” that he is seriously considering its purchase for his own use.
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Gossip Friday: Not Magnificent
From July 1939: Metro people who have seen some of the 16 reels of “Gone with the Wind” say Clark Gable dominates the picture. Warner-ites confide that Olivia de Havilland steals it. Selznick employees claim it’s a triumph for Vivien Leigh, who is in almost every scene. But nobody says it’s magnificent.
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Gossip Friday: Update on Scarlett
From July 1939: Hollywood–The movie capital has not been kind to Vivien Leigh, and Miss Leigh, in turn, hates Hollywood. Neither knows much about the other, but it is unlikely that there will be time for revision of opinions. When the last mile of film has been ground through David Selznick’s cameras, his Scarlett O’Hara expects to be gone with the wind. On January 13 (which fell on a Friday), when Miss Leigh was formally signed to the most coveted role in the most talked-about picture in screen history, Hollywood welcomed her with mixed jealousy and resentment, blank puzzlement about her qualifications, feigned pity for the difficulty of her role,…
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85 Years Ago, On the Set of Gone with the Wind…
85 years ago today, the newspapers were reporting what was going on on the the set of the hotly-anticipated Civil War drama. Gone with the Wind Cast Loses Self-Consciousness by Harrison Carroll Hollywood, April 29–Some of the self-consciousness has worn off the “Gone with the Wind: company and they are now having fun just as if they were making an ordinary picture instead of an American classic. This week, they are shooting the scene in the library of the Wilkes plantation, Twelve Oaks, where Scarlett discovers that Rhett Butler had overheard her confession of love to Ashley. In sudden anger, Vivien Leigh tosses a vase at Clark Gable, who is…
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Gossip Friday: Ten Years Later
From March 1941: This is anniversary week for Clark Gable. It marks his tenth year as a recognized screen performer. And he’s celebrating it in the true Gable manner–by doing absolutely nothing about it. Where will Gable be ten years hence? Some say Clark will be directing pictures. Our guess is he’ll be well out of movies and living the life of a rancher on some 50,000-acres (or larger) place in Arizona. He’s fed up on the glitter and tinsel and gossip of Hollywood–has been for a long time. And once he gets away they’ll never drag him back–not even for that proposed sequel to “Gone with the Wind.” Our…
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Gossip Friday: On the Sick List
From January 1940: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are on the sick list–but in a minor way. Carole is merely overtired from the Atlanta junket, and Clark has lost his voice from the same cause. As a matter of record, Clark found the jaunt much less dangerous than he had anticipated. “I had expected to be torn apart,” he said on his arrival back here. “But the people in the South are ladies and gentlemen–they leave you with your pants.”
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Gossip Friday: Not Inflated Snobs
From January 1940: Judging from the letters pouring in from Atlanta, the down-to-earth good-fellowship displayed by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, there for the premiere of “Gone with the Wind,” scored as great a hit as the picture. Remembering how often our touring celebrities have made exactly the opposite impression in their contacts with John and Jane Public, I think the Academy ought to vote Clark and Carole a special statuette. By simply being “folks,” they’ve probably done the industry more good than has resulted from any one super-production of the year. It’s significant that, as the praise comes marching back from Georgia, Hollywood wears an expression of astonishment. “Imagine!”…
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Gossip Friday: Good Picture
From September 1947: Clark Gable has finally seen “Gone with the Wind.” He was telling on the “Homecoming” set how he happened to miss it. At the world premiere in Atlanta he was so weary from the civic celebration that he put his feet up on the railing before the front row and slept right through the picture. When it came to the premiere here [in Los Angeles], his wife, the late Carole Lombard, said she didn’t want to sit through the four-hour show again. So they walked through the crowds, down the aisle and right out the back exit. Recently a friend arranged a showing and invited Cark. “Good…
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Clark Gable in Tampa Part 3: Scarlett Never Got Rhett Butler Back
Continuing our series of articles from Clark Gable being interviewed at the Tampa International Airport in February 1958, here’s Part 3, in which he gives an answer to whether he thinks Rhett ever goes back to Scarlett, and he spoils the end of Run Silent Run Deep: Scarlett Never Got Rhett Butler Back By Panky Glamsch, Tribune Staff Writer Just as Rhett Butler never returned to Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, Clark Gable may never return to The Tribune Woman’s Department. But at least four women staff members will never be the same. The day it was announced The King would arrive at Tampa International Airport, the air was…
