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Gossip Friday: Not Very Chummy
From May 1936: Ever since the other day, they’re thinking of giving still photographers little lessons in tact at MGM. Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy were sitting at the privileged “directors’ table” at the MGM restaurant. Far up at the other end of the table sat Clark Gable–alone, and not at all socialable. In came a photographer. He wanted a picture. He asked Clark to move up with Loretta and Spencer, so they could all look very chummy. And all he got was black looks. But he should have known better. ___ Hmmm….wonder why that would be? I think we all know…
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Clark Gable, Loretta Young and Their Daughter Judy Lewis
The story of Clark Gable and Loretta Young’s brief romance on the set of Call of the Wild and subsequent pregnancy is a sad one. Nowadays it is nothing at all, merely the typical day’s news, to read that an unwed celebrity is pregnant. Nobody bats an eye. In 1935, it was exactly the opposite. Clark was married, albeit in name only, to Ria at the time. So not only was unwed Loretta pregnant, she was pregnant with a married man’s baby. I probably get more emails and comments on the site, Facebook and Instagram about this Loretta Young situation than any other Gable topic. “He abandoned his child with…
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Movies of the Week: Call of the Wild (1935) and Key to the City (1950)
This week, we’ve got a Clark Gable and Loretta Young double feature in Call of the Wild (1935) and Key to the City (1950). I’m not going to dive into the whole Loretta Young-got-pregnant-with-Clark-Gable’s-baby-during-filming story. That’s all here. This is about the film. Clark Gable is Jack Thornton, on the hunt for a gold mine through the tundra with his sidekick Shorty (Oakie). As they struggle through the mountains in the bitter cold, they encounter Claire Blake (Young) who is stranded alone after her husband left her to search for food. They discover that Claire and her husband were after the same gold mine. Aided by their trusty dog Buck,…
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Gossip Friday: First Shot in the Can
From January 1935: Twentieth Century’s “Call of the Wild” went into production at the United Artists studios yesterday with Director William Wellman making something of a record by putting away his first shot at 9:45am. More than 300 but and extra players shared the scene with Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Jack Oakie and Katharine de Mille. The call was 9:00am on the set. After two more days in the set, which reproduces Tex Rickard’s Skagway saloon during the Alaskan gold rush, the unit goes north January 3 in a Southern Pacific special of eleven cars, producer Darryl F. Zanuck stated. Ed Ebele, production manager, has has a staff of fifty…
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Gossip Friday: Quiet Ann
From December 1949: I remember a party when Loretta Young was at the same dinner table with Ann [Sheridan] and Clark Gable. Loretta talked brilliantly. Ann made no attempt to take the spotlight. In fact, she didn’t speak more than half a dozen words. She offered nothing–just laughed loudly when Loretta or someone said something amusing. ____ Kind of an awkward dinner table…
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{New Article} 1950: Just Call Him King
Earlier in the week we looked at the essay Clark Gable wrote about his co-star, Loretta Young, as publicity for Key to the City. An innocent idea, certainly, except of course when said co-stars had a secret child fifteen years earlier. So let’s see what Loretta had to say about Clark, shall we… I first met Clark Gable about twelve years ago when we co-starred in a woodsy drama entitled “The Call of the Wild.” Although we were given top billing, the real star of the picture was a massive dog named Buck. The rest of us, compared to the instant attention Buck’s slightest bark commanded, were no more impressive…
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{New Article} 1950: Meet a Great Lady
Sometimes work duties can be awkward. Like, say, when you are required to pen an essay detailing why your co-star is so great, and you and said co-star had a secret baby out of wedlock fifteen years earlier. Yeah. That’s awkward. During the press circuit of To Please a Lady, Clark Gable and Loretta Young were asked to do just that. The whole story of their secret baby was known widely around Hollywood but not so much in the households of moviegoers. I’ve often wondered why the producers even proposed starring them together, if it was such a widely known fact. It doesn’t surprise me one iota that neither Clark…
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Nutshell Reviews: Key to the City (1950) and To Please a Lady (1950)
In a Nutshell: Key to the City (1950) Directed by: George Sidney Co-stars: Loretta Young, Frank Morgan Synopsis: Gable is Steve Fisk, the boorish mayor of Puget City, who meets Clarissa Standish (Young), the stuffy mayor of Winona, Maine at the annual mayors conference in San Francisco. They fall in love despite their differences but trouble arises as they try to make their relationship work outside the convention. Best Gable Quote: “I don’t start anything I can’t finish. If I tell you I love you, I mean it.” Not-So-Fun Fact: Young and her husband hosted the film’s wrap party at their home on September 18, 1949. It was during the…
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Nutshell Reviews: After Office Hours (1935) and Call of the Wild (1935)
In a Nutshell: After Office Hours (1935) Directed by: Robert Z. Leonard Co-stars: Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Harvey Stephens Synopsis: Gable is fast-talking, take-no-prisoners-newspaper editor Jim Branch, who is determined to dig up a juicy story on a corrupt millionaire. He starts sucking up to the newspaper’s music reviewer, wealthy socialite Sharon Norwood (Bennett), when he discovers she is close to the impending story. After the millionaire’s wife turns up dead, Sharon and Jim disagree on the culprit. Jim becomes determined to crack the case and reunite with Sharon, whom he has now fallen in love with. Best Gable Quote: “You mean I’ve got to get out and walk home–like…
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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…
