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Gossip Friday: Nobody Like Clark Gable
From 1947 (Louella Parsons): Say what you will, there’s nobody like Clark Gable. With his charm, it will be a long time before the King is displaced. Younger men have come along to dazzle the gals, but none has yet hit with the force of a Gable. Oh, sure–there have been times when Clark has miffed me, and long periods would go by when we didn’t see one another. But it is impossible to be in his company more than a split second, and not fall under his fascinating spell again. Not long ago, he came to see me and we had a grand time drinking coffee in the garden…
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{New Article} 1954: Gable and His Girls
This 1954 article was written by everybody in Hollywood’s favorite “frenemy,” the infamous Louella Parsons. Most of the articles of this period, between Clark’s ill-fated marriage to Sylvia Ashley and his subsequent union with Kay Williams, focus on all of Clark’s girlfriends and who will be the next Mrs. Gable. The King laughed when I persisted in asking about beautiful blonde Grace Kelly (the new Hollywood sensation) with whom Clark was supposed to have been very much in love with they were making ‘Mogambo,’ and of Suzanne Dadolle, the French charmer of the odd name, with whom his name was later linked all over Europe. Grace is supposed to have…
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Gossip Friday: Merry Christmas, Louella
From April 1959 (Louella Parsons): My biggest “kick” of the holiday season: Clark Gable (and his Kay, of course) personally coming over to my house to turn on the lights on the very pretty ornamental Christmas tree he and Kay gave me. It’s not everybody who can have The King crawling around on his hands and knees at the light switches!
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Gossip Friday: An Unfortunate Shrine
From October 1947 (Louella Parsons): Say what you will, there’s nobody like Clark Gable. With his charm, it will be a long time before the King is displaced. Younger men have come along to dazzle the gals, but none has yet hit with the force of a Gable. Oh, sure–there have been times when Clark has miffed me, and long periods would go by when we didn’t see one another. But it is impossible to be in his company more than a split second, and not fall under his fascinating spell again. Not long ago, he came to see me and we had a grand time drinking coffee in the…
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Gossip Friday: Sylvia and Louella Go Visiting
From August 1950, Louella Parsons: I went with Sylvia Gable to the MGM lot the very first time she lunched with Clark at the studio–and I’ve never enjoyed a round of the sets more. Sylvia picked me up at my house and was all a-flutter and afraid we would be late. “I’ve been to the studio only once, at night,” she told me, “but I’ve never had lunch with Clark when he is making a picture. I don’t want to be the kind of wife who hangs around when her husband is working.” Clark was waiting for us in the commissary and every eye in the place was on those…
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In tribute
Clark died fifty years ago today, at the age of 59, leaving behind him 66 films, legions of fans, hundreds of shocked friends and a devastated pregnant fifth wife. Here is a piece by famed Hollywood gossip columnist (and longtime friend of Clark’s) Louella Parsons: Goodbye to My Dear Friend I still can’t believe he is gone, although reams and reams of copy have been written about his death, more than has appeared about many heads of State. Since that heartbreaking moment, a few minutes after he died on the night of [November 16] at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, when I was awakened by the shocking message, “Clark is dead”–there has…
