-
Gossip Friday: Why the Sudden Crush?
From June 1943: Clark Gable says that Mickey haunted him for two weeks once. He followed Gable all over the lot. When Gable looked up from his bowl of special chicken soup in the studio commissary, Mickey’s eyes were bored into Gable’s face. Clark couldn’t figure it out. Why the sudden crush? The mystery was solved when Rooney did a devastating impersonation of Clark on the screen. “I had to look away a couple of times when I saw it,” Gable said. “He was more like me than I am like myself. I recognized mannerisms that I did not know I had.” Incidentally, it got Clark over these same mannerisms.
-
Gossip Friday: Coming in Third
From December 1940: Mickey Rooney, the cigar smoking toughie of Mickey McGuire two-reelers 15 years ago, has been voted the nation’s foremost box office attraction for the second consecutive year, the Motion Picture Herald reported yesterday. The tousled, 20-year-old Rooney won the Herald theater poll by an overwhelming vote over 200 actors and actresses–the handsomest leading men and the prettiest girls of the motion picture industry. This year he carried young Judy Garland with him from relative obscurity in 1939 to the No. 10 moneymaker. The Garland parade began early in 1940, when she and Rooney were cast in “Babes in Arms.” The film was such a smash hit countrywide…
-
Gossip Friday: Mickey Rooney’s Idol
From May 1939: Clark Gable…played a very important part in Mickey Rooney’s career. No wonder Mickey wants to be just like him. It was about five years ago when Mickey was twelve, and on the verge of starvation. Vaudeville was a thing of the past, and Mickey couldn’t even get a job as an extra in Hollywood. He’d only worked about three days in three months. Then he had an idea. He called Clark Gable. “Mr. Gable,” he said, “there’s a good part for a boy in ‘Manhattan Melodrama,’ and I’d give my shirt to play it. I’ve been acting since I was a baby–and I know I can do…
-
Remembering Mickey Rooney 1920-2014
Mickey Rooney died yesterday at the age of 93. A screen legend, his acting career boasts over 300 credits. The people he met, the places he saw, the film sets he walked on to…seriously it is mind boggling. To name just a few, Mickey shared the screen with the likes of: Judy Garland, Ann Rutherford, Lana Turner, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Elizabeth Taylor, William Powell, Robert Young, Mary Astor, Warren William, Ginger Rogers, Robert Montgomery, Gloria deHaven, Maureen O’Sullivan, Rosalind Russell, Audrey Hepburn, Wallace Beery, Dolores Costello, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Frank Morgan…the list goes on and on and ON. Mickey and Judy Garland at their best, singing “Our Love Affair” And…
-
Gossip Friday: Good Day for Golf
From September 1940: Living in Hollywood is more or less like renting a perpetual reserved room in a madhouse. At 8am of a Sunday this journalist drove to Fox Hills golf course for his usual weekly game, still half asleep. Approaching the first tee he saw a mob of strange creatures emerge from the morning fog, accompanied by unearthly sounds of catcalls, screeching sirens and exploding guns. Any sane person would have gone home. We hung around. Presently there appeared Clark Gable, Bob Taylor, Carole Lombard, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy and other celebrities. It turned out to be the annual MGM golf tournament. When Mickey stepped up for his first…
-
{Photos} Clark Gable and…
Some of my favorite finds when I am scouring through old fan magazines are candids of random stars together. “I never knew that Blank ever even met Blank!” I often think, particularly now during “awards show season”, how the generations to come won’t feel similar joy, since there are thousands of pictures taken at every red carpet event, awards show and party and so thus the surprise of seeing stars posing together has dwindled. Here are some shots of Clark with other Tinseltown folk… See more in the gallery.
-
Gossip Friday: Holiday Greetings from…
From a fan magazine, here are hand-signed holiday wishes from several stars of the golden era, including Olivia de Havilland, Claudette Colbert, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Jeanette MacDonald, James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and more. No, Clark and Carole aren’t included, but I thought it a cute holiday gift nonetheless! Happy Holidays everyone! Click to enlarge:
-
Gossip Friday: Clark’s Stand-in
From July 1940: On the set of “Boom Town”, Mickey Rooney dropped by for a visit with his idol, Clark Gable. Gable was doing a scene with Hedy Lamarr, in which the weeping actress threw herself down on a couch. Gable was supposed to come up to Hedy, pat her on the shoulder and tell her how much he loved her. The scene was just getting underway when Mickey arrived on the set, and Gable motioned to him to take his place. Imagine Hedy’s surprise when she heard Mickey’s voice, quivering from sheer nerves, saying, “I love you.” She turned quickly and burst into laughter, which Mickey blushed to the…
-
Oscar Night…Minus Clark and Carole
The Academy Awards are tonight, so I thought I would post something about the night “Gone with the Wind”won it big–February 29, 1940 at the now-destroyed Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. Clark didn’t win that night; the only black spot on an otherwise glorious night for the film. The one thing about that evening that has always puzzled me is the lack of pictures of Clark and Carole at the Academy Awards. There are none. Zilch. Zero. I understand Clark didn’t win, but how can there be no photos? I am a Clark photo fanatic, as is evident by the thousands of pictures in the gallery, and I have never…
-
Gossip Friday: Just like Mickey
Since Mickey Rooney is TCM’s Star of the Month this month… From December 1938: Mickey Rooney’s one proud guy. He’s going around telling everyone that Clark Gable’s bought a car just like his, after a ride with Mickey. It’s true the cars are just alike–a low-priced coupe. Clark liked Mickey’s a lot, and that was a factor, he admits. But the principal reason he doesn’t use his $3,500 roadster is because he and Carole are always recognized. It’s got to the point where they even want privacy en route. _________ New this week: Pictures in the gallery I’ve got a TON of new updates for the site that I am…