Articles
-
{New Article & Recipe} 1934: The Modern Hostess
Clark liked to eat. He was never a fussy, prissy eater. His widow Kay recalled his fondness for steak, baked beans, sauerkraut, potato salad and chocolate cake. And of course the onion sandwiches–a big slice of onion between two pieces of bread with a smear of mustard! It seems Clark’s tastes didn’t change over the years, as I stumbled across this article from 1934 that details Clark’s favorite foods while he lived with Ria. The article starts out saying how particular food items would fly off the shelves if people knew they were Clark’s favorites and so that led the author to find out what his favorites were. Which is…
-
{New Article} 1941: Roughing It
This short article appearing in Cosmopolitan Magazine (yes, you read that right) in July 1941. It is basically Clark detailing how much he enjoys the outdoors, riding horses and training dogs. You can get a world of pleasure out of owning and training a hunting dog. A good one can be bought for around twenty dollars, and you can get books out of the library and do the training yourself. Studying up should be part of the fun. There is always something new to be learned about an animal. From the time I was six, I have had some kind of mutt at my heels. The first dog I owned was…
-
{New Article}1940: At Home with the Gables
After some rather depressing articles detailing Clark’s emotional spiral after Carole’s death, it’s nice to go back and look at the good times they had together, in their favorite place to be–their Encino ranch. Carole didn’t marry Rhett Butler. With her eyes wide open, she married a farmer. Clark likes the movies. Nobody forced him into his profession. He wanted to be an actor. But his first and deepest passion is for the soil. He could talk all day about fertilizer and tractors. It’s like pulling teeth to get a couple of words from him on his next picture. Without the movies, he could still be happy. Without a piece…
-
{New Article} 1942: Why Gable Wants to Fight
This article drums over the reasons Clark would want to join the army and whether or not he should. A mute point, of course, since by the time this article was published in October 1942, Clark was already sworn in and in officers school. If this were a time of peace in the world, Clark Gable would probably seek escape on a desert island. It would have to be an island that offered excitement, however, because, at heart, Gable is an adventurer, a man who loves the mystery of the unknown, who has lived close to nature and knows her changing moods—a man who has always been able to find…
-
{New Article} 1933: The True Story of Clark Gable’s Romantic Temptations
Whew. I usually don’t mind typing articles for the site; in fact I like it. This particular article was quite a chore, however. First of all, the magazine is in very bad shape and was literally falling to pieces in my hands. The dust from the crumbling newsprint is probably toxic and made my eyes itch. So the only way I could type it was to photocopy it and type it from there. Secondly, the writing is quite tedious and the article is the longest I have come across! And probably mostly fictional, but I digress… This piece is from 1933 and appeared in True Story magazine. True Story…
-
{New Article} 1937: Life Ends at Forty!
This article is very typical of this period on Clark’s life. I have seen several interviews with him in the late 1930’s where he discusses his fear of the public turning on him and him having to quit movies and go into another frame of work. I think that is perhaps why Clark was considered “cheap” and lived simply: he was saving up for a rainy day. A rainy day that, fortunately, never came as we all know that Clark kept right on working and died at age 59, ten days after finishing his 66th picture. “When I’m forty and my work in motion pictures is finished, what will…
-
{New Article} 1932: The Trials of a Hollywood Ex-Wife
This piece is about Clark and Boris Karloff’s ex-wives and how they are “persecuted” by the press to tell dish about their favorite ex-husbands. I was delighted to come across this article because my very dearest friend is a classic horror movie freak and I was quite happy to be able to say to her, “Here’s an article for the both of us!” as Boris Karloff is to her as Clark Gable is to me. Onto the article. Clark’s only ex-wife at this time was Josephine Dillon, a matronly acting coach 17 years his senior. He was newly married to Ria Langham. The story of Josephine Dillon’s persecution by yellow…
-
{New Article} 1943: Captain Gable, Grim and Gay
I have so many WWII-era articles to upload it will probably take me until I am old and gray to get them all up on the site. Let’s hope not. For now, here’s a new one from 1943, about Clark when he was stationed in London. “It’s a grand job,” he pronounced, “I’m proud to be helping with it.” He said it with quiet sincerity that needed no emphasis, for the long unpublicized trip that brought him across the Atlantic was his own choice, just as he originally decided to give up the second highest screen salary in America in order to become Captain Gable of the U.S. Army Air…
-
{New Article} 1942: How Clark Gable is Conquering Loneliness
Here is a new article that will isn’t exactly the most uplifting, but it sheds some light on how Clark was struggling in the months following Carole Lombard’s death. This is the truth considering Clark Gable today; he is not going into active military service. He is not selling the ranch. He is going on with pictures. But the reasons that have determined these decisions reveal the changed Gable, this strong and complex man who after his exquisite wife’s death discovered through his tragic loneliness that he had loved her even more than he had ever realized. Well, by the time this issue hit newstands in August of 1942, Clark…
-
{New Article} 1937: Why All Hollywood Adores Clark Gable
As if you wondered why anyone would adore Mr. Gable, this article provides some ammunition for adoration. I must say that Clark is one of the few Hollywood stars of that era that seemed to be liked by everyone, celebrities and fans alike. Case in point, I was speaking to a 95 year old World War II veteran yesterday. He loves talking about the war and going to the movies in the 1930’s, and I love sitting there and absorbing his stories like a sponge. While on leave in the early 1940’s, he went to the Hollywood Canteen one night, where he chatted with Joan Crawford while she served him…