Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Rhett’s Command Performance
From January 1940: When Clark Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard, got home from their exciting trip to Atlanta for the premiere festivities of “Gone with the Wind,” Gable sank into his favorite chair, sighed, grinned and exclaimed: “Well, Mrs. G., here we are at home–and isn’t it wonderful? Now I know how kings feel when they finally get into their private suites and pull off their trappings, after reviewing the troops, laying a cornerstone and addressing the populace.” From first to last Gable has been doing a command performance. Frankly, he didn’t want to tackle the role of Rhett Butler. After all, the guy was a Southern renegade, a…
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Gossip Friday: Tossed for a Loop
From January 1938: Two of the presents Clark Gable gave to Carole Lombard were an English sheepdog and a two-seated motor scooter. When she was riding it Christmas night, the thing got out of control and tossed Carole for a loop. Wrecked her evening gown but did no damage to her person. After all those crazy comedies, falling off a scooter is child’s play to the star.
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Gossip Friday: Mrs. G. Says No Beards
From November 1941: In refusing to play a part calling for his wearing a beard, Clark Gable told the producer: “Mrs. G. doesn’t want me to wear a beard in a picture. She says beards are not romantic, women don’t like them.”
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Gossip Friday: No Turkey
From February 1938: Because Carole Lombard does not like turkey and cannot eat it without an expression of disgust, a property man on the “Fools for Scandal” set had to fix up something that looked like a turkey leg, but wasn’t, for a scene of hers. He just stripped a turkey leg, wrapped it with roast beef, and Carole was able to play the scene with required enthusiasm.
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Gossip Friday: Know It Backwards
From November 1938: As a very special favor, I was permitted on the “Idiot’s Delight” set–and understood the guarded doors when I found them filming the tap-dancing sequences Clark Gable hates so much. Director Clarence Brown asked Clark if he wanted a rehearsal before they started shooting, but Clark brushed him aside. “Naw,” he growled, “I know the thing backwards.” One take half-completed and Brown shouted “Cut!” Walking over to Gable, he added, a grim note to his voice: “Clark, I think you’re right. You know it backwards–but that isn’t the way we want it done!”
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Gossip Friday: Nothing to Remove
From October 1933: You won’t be seeing Gable on the screen as frequently as in the past. Having had one breakdown, he’s determined not to have another and refuses to be overworked. “I’ve had so many operations in the past few months I’m damned near afraid to look at myself for fear they’ve taken everything out,” he said. “I’m sure I can’t have any more operations because the doctors must have removed everything that was removable. I’m gaining weight and feeling much better now but it will be another three months before the doctor will let me golf or ride again.” ____ Clark didn’t have a “breakdown,” which at that…
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Gossip Friday: Grand Marshal
From March 1947: While we were there [on the set of “Song of Love”], Clark Gable came over to pay his respects to Katharine [Hepburn]. He had just started shooting on “The Hucksters” with Deborah Kerr, Metro’s new English star. If you haven’t already seen Deborah in the English picture “Vacation from Marriage” you have a treat in store for you when “The Hucksters” is released. In person, she has the same charm that we’ve noted in so many of the English actresses who have come over to this country recently–warmth, sincerity, and poise. Deborah told me, when I went over to her set, that Clark has been most gracious…
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Gossip Friday: Away Down East?
From July 1941: Gables to Live Away Down East Part of The Year Hollywood–Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have bought a farm in Connecticut and will live there in October, November and December of each year. Clark’s contract calls for three pictures between January and the end of September. But because of the lack of good material, Clark has not made more than two films a year on the new deal, but gets paid for three. ___ Well this is hogwash. They never bought a farm in Connecticut or anywhere close.
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Gossip Friday: A Feminine Conspiracy
From March 1941: One of the reasons, admittedly a minor one that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard get along so famously is that both see eye to eye on the matter of “dressing up” and putting on the airs. Farmer Gable goes for those rusty old trousers and sweaters in his real farm life as well as in the still pictures, and Carole, he says, will have no part in that general feminine conspiracy which aims at getting the male into white tie and tails at the slightest provocation.
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Gossip Friday: Quite a Distraction
From February 1941: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard visited the Douglas airplane factory recently and were cordially taken on a thorough tour. Now an order has been issued that no more movie stars are to be shown around the vast plant. Workmen were so distracted by a gander at the Gables that the delicately balanced production routine was thrown out of whack for hours.
