Gossip
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Gossip Friday: All Eyes on Them
From March 1945: What follows remains to be seen. However, all eyes were on civilian Clark Gable and Ann Dvorak at the David Selznick’s Sunday afternoon tennis party. Clark hardly left her side all afternoon. Interesting news that Ann, who once walked out on a Warner contract to sail around the world with husband Leslie Fenton (now separated), is being paged to resume her acting at this same studio. At the time, they said she’d never darken their door again.
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Gossip Friday: Most Kissed Man
From May 1947: By the time he finishes “The Hucksters,” Clark Gable will be the most-kissed man in Hollywood. His first scene called for him to kiss Connie Gilchrist, who plays a telephone operator; three times. Later the same day, he kissed Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner and five-year-old Diane Perrine! Clark has dropped 20 pounds since he made “Adventure”–and not from all that kissing, either. He didn’t like the way he looked on the screen with all that weight and went to work exercising it off. Here’s a little tip that may interest you. After seeing Gable and Ava Gardner in action, MGM is thinking about remaking some of the…
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Gossip Friday: She Knows a Flop When She Sees It
From May 1938: It was Carole Lombard who first tipped me off to the movie star’s definition of a flop. Carole didn’t go to the recent preview of “Fools for Scandal” in which she co-starred with Fernand Gravet. The picture has just been released at this writing and there are no figures yet from Kansas and the Bronx, much less from Afghanistan and Latvia, but Carole has a pretty good hunch that the picture is a “flop.” It seems that the day following the preview in Hollywood her friends called her up, as is the custom after a preview. “Darling, you looked simply divine last night! I have never seen…
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Gossip Friday: A Startling Chapeau
From August 1936: While we’re in the startling chapeau department, it might be well to record the fact that Clark Gable arrived at the preview of “The Princess Comes Across” with Carole Lombard and a beret. He took a terrific razzing from a gang of youngsters on the sidewalk and went in to view the picture, which contains a funny sequence about a he-man type of guy wearing a beret. On the way out the beret was stuffed in the Gable pocket.
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Gossip Friday: She’ll Manage
From 1938: How’ll Carole Lombard manage minus her hitherto indispensable pal Fieldsie? Why, quite all right because Fieldsie may be a bride but she is still handling Carole’s business matters. For years this friendship has been a Hollywood legend. When Carole became a big shot she remembered the good-natured efficient Madeleine Fields. They’d been Mack Sennett comedy girls together. Fieldsie was installed in the Lombard home as a buffer, personal secretary. and companion. Where Carole went her shadow showed, too. During the course of their double dates, Fieldsie and famed director Fritz Lang discovered one another. Now Fieldsie has returned from New York trousseau-shopping, with her new husband in tow.…
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Gossip Friday: Not a Citrus Scholar
From July 1938: [H]ere’s where Carole Lombard was smart. The back to farm movement hit her right between the eyes, too, and there as nothing to do until her next picture script was completed and Clark Gable gone hunting in Mexico, so Carole drove out to the San Fernando Valley and bought herself ten acres of land. But unlike her confreres she just didn’t throw a bevy of cows, horses, chickens and seeds at it and expect miracles–not Carole. With all that merry madness, that priceless insanity that’s as exhilarating as a double martini, Missy Lombard is at times a very sensible young lady. “What do I know about agriculture?”…
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Gossip Friday: You Need a Sense of Humor
From July 1941: Clark Gable and Bing Crosby pass out identical advice. If you want to be popular, successful and happy, say they, develop a sense of humor. “Because a sense of humor will let a girl be natural,” specifies Clark Gable. “It will act as a shock-absorber for the rough spots a girl’s going to find wherever she goes. And because it’s a pleasure to work with jolly people, she will find herself in demand everywhere.” “A sense of humor makes affectation impossible,” explains Bing. “A sense of humor and a sincerity set off a girl’s wholesomeness. That’s the best bit of happiness and success insurance any girl can…
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Gossip Friday: Quite a Party
From April 1957: The party of the month: Whether it cost $125,000 as loudly calculated, or just one third of that amount, there’s no argument that the lavish party hosted by oil millionaire Tex Feldman and his wife was one of the most elaborate ever held in any town–any time. The private room at Romanoff’s was completely redecorated into a replica of New York’s famed Delmonico Restaurant at the turn of the century. The guests were invited to dress in the theme of “My Fair Lady.” … Clark Gable and his Kay asked if they could bring two out-of-town guests, and had to be told they couldn’t! Because of the…
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Gossip Friday: How “Apeeling”
From May 1951: Clark Gable forgetting his cares (which mostly concern the poor pictures they’ve been giving him) by taking his bride to Ciro’s to look at the lady with a “peel,” Lili St. Cyr. ___ Lili, for those who don’t know, was a famous striptease artist. Yowza.
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Gossip Friday: Crooner’s Union
From June 1945: Clark Gable and Cary Grant have been served notice to join the “Crooner’s Union” or suffer the consequences. The threat comes red hot from Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Andy Russell. Cary is going to warble several Cole Porter numbers in “Night and Day.” Clarkie-boy whips off a few bars of “The Trolley Song” in “This Strange Adventure.” If they can possibly arrange it, the day these numbers are recorded, Bing, Frank and Andy are going to sneak on the set and give out with a few Bronx cheers.
