Gossip
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Gossip Friday: Waiting It Out
From November 1938: Clark Gable, rumored to be building a mansion in the valley, denies this with “I’m not building anything until I know exactly what’s happening.” He can be referring only to his long held-up divorce from Mrs. Rhea Gable.
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Gossip Friday: A Flop Debut
From February 1936: The screen debut of Carole Lombard’s pekingese, “Pushface,” was a decided flop, but gave the blonde star a chance to get off one of her best wisecracks. “Pushface’s” big moment came on the “Love Before Breakfast” set at Universal. He was supposed to make an entrance in a basket of flowers, completely hidden by the blossoms. At a given signal, he was to poke his head out and wait for a closeup. But, every time, he leaped out of the basket and into Carole’s arms before the camera could get a shot. It was after the third unsuccessful take that Carole exploded: “Can you beat it! He…
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Gossip Friday: Book of Outtakes
From March 1936: Just heard an amusing story about Carole Lombard. For years, she has been saving all the portraits of herself that went wrong in the gallery and were never released. Pictures in which she looked awkward or silly. Now she’s had 500 of them bound into a book. ___ If that’s true, wouldn’t we all love to see it!
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Gossip Friday: Holy Toledo!
From December 1941: Since they’ve established that swear kitty on Carole Lombard’s set, her favorite expression has become “Holy Toledo!”
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Gossip Friday: Better Think Twice
From March 1936: The next time Carole Lombard goes to give anybody a dog, she’ll think twice. The day after she bought a dachshund for Walter Lang, he left for the Orient and deposited the pooch with Carole. Now she has to cart it around the studio with her own two mutts. To make it worse, there is bad blood between Lang’s dachshund and Carole’s Pekingese, “Pushface.”
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Gossip Friday: See Ya Later, Polly
From December 1931: Temperament–long quiet in the studios of Hollywood–is having its fling, and plenty, at the present time. Clark Gable walked out on the production of “Polly of the Circus”–not satisfied with his salary, it seems. This man is the greatest box office pull of the moment. Writers have said so, unhesitatingly, authorities on the box office have declared it, he has been fought for by the leading ladies of the lot who know that their pictures will have a better chance if the only matinee idol de luxe since Valentino and talkies is in it. But Clark Gable gets $350 a week salary plus a $500 a week…
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Gossip Friday: Carole Out, Jean In
From October 1936: Carole Lombard in a screen romance with Clark Gable–would that spell box office? I am asking you. Either one of these two alone is sufficient to lure the customers into the theater, but the two of them together would bring in enough shekels to pay the rent and keep the wolf far, far away. That is why, come next year, Carole will be co-starred with Clark in “Saratoga.” Yes, I know it was intended for Joan Crawford, but I am told there are other plans for La Crawford. When Carole finishes “Morning, Noon and Night” for Paramount she’ll move to Metro for this one picture. And that…
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Gossip Friday: Helping a Friend
From February 1937: Clark Gable’s influenza attack has helped indirectly to furnish Myrna Loy’s new home. The two co-stars of “Parnell” haven’t worked for a week, because Clark wasn’t well enough to appear on the set. So Myrna used the time to go shopping. Her chief purchases were pots and pans for the house she is building with her husband, producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
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Gossip Friday: Bosom Pals
From 1952: Word has it that the lobby of London’s Savoy Hotel this summer looked like the Beverly Hills and the Bel Air hotels combined. Old home week all the time. Errol Flynn and Clark Gable became practically bosom pals overseas. They had never really had time to get to know each other in Hollywood. Errol rented a London town house for his picture sojourn there and Gable was a frequent “Man Who Came to Dinner.”
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Gossip Friday: The Turkey Star
From August 1931: The hunt for male stars–always a desperate one in Hollywood, is on with added fervor this season. if rival producers do not find a male star with sufficient sex appeal to offset the charms of Clark Gable, one studio will have captured the best bet since Valentino and the box office record of that lot will soar. From present indications Clark Gable is the man of the moment. I haven’t heard any of the masculine element tearing their heats out over him–but how the women do talk! A local wit has named him the “Turkey” star–because the women go Gable-Gable-Gable all day. A still more potent indication…