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Gossip Friday: Ten Years Later
From March 1941: This is anniversary week for Clark Gable. It marks his tenth year as a recognized screen performer. And he’s celebrating it in the true Gable manner–by doing absolutely nothing about it. Where will Gable be ten years hence? Some say Clark will be directing pictures. Our guess is he’ll be well out of movies and living the life of a rancher on some 50,000-acres (or larger) place in Arizona. He’s fed up on the glitter and tinsel and gossip of Hollywood–has been for a long time. And once he gets away they’ll never drag him back–not even for that proposed sequel to “Gone with the Wind.” Our…
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Gossip Friday: Hammy Hawk Island
From July 1941: Carole Lombard never misses a chance for a laugh on husband Clark Gable, and Henry O’Neill provided her with an opportunity to howl when she visited the set of “Honky Tonk.” From his scrapbook, O’Neill brought out an old theatrical handbill, dated Sept. 17, 1929. It was advertising a play, “Hawk Island,” opening at the Longacre Theater of Hartford, Conn. On the front of the handbill was a picture of the play’s most exciting scene. Standing behind a desk with one hand raised dramatically and the other pointing a gun at the rest of the cast, including O’Neill, was none other than Mr. Gable. Despite his “hammy”…
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Gossip Friday: If You’re Going to the Gables for Dinner…
From April 1941: If Carole Lombard calls you on the phone and tells you that she and Clark Gable would like to have you come up to their San Fernando ranch for dinner, by all means don’t get yourself gussied up. When the Gables are at home, informality is the law. Clark likes to loaf around in gray slacks without any semblance of a press. Carole, while always smartly dressed, still gets a kick out of being garbed like a rancher’s wife. Don’t tell Clark he is a great actor. He’ll think you’re kidding him. Do Suggest seeing his newest car. He’s like a little boy about automobiles and personally…
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Gossip Friday: Patched Up Their Quarrel
From October 1936: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard decided to patch up their quarrel for the sake of the joint box they owned for last week’s Pacific southwest tennis tournament. Another interested observer at the matches was Mrs. Rhea Gable, who spent most of the time looking sadly at the husband from whom she is separated, and his blonde companion.
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Gossip Friday: Say Yes, Marilyn
From February 1949: We hear that Clark Gable would be mighty pleased if Marilyn Maxwell would say yes to a request for a date. Seems Clark tried but failed to get a date with the blonde singer. Whatever happened to Marilyn’s planned marriage to Mike North?
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Gossip Friday: Snooty Star
From May 1937: Carole Lombard is called a Snooty Star because she won’t give interviews about her romance with Clark Gable. But after all, Mr. Gable, though separated from his former wife for a long time, is not divorced., so it would be very bad taste indeed for Carole to shoot off her mouth. She won’t do it, and rightly so.
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Gossip Friday: Have a Seat
From October 1937: As soon as he can get away from work every afternoon Clark Gable drives over from Metro and seats himself on the floor in Carole’s dressing room with a cheese sandwich in one hand and a can of beer in the other.
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Happy Birthday, Dear Mr. Gable
William Clark Gable was born 122 years ago today, on February 1, 1901, in Cadiz, Ohio. The only child of William and Adeline Gable, he was born at 5:30am during an intense snowstorm. Clark’s father was quite proud of his newborn son, as he recalled later, “The kid, I always call him that, was a real he-man from the start. He was a regular blacksmith from the time he was born.” The future King of Hollywood had humble beginnings. As detailed in “The King” by Charles Samuels: By one of those oddities of history that delight both scholars and simpletons Clark Gable was born just as Queen Victoria’s funeral was…
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Gossip Friday: Stolen Gloves
From November 1939: Clark Gable and Myrna Loy regularly have their driving gloves purloined by souvenir seekers. Both of these stars favor open motor cars and they seem unable to break themselves of the habit of leaving their gloves on the seats of their cars. The gloves seldom are there when they come back.
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Gossip Friday: Return to the Commissary
From March 1943: From the day Carole Lombard died, over a year ago, Clark Gable never entered the MGM commissary to take his accustomed seat at the director’s table. But on his recent jaunty to Hollywood on Government business, when Lt. Gable entered the commissary with producer Eddie Mannix for lunch, everyone in the commissary rose to his feet in a single united urge to pay tribute to the man they love and respect. And Lieutenant Gable sidled quietly to his chair.
