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Gossip Friday: On the stage
From November 1936: …Which reminds me of a swell yarn about Clark Gable. He is one Hollywood star who has never gone swell-head and who never forgets his early struggle. He was making an appearance on Louella Parsons’ “Hollywood Hotel” show, which as you may know broadcats from the old Figueroa Playhouse in downtown Los Angeles, whose boards, at one time or another, have been trod by all the great theatrical personages of the last decade. At a break in rehearsal, Clark walked over to a corner of the stage, faced the empty orchestra pit, and started playing to it. “Whatcha doing?” kiddingly inquired one of the orchestra boys. “Doncha…
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{Hollywood} Clark Lived Here
Clark didn’t bounce around as much as many of the other celebrities of his day. So many Hollywood stars of his time period moved around so often it is hard to keep track. For example,the friend who accompanied me on this trip is a big Katharine Hepburn fan and we learned early in the planning stages that visiting each of her houses would be virtually impossible! Clark’s residences aren’t as numerous but unfortunately they’re not all still standing either. When Ria followed him to California after he made The Painted Desert, she rented them two apartments at Ravenswood Apartments, one for her and Clark and one for her two children, George…
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{Hollywood} Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Since there is no real “starting point” so to speak for my trip, and we visited five cemeteries, I figured best to start with one of them…. I like graveyards. My husband says that’s weird. I don’t think it is–and thankfully I brought a friend along to Los Angeles who feels the same way.There is something peaceful about visiting them, something about seeing that even though they are gone, people still have a small space on this planet. And, besides, this is the closest I will ever get to all the classic film stars! Hollywood Forever, originally titled Hollywood Memorial, was founded in 1899. It is typically the cemetery that people think of…
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{Hollywood} I’m back!
Well I am back from La-La Land and I saw so much I hardly know where to begin. Unlike many people, whom we saw crowded on tour buses snapping photos of Ashton Kutcher’s house, we were looking for history. In our rented Kia, with Garmin as our usually-cooperative guide, we drove all over Los Angeles, to Brentwood, to Bel Air, to Beverly Hills, to Culver City, to Studio City, to Encino, to Glendale, to Santa Monica, to Hollywood. We drove up long, twisted, tiny roads just to peer over the fence of houses previously owned by Clark, Carole, Jean Harlow, Lana Turner and many more. We snuck around legendary hotels, snapping…
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Gossip Friday: Where Shall We Eat?
Since I’m in Hollywood this week, here’s an item form 1934 on where the stars eat in Tinsel Town: Well, you must be hungry. Should we stop at a drug store for a sandwich? Or, we have the choice of three famous restaurants–the Brass Rail, a beer parlor once owned by Zeppo Marx, which has been a haunt of picture people ever since; Perry’s, Hollywood’s newest restaurant; or Sardi’s, where caricatures of celebrities line the walls. At the latter you might see Jackie Cooper, Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, Charlie Chaplin, King Vidor and Jetta Goudal, who go there all the time. The most persistent Sardi fans, however, are Busby Berkeley…
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New Content Galore and I’m Going Hollywood!
October is here and for me that means that I am heading off to Hollywoodland! I’ve planned this trip for a long time and I am very excited about all it will bring to the site. I will be tracing Clark’s footsteps all over Los Angeles and will be back bursting with new information, pictures and more, I hope! You can follow my travels beginning October 5 on the site Facebook page. In preparing for the trip, I wanted to clean off my desk so for the past month I have uploaded over 150 pictures in the gallery (log in and check out “Last Uploads”) and just today I have added…
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October Movie of the Month: Possessed (1931)
Joan Crawford is one of those actresses that people seem to either love or hate with no real in-between. Love her or hate her, she’s hard to escape if you’re a Gable fan, as not only is she his most frequent leading lady onscreen, she also was his romantic interest for many years off screen. You can read more about their affair here. Possessed isn’t the first film that Clark and Joan starred together in, but it is by far the steamiest. Having fallen head over heels in love (or maybe lust) by this time, their chemistry seeps onto the screen and is undeniable. Both were married at the time…
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Until Next Year, Carole…
As Carole Lombard month comes to a close, I’d like to thank everyone for the nice emails I have received about the content this month. Carole is one of the only golden age stars that I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say they didn’t like. It seems she was that way in person too; I don’t recall anyone having anything nasty to say about her. Carole was an important piece of Clark’s life for sure and her death singlehandedly shaped the rest of his life. I’m not so sure he would have joined the Army if not for her death, although Carole might have eventually talked him…
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Gossip Friday: Closed Set
From March 1937: People thought Carole Lomabrd was going Garbo on them when she had the ‘Swing High, Swing Low” set closed to visitors. As a rule the Lombard sets are wide open to anyone with a pass and a desire to watch Lombard antics. But when “Swing High, Swing Low” started, nine-tenths of the visitors cornered Carole to ask her about the Clark Gable romance. So now Lombard is behind locked doors where she can keep her romance and her acting to herself. ____ Over 60 new pictures added to the gallery this week!
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Photogenic Clark and Carole
To date, there are nearly 9,500 pictures in the gallery. Of these, the most popular album of the entire gallery is in the “Wives” section. Is it Josephine Dillon at 76 views? No… Is it Sylvia Ashley at 80 views? Nope… Is it Ria Langham at 94 views? Nah… What about Kay Williams at 119 views? Still not… The winner, by a landslide, would be Mrs. Carole Lombard Gable, with 263 views! What is it about these two lovebirds? Maybe the fact that they usually look so happy and carefree and well, in love! I’ve added nine new pictures of Clark and Carole to the gallery today so make sure to log in and…