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Gossip Friday: Applause for a Soldier
From March 1943: Here in my [Hollywood columnist Jimmie Fidler] office, I’ve literally got a ceiling on letters–they’re piled that high! Practically every one of them requests news about our Hollywood men serving in the armed forces, so I did a little scouting. Four out of seven wanted information on Clark Gable. Clark came home to Hollywood on official business the middle of last December, looking trim, tan, and terrific. He stayed with the Walter Langs while he was here and saw only a few close friends. The sight of the month was First Lieutenant Gable and First Lieutenant James Stewart discussing Army business on the steps of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Administration Building–both…
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Clark and Carole On the Air!
An unfortunate thing about Carole dying so young is that she was gone before mainstream television. So we have minimal candid video of her; she never got to laugh it up with Johnny Carson or Dick Cavett like many classic stars did. And although he lived well into the “golden age” of television, Clark, unfortunately, refused all television appearances. So, radio shows are about all we have to go on as far as live candid moments. Of course, the word “candid” is taken with a grain of salt, as these appearances were always scripted, but it is still great to find these little audio gems. New on the site are: New couple…
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Gossip Friday: Where are my chickens?
From April 1940: If they weren’t so much in love it would be cause for divorce. Clark Gable, who had rather win a prize at the coming Ponoma Fair for his poultry than a gold award for his acting, recently bought some chickens from an Eastern farmer. By the time they were delivered at the Gable ranch in the valley they cost Clark approximately thirty bucks apiece. Clark was grooming them for the poultry exhibition, and could almost see the blue ribbons he was going to get at the Fair, when he was suddenly laid low with a strep throat and had to go to the hospital for a few…
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{New Article} 1937: Life Ends at Forty!
This article is very typical of this period on Clark’s life. I have seen several interviews with him in the late 1930’s where he discusses his fear of the public turning on him and him having to quit movies and go into another frame of work. I think that is perhaps why Clark was considered “cheap” and lived simply: he was saving up for a rainy day. A rainy day that, fortunately, never came as we all know that Clark kept right on working and died at age 59, ten days after finishing his 66th picture. “When I’m forty and my work in motion pictures is finished, what will…
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{New Article} 1932: The Trials of a Hollywood Ex-Wife
This piece is about Clark and Boris Karloff’s ex-wives and how they are “persecuted” by the press to tell dish about their favorite ex-husbands. I was delighted to come across this article because my very dearest friend is a classic horror movie freak and I was quite happy to be able to say to her, “Here’s an article for the both of us!” as Boris Karloff is to her as Clark Gable is to me. Onto the article. Clark’s only ex-wife at this time was Josephine Dillon, a matronly acting coach 17 years his senior. He was newly married to Ria Langham. The story of Josephine Dillon’s persecution by yellow…
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Gossip Friday: Who’s on First
March 1940: Never has the team batting average of that girl’s softball team in that little beach town near Hollywood been os high as the day they played a team made up from the company of MGM’s Strange Cargo troupe, which was shooting there. Every gal on the high school team boosted her batting average. Because–Clark Gable was playing FIRST BASE for the MGM team! ___ From February 1940: It was an off day for the “Strange Cargo” cast on location at Pismo Beach, a small seacoast town above Santa Barbara, California, and loathing inactivity like a snail hates pace, Gable gathered together members of the crew and challeneged the…
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Spotlight on: Myrna Loy
I have a crush on Myrna Loy. That wasn’t hard to admit. Miss Loy (nee Williams) was one of the biggest stars of the studio era, largely due to the hugely successful Thin Man series, in which she was Nora to William Powell’s Nick. In 1938, she was elected the Queen of Hollywood along with the King–Clark, of course. After their crowning, from then on he affectionately called Myrna “Queenie.” Sadly, as Clark carried the King title to the end of his life (and beyond!), the Queen title slipped off Myrna quickly and unfortunately most non-classic movie lovers have no idea who she is. She has over 100 films in her filmography and…
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CMBA Movies of 1939 Blogathon: Idiot’s Delight
Idiot’s Delight, one of those classic films where one might say, “What kind of a title is that?”, was based on a hit Broadway play starring Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was revered for its strong anti-Nazi themes. When MGM bought the film rights, all anti-Nazi references were removed, leaving just the structure of the story. Pre-World War II America wouldn’t want to see such negativity, after all, and who wants to ruin the foreign receipts by risking it being banned in Europe? Gable is Harry Van, a World War I vet and struggling vaudeville performer when he meets Irene (Norma Shearer), while…
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{New Article} 1943: Captain Gable, Grim and Gay
I have so many WWII-era articles to upload it will probably take me until I am old and gray to get them all up on the site. Let’s hope not. For now, here’s a new one from 1943, about Clark when he was stationed in London. “It’s a grand job,” he pronounced, “I’m proud to be helping with it.” He said it with quiet sincerity that needed no emphasis, for the long unpublicized trip that brought him across the Atlantic was his own choice, just as he originally decided to give up the second highest screen salary in America in order to become Captain Gable of the U.S. Army Air…
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Gossip Friday: Two Left Feet
From January 1939: Clark Gable, attempting to master the art of tap dancing for his role in “Idiot’s Delight”, doesn’t know an electrician hid on a high rafter of the sound stage to watch Clark, who permitted no watchers. And the electrician became so convulsed at Clark’s awkwardness he nearly fell headlong at the actor’s feet! __________ Hey now, Clark didn’t do so bad! Stay tuned– I’ll be reviewing Idiot’s Delight for the CMBA Films of 1939 Blogathon on Tuesday. New this week: I have added two new categories to the gallery– “In His Footsteps,” which has pictures of places Clark has wandered. Right now I have uploaded pictures of the…