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Gossip Friday: Too Many Dance Partners
From July 1934: Clark Gable was at the recent Spinsters’ Ball, exclusive social soiree of Los Angeles. At the Spinsters, girls cut in on the men. Five hundred eager debutantes! For Clark, the evening was something like a game of rugby. No sooner would one cooing, little, starry-eyed girl snuggle into his arms than a smack at her elbow would jerk her away and another was in her place. It went on until six the next morning.
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November Movie of the Month: Mogambo (1953)
This month’s film is the 1953 jungle romance-adventure Mogambo. The most interesting thing about this film is that it is a remake of Red Dust, with Clark reprising his role. What man could reprise the leading role of the jungle Lothario twenty years later? Only Clark Gable, of course. Gable is Victor Marswell, who earns his living in Africa by trapping wild animals for zoos and carnivals. His no-nonsense way of life is interrupted by the arrival of Eloise “Honey Bear” Kelly (Ava Gardner), a sassy showgirl from New York who is stranded there. They clash at first but soon are bedfellows. Just as Honey Bear leaves, anthropologist Donald Nordley…
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Gossip Friday: Gone with the Wind Chatter
From May 1937: You wouldn’t think that Willie Powell’s walking out on a production called “The Emperor’s Candlesticks” would have an influence on Clark Gable’s playing the role of Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind” now, would you? But that’s Hollywood for you. It did have–for Willie has a mind of his own, and one of the very best in the acting profession it is too, and he realized that another not-so-hot to follow “Mrs. Cheyney” would endanger all that terrific advance his career has made since his lucky accident of being cast in the original “Thin Man.” Hence he went on his own sit-down strike in the desert…
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Carole Lombard and Clark Gable
In my humble experience with Clark Gable fans, there are two things that are the most popular topics: His role as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind and his tragic marriage to Carole Lombard. Sadly, Clark wouldn’t probably want to be remembered for either of those things. Rhett Butler left a bitter taste in his mouth and Carole, well…Carole was a touchy subject. Once, on a classic movie fan board years ago, I came across a discussion on the most romantic classic filmdom couples. Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, James Stewart and Gloria Stewart…these were the names that topped the lists. I found it…
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Gossip Friday: Tennis, Anyone?
From December 1938: Carole Lombard isn’t exactly the athletic type, but she’s got a tennis cup. It’s the Seabright cup, and a girl gets it only by winning the women’s singles three years in a row. The cup was won by tennis star Alice Marble, who promptly presented it to pal Carole as a gift.
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Carole Lombard Behaving Like a Mugg!
One of the things that is so admirable about Carole Lombard is that she was never afraid to be the clown. She didn’t care if her hair was out of place, her makeup smudged or her manicure outdated. I have always thought it was this quality that most attracted Clark Gable to her–if there was anything he despised in women, it was those who put on frilly, prissy airs. Proof of Carole’s photogenic wackiness is evident in a series of photos printed in the November 1940 issue of Screen Guide magazine. Lombard: Why the Most Popular Career Girl in Movies Enjoys Behaving Like a Mugg! One big fault of Hollywood…
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Gossip Friday: Poor Carole
From June 1937: Two things Clark Gable brought back with him from that Arizona hunting trip–and Carole Lombard liked neither! One was a goatee! During his absence from civilization, in the mountain forests, Clark raised it. When Carole saw it, she nearly fainted. “Off with it, or else!” she [demanded]. Not liking the “else,” Clark shaved the trick beard. Other item he brought back was a mountain lion. It’s still a cub, but even so, it’s tough. And it doesn’t like Carole. It snaps at her. However, Clark still has it. Talking of Carole, the poor girl suffers from rashes that burst out all over her whenever she gets even…
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The 13 Most Fascinating Women in John Barrymore’s Life
John Barrymore lists the thirteen most fascinating women in his life, from Look magazine, Nov. 5, 1940: The most fascinating woman I ever knew was my grandmother, Mrs. John Drew. But if you ask me to define glamour–well, I simply can’t. One doesn’t define that, and therein lies its charm. Actually, I haven’t the slightest notion as to what constitutes glamour. I really feel that to find out would be one of life’s tragedies–especially where a man’s search fir it in a woman is concerned. It is the very elusiveness of the quality, and the inability to define it that provides the incentve for the search that never should end. The best…
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Gossip Friday: Carole’s New Contract
From March 1937: [Carole Lombard engineered for herself] one of the finest, fattest new contracts in Hollywood–Paramount to pay her $150,000 per picture, for three pictures a year; Carole to have full and final say on all production details! And besides that, she’s to have the right to make one picture away from Paramount each year–when and what she pleases. Oh, I say, do you hear London calling?
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October Movie of the Month: The Easiest Way (1931)
This month is an eighth-billed, mustache-less Clark Gable as a noble laundryman in The Easiest Way. In this scandalous pre-code, Laura Murdock (Constance Bennett) is a young woman anxious to escape her impoverished family. She quickly realizes that the easiest way to do that is by being “kept” by rich men. She begins an affair with afluent businessman William (Adolphe Menjou), who keeps her in furs and expensive jewels. Although this brings her the riches and lifestyle she has always dreamed of, it alienates her from the man she really loves (Robert Montgomery) and her family. Especially her sister, Peg (Anita Page), who married hard-working blue collar Nick (Clark Gable), who…