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Culver City Welcomes Mrs. Rhett Butler!
Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were nortorious for their constant pranking of one another. Clark was usually the butt of the joke; Carole was usually the more elaborate one. One of the few times he was able to successfully turn the tables on his wife was when she reported to work for the first day of shooting in Culver City for her film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When she drove up to the studio, she was startled by a huge billboard on a truck proclaiming, “Culver City Welcomes Carole Lombard (Mrs. Rhett Butler) Home of GWTW”. She was handed the “key to the city” and a bouquet of carrots! Carole couldn’t contain her…
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Happy Birthday, Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard, actress, patriot, everyone’s friend and Clark Gable’s third wife, among other things, would be 104 if she was alive today. Not impossible, but improbable. What did seem improbable was that such a sweet and beautiful soul could be taken from the earth at the age of 33. I think often of a famous quote by Clark: “That’s the funny thing about life. The tough ones don’t make it.” I don’t think Carole would have done too many things differently if someone had told her she would only live to be 33. I think perhaps having a child was the only big thing left on her bucket list; she…
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Gossip Friday: Carole Gets Glammed Up
From November 1941: Quite the nicest gesture of any month was made by Carole Lombard during the location shooting of They Knew What They Wanted. After a particularly heavy day of shooting, Carole swished into the hotel dining room , fairly reeking of satin and glamour. With a special little nod to a family group at a corner table, she joined the rest of the company who proceeded to give her a razzing for her movie queen act. So Carole explained, “Last night I came into the dining room feeling very comfortable in slacks and no make-up. But after dinner the mother of those kids over in the corner came…
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It’s Carole Lombard Month!
It’s that time of year again…Carole Lombard Month here on DearMrGable.com! Every October (well, last year it was September because of my trip to Hollywood), we highlight the love of Clark’s life, his third wife, Carole Lombard. Naturally, doing all the research on Clark Gable that I do, I come across a great deal of Carole Lombard stuff. But I don’t try to integrate too much of her film career and her pre-Clark years into the site, because if I started to do that, pretty soon this would be a Clark and Carole site rather than a Clark one! And besides, Carole Lombard is very expertly covered by Vincent at…
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Gossip Friday: Happy Birthday, Fieldsie
From July 1937: Screwiest birthday cake in Hollywood was the one at the birthday party of Carole Lombard’s pal-secretary-companion “Fieldsie.” “Fieldsie,” who used to work with Carole when both were Mack Sennett bathing beauties, and who has been inseparable from Carole ever since, was presented with the cake by Bob Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby, and Gail Patrick’s husband. Bob’s cake consisted entirely of hamburgers and hot dogs, with a “frosting” of mustard! The little decorations around the side were pickles. Most hilarious guests at the party were, of course, Carole and Clark Gable.
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Gossip Friday: A New Kind of Star
From March 1932: Yes sir, there’s no two ways about it: the old town’s changing. It’s no longer quite as mad as a hatter. Slowly but surely it’s gaining sense and balance. A few years ago, for instance, a star as brilliant as Clark Gable, would have set out with all his new found riches, to dazzle the town with 15 room mansions, swanky cars, yachts, scandals and parties. Listen to Gable. “I own two cars which I paid cash for. I rent an apartment. Just for six months at a time and not a year. I don’t even own furniture. I’m saving my money.” ____ This makes me think of Sunset…
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{New Article} 1932: The Great God Gable
I have had this article for a year; it has been sitting at the top of my “to type” pile. Every time I go to type it, I pass it up for another one because it is just too dang long and not even terribly interesting. In the magazine, it’s 11 pages. Typed and printed, it’s 13 pages and 6,055 words! And I wonder why I am beginning to get carpal tunnel. What also turned me off about it is that it is written by Adela Rogers St. Johns. What, you gasp, how can you not like Adela Rogers St. Johns?! She was an acclaimed female journalist, she wrote…
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The 1932 Mayfair Ball
The Mayfair Ball was annual event held every February by the exclusive Mayfair Club. It was the seen-and-be-seen event of the year, taking place in one of the posh Hollywood hotels. The event is best remembered by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fans for being the birthplace of their spark, as they began flirting for the first time at the Mayfair Ball in 1936. Well, it turns out that that wasn’t the first time Clark attended the ball. In 1932, he attended with Ria on his arm, and the magic of the night was descibed by Picture Play magazine: Beauty, Fashion and Fame Assemble on That Night of Nights, The Mayfair…
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Gossip Friday: Mobbed by Fans
From May 1934: Clark Gable came home from his personal apperance tour minus dozens of handkerchiefs, twenty-seven coat buttons–and a dress-shirt sleeve. The crowd in Kansas City was so dense that the crack train he was on was delayed thirty minutes while the police broke through the mob and got Gable aboard. In Baltimore, police refused to let him sleep in his own hotel! A huge crowd had massed in the corridor outside his room. He anticipated seeing many old friends in New York–but didn’t see one of them. He had no time, and they couldn’t crash through the crowds! On that same page of gossip was this piece about…
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{New Article} 1939: The Hilarious Friendship of Clark Gable and Andy Devine
Clark Gable wasn’t a glamorous gent. Not in private. This is no more proved than by examining his close friends. No tuxedo-wearing nightclubbers. One of Clark’s close friends was funny-looking, funny-sounding film sidekick Andy Devine. You may not recall the name, but the voice is unmistakable! Peter Lawford referred to it as “an asthmatic vacuum cleaner!” There exists in all Hollywood no finer, truer friendship than the tie between Clark Gable and Andy Devine. And certainly no two men in any country anywhere can testify to more fun and sheer keen enjoyment than results from that friendship. It began when Andy rode over to Clark’s place to look at a…