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Gossip Friday: A Rolling Stone
From January 1932: One of the screen’s greatest matinee idols–and he wants to be a rolling stone. Sitting on the set, Clark Gable admitted to me he still can’t believe his good fortune–fortune that has enabled him, in one year to play opposite Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo and now Marion Davies. The strange part of it is, he doesn’t want to go on with this glamorous life indefinitely. What he really wants, he confesses, is $200,000 and a chance to travel in the out-of-the-way places of the world. “I signed my 5-year contract against the advice of my agent and even my wife,” he told me. “My object…
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Gossip Friday: That Floating Feeling
From March 1934: Mrs. Kniffen ‘Has Floating Feeling’ As She Shakes Clark Gable’s Hand Looking up from her tea cup at a bridge tea yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Luther M. Kniffen, attractive young wife of Sheriff Kniffen, electrified the air with a casual “I Met Clark Gable the other day when I was in New York.” “Met him or saw him,” one of her listeners wanted to know. “Met him, shook hands with him in person, back stage at the Capitol Theatre.” “Were you thrilled?” queried another wide-eyed movie fan. “Wouldn’t you be, in the presence of America’s lover? I got so nervous thinking about meeting him that I expected I’d…
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Gossip Friday: A Gift to the Animals
From January 1953: Clark Gable’s Christmas present to the animals of Africa was that he is tired of killing and won’t shoot living creatures again, except maybe game birds for eating. Mr. G., now on location for “Mogambo,” has decided that most of his shooting from now on will be with a camera. Don’t know what happened because he used to be an avid big game hunter. It’s not his health. He’s feeling fine. Occasionally, perhaps, a little homesick for his ranch in Encino, where he maintains a full staff–cook, horseman, gardener and secretary–wherever he may roam. ____ This is true. He gave up game hunting and the remaining years…
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Gossip Friday: Tops for 1940
From December 1940: Clark Gable and Bette Davis can eat their Christmas turkey in peace. They may not win Oscars this year, but they have copped a far more important prize, from a viewpoint of financial security, the box-office rating as the most popular actor and actress of 1940. This is the second win for Miss Davis, who was accorded the same honor in 1939. Her closest competition this year came from Judy Garland and Myrna Loy. On the heels of Gable were Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, respectively. The poll was participated in by movie editors, theater owners, civic, educational and religious leaders.
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{Photos} On a Sleigh Ride
Here’s a Christmassy photo of Clark Gable if there ever was one! I’ve had this photo in my collection for several years: But I had no background info, no date, no location and no idea why on earth Clark Gable would be pulling three seemingly random ladies on a sled. I don’t much like posting pictures I have no information about so I left it in my unknown file and frankly forgot about it. So I was very happy to come upon a news clipping of this very photo complete with caption! Dated March 2, 1934: THRILLS HIS SCREEN FANS–Clark Gable, who has snarled traffic more than once during his…
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Gossip Friday: A Horse for Carole
From December 1936: Clark Gable’s Christmas gift to Carole Lombard was a thoroughbred three-gaited saddle horse; Carole, still sick in bed, is yearning to try out her latest pet.
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Gossip Friday: Not a Clotheshorse
From April 1941: One of the reasons, admittedly a minor one, that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard get along so famously is that both see eye to eye on the matter of “dressing up” and putting on the ritz. Framer Gable goes for those dusty old trousers and sweaters in his real farm life as well as in the still pictures, and Carole, he says, will have no part in that general feminine conspiracy which aims at getting the male into white-tie-and-tails at the slightest provocation. Gable’s new picture, with Rosalind Russell, is “The Uniform,” but the title doesn’t mean he’ll be duded up any more than usual. Gable is…
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Gossip Friday: Got Weeds?
From December 1941: Weeds have so over-run the Clark Gable-Carole Lombard garden, they’re offering cuttings of Tuberous Burdock and Nightblooming Pigweeds to friends.
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Gossip Friday: Laid to Rest
From November 24, 1960: Clark Gable’s body has been entombed beside the remains of actress Carole Lombard, the third of his five wives. Meanwhile the film star’s will was filed for probate Wednesday in Los Angeles. It describes his estate only as “in excess of $10,000.” All goes to his widow, the former Kay Williams Spreckels, except that Gable’s first wife, drama coach Josephine Dillon, now 75, receives title to the North Hollywood home where she lives. Only the widow and a few close friends and associates were present at a brief Episcopal committal service Wednesday in a mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial park. Air Force Chaplain Johnson E. West…
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Gossip Friday: At His Peak
From October 1960: Travelers back from Nevada, where they watched “The Misfits” shooting, say the big news is the way Clark Gable looks–fit and handsome, and at his absolute peak as a performer. __ And, sadly, dead in less than a month. I don’t know about their assessment–I have always thought he looks sickly in The Misfits.