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Gossip Friday: A Real Knockout
From October 1936: Clark Gable has been offered $50,000 to fight Max Baer, former world’s heavyweight champion. He says he may accept it if he finds he has enough time between pictures to do the necessary training. The offer was made by Tom Gallery, veteran California fight promoter, just after Gable had knocked out Allen Pomeroy, former intercollegiate champion, in a fistic battle for the Cosmopolitan production, “Cain and Mabel, … with Marion Davies and Gable co-starred. Simultaneously, it was revealed that Gable had made application to the state boxing commission for a permit to engage in professional boxing. Commenting on the offer to meet Baer, Gable said he could…
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Gossip Friday: Praise for The Queen
From October 1938: To her husband she’s Minnie. To her public she’s Myrna Loy, but to Clark Gable she is The Queen. … “At first I was a little afraid of her,” Gable admitted. “I thought she was mysterious but I soon learned that there was no mystery about her at all. I found her to be down to earth folks, treating the lowliest worker with the same respect and friendliness as those in the upper brackets. Anybody can talk to her and she listens intently. “She is a comfortable person. She has definite ideas and is always nonchalant about them. She also gets what she wants for she has…
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Gossip Friday: Pending Engagement
From August 1938: Clark Gable’s second wife, Rhea, has accepted his financial compromise and Mr. Gable will announce his engagement to Carole Lombard before the end of this year. ___ Not so much, as the divorce was not final until March 1939.
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Gossip Friday: So’s Your Old Man
From October 1941: Clark Gable and a party of three had gone on a hunting trip up in northern Canada and on their return to the States stopped in a small town. A leading cafe was called for reservations for a party of four. “Who is calling?” the proprietor asked. “Clark Gable,” Clark replied. “So’s your old man,” retorted the manager, “if you want to eat here come on down and take your chances!”—and was he bowled over when Gable showed up.
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Gossip Friday: Praise From Roz
From July 1941: “[Clark Gable] never once–literally or figuratively–stepped on my toes in the midst of a key scene,” said Miss Russell [of working with Clark in “They Met in Bombay”], “He never tried to ‘throw’ me by altering his actions or his voice unexpectedly. And he never once gave me that superior ‘down the nose’ delivery calculated to unbalance a player opposite. I’ve encountered that elsewhere too.” Miss Russell further explained that Gable never sought to maneuver her into ungraceful or disadvantageous positions–position which would give the audience an uninterrupted view of the back or her neck while she was speaking her best lines! “On the contrary,” she said,…
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Gossip Friday: Good Exercise
From May 1940: “Gone with the Wind” [director Victor Fleming] is now directing Clark (Rhett Butler) Gable in “Boom Town”–and thereby hangs a chucklesome anecdote. Seems that Clark, who unmercifully ribbed Fleming during the filming of “Gone” by charging him with slave-driving tactice, has been harping on the same theme during “Boom Town.” The other day, with visitors on the set, he commented loudly on the “cruelty” Fleming displayed by making him carry Vivien Leigh up a flight of stairs 22 times or “GWTW.” “Clark,” retorted the director, “I’ll let you in on a secret–just to prove that ribbing often backfires. The third take was okay–you carried her upstairs the…
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Gossip Friday: My Philosophy
From December 1940 (Jimmie Fidler): I like Clark Gable’s philosophy: “When I can’t take what is dished out to me, at the dough I’m paid, I’ll be so ashamed of myself that I won’t have to be fired–I’ll quit!”
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Gossip Friday: Gloves On or Off
From July 1936: A script clerk’s job apparently seems very unimportant–until something goes wrong. For instance: We were “picking up” an exterior night shot. Hundreds of extras were called and many “bit” people were on the set. Suddenly [director W.S.] Van Dyke asks, “Did Clark Gable have the gloves on or off as he was leaving the Paradise night club when we shot it the other day?” There’s a dead silence. Clark remembers. He thinks he had them on. His valet, who usually stands by, says he was on an errand the day we shot the interior. The assistant director and the property man had been so busy that day…
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Gossip Friday: Namesake Salad
From December 1940: Clark Gable NEVER orders the “Clark Gable Salad” on the MGM cafe menu. ___ The Clark Gable Salad consisted of green chicory chopped with romaine, a deep covering of hard-boiled eggs and a circle of slivered beets with French dressing. Yuck.
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Gossip Friday: Burned Up
From October 1941: Carole Lombard was “burned up” today over radio movie gossip reports that 1. She was critically ill, And 2. That she was going to get a divorce from her husband, Clark Gable. She was perfectly well, said Miss Lombard, and neither she nor Mr. Gable had any intention of getting a divorce. They had just returned from a hunting trip to South Dakota. “We heard these reports on the radio of the car coming home,” said Miss Lombard. “But it was when we arrived and the calls began coming in that we got really angry.”