• Gossip

    Gossip Friday: This Calls for a Rewrite

    From April 1938: Clark Gable knows now that it pays to be particular about his stories and so he has sent Too Hot to Handle back for a rewriting job. He and Metro Goldwyn Mayer had many a battle over Test Pilot and Clark held it up for eighteen weeks until he knew the story was right. The result is that Test Pilot is breaking records and and has been held over in Hollywood for another week–a thing that rarely happens at the Chinese. His objection, I hear, is that the newsreel cameraman, instead of being the hero we know him to be, is pictured as a faker whose exploits…

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Quite the Chicken Rancher

    From March 1939: You’ve never heard of a more enthusiastic rancher than Clark Gable. He has bought 1200 chickens to go with the five that Andy Devine gave him as a gag birthday present, also some pheasant and a plow for the mule, Bessie, the gift of Carole Lombard.

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Not For Sale

    From December 1941: The dilapidated automobile that Carole Lombard gave Clark Gable is “not for sale at any price,” Gable told salesmen and souvenir hunters. Specifically, he refused $1,000 for the ancient chariot. 

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Stylin’

    From February 1938: Tailors of the nation cast a practiced eye over some of America’s celebrities Tuesday and measured up 10 men, including President Roosevelt, for sartorial honors. The President took top ranking among wearers of double-breasted dinner jackets.  Clark Gable, the actor, won for appearing best dressed in sports clothes. “Men and women both think so,” said the national conference of the merchant tailor designers association, meeting here with 600 delegates from all parts of the United States and Canada.   

  • Audio

    {Radio} The Chase and Sanborn Hour

    On July 1, this website turned 7 years old! I didn’t celebrate this milestone on the site since a much more important milestone occurred on that very day: Olivia de Havilland’s 100th birthday. When the site started seven years ago, it was completely hand-coded. I taught myself coding by buying some website software and a how-to book. As the years have gone on, the site has had many face-lifts and finally I went fully into WordPress, which is much easier to keep up with. Throughout all these changes, I’ve lost some content due to formatting issues–most of which is the audio. It’s a bit painstaking to edit the audio and…

  • Articles

    {New Article} 1932: Gable Denies Divorce Rumors

    This article from 1932 appeared in the same magazine and was by the same writer as last week’s article, appearing nearly a year later. Oh and what a difference a year makes! Just the year before, she was asking him what kind of woman he preferred. Not anymore! Now he is being painted as the perfect husband and family man. “The divorce rumors about Mrs. Gable and me are absurd!” says Clark Gable. “They are really funny. Hollywood can never break my marriage. I say that positively. It is impossible. I certainly have not changed, so far as my personal life is concerned. I still want the things that are…

  • Gossip

    Gossip Friday: Still Kicking

    From March 1941: Clark Gable’s still kicking That regularly recurring report of Clark Gable’s death was going the rounds again this week; the rumor originated in Georgia this time and had the star smashed to smithereens in an automobile accident. As usual, a studio executive had to go through the red-tape ceremony of going over to Gable’s set and asking him whether he was dead or alive.  

  • Articles

    {New Article} 1931: Will Gable Take the Place of Valentino?

    Here we have an article featuring new star Clark Gable, comparing him to belated silent star Rudolph Valentino, whose untimely death just a few years earlier was still fresh on everyone’s minds. Once in a lifetime—and maybe twice—there flashes across the screen a man with the power to make all women feel that they are in danger. Such danger as all women prefer to peaceful safety. Once—and perhaps twice—we see a man who, when he kisses the heroine on the screen, kisses you—and you—and me. A man with an earthy quality—call it romance, call it glamour, call it sex. No matter what you call it, there it is, compelling and…