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2015 Year in Review
Happy 2016! This year, I slacked in some areas (no Movie of the Month features for the majority of the year, yikes), not as many articles posted as I’d like (I still have over 80 waiting to be typed), but did a lot of things that I’ve been meaning to do for years (reviewing “Gable and Lombard” (1976), digging into old newspapers to research Mrs. Gables, the site got a new webhost and a makeover, which was a long time coming). New articles added to the Article Archive this year: 1935: This Belongs to You! This Belongs to Me! 1935: I’m No Ladies Man, Says Clark Gable 1945: Gable! 1936: Gable’s…
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Gossip Friday: Secret Elopement
From March 1950, Louella Parsons: I can tell my readers that the lovely blonde Lady Sylvia Ashley Fairbanks Stanley had no idea that she was going to marry “King” Clark Gable 48 hours before she did on Tuesday, December 20. The previous Saturday she and Clark had lunched with Minna Wallis, who’d re-introduced them at a dinner months ago. That night they had dinner with Charles Feldman and agreed to dine with him again Tuesday. Tuesday morning, the telephone rang and Sylvia said to Charlie, “Something has happened. We cannot have dinner with you, but you’ll hear from us later.” That “something” was her elopement with Gable! Charlie didn’t know…
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Gossip Friday: Christmas Cow
From January 1940: Clark Gable, who had been at Fieldsie’s party with Carole Lombard (this was the first year they had discovered each other), slept well into the morning [on Christmas Day]. He had sent his lady love an appropriate gift, and when he arose he waited for her ecstatic telephone call. Secretly, he was also eager to see his own present from Carole. The first gifts of sweethearts are always the tenderest, the most elaborate and sentimental. Gable’s was. As he walked about, happy, sappy, in love, he came across an unexpected sight on his front lawn. There stood a forlorn heifer. None of the neighbors had cows. They are…
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Gossip Friday: Thank you, Youngster
From October 1936: Clark Gable plans a fitting reward for an honest little boy who evidently lives in Beverly Hills not far from the hotel where the actor resides. “The big moment” of millions of feminine fans entered a Beverly Hills drug store near the hotel, made a purchase and then departed. He was almost instantly overtaken by a small boy about ten or eleven years old, who thrust a wallet into Gable’s hand. It was the actor’s property. The boy explained that he had seen the actor drop it, and darted away as soon as he had returned the wallet, before Clark could learn his name. The star is…
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Gossip Friday: Stumped by Carole’s Gift
From October 1936: Carole Lombard has found a “topper” for the wreck of a car she sent Clark Gable as a Valentine gift. It is an antiquated fire engine. When the star learned the fire engine was for sale she hurried out and took an option on it. What Gable will do with the engine is a question. Gable turned the tables on Carole when she gave him the car, for he transformed the broken-down roadster into a snappy racing car. Carole feels that her latest gift will have him “stumped”!
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Gossip Friday: And The Next Mrs. Gable Is….
From January 1950, Hedda Hopper: A legal barrier is Clark Gable’s greatest protection against a married man’s date. Paulette Goddard is still married to Burgess Meredith–otherwise, I think that clever gal would have been the King’s queen by now. I never sell Paulette short in getting whatever she wants, and it certainly looks as if she wants Clarkie. I’m keeping my fingers crossed there for a long time to come, because I think Clark secretly longs to be wed again and he’s going to fall pretty hard when he does at last. _____ Funny that by the time this issue hit newsstands Clark WAS married….to Sylvia Ashley! Sorry Hedda…
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Marilyn Monroe and John Huston Remember Clark Gable
Clark Gable died 55 years ago today, at the age of 59. A heart attack struck him just days after finishing his final film, The Misfits, and a second one stilled his heart ten days after that. You can read more about his death and funeral here. See where he is buried here. The Misfits hit movie screens on February 1, 1961, on what would have been Clark’s 60th birthday. Clark had seen a rough cut and had declared it the best thing he’d ever done. Director John Huston and co-star Marilyn Monroe were both interviewed by the press around this time, and shared their memories of the late great…
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Gossip Friday: Surprising Fieldsie
From 1948: “I’m terribly sorry I won’t be able to be there for your birthday.” It was Clark Gable calling Mrs. Walter “Fieldsie” Lang from New York where he had gone to see “Command Decision.” (His next MGM movie). Eighteen hours later Clark walked in on the Langs–wearing a huge grin and carrying a magnum of champagne. “Fieldsie” Lang was Carole Lombard’s closest friend and secretary. Wild horses couldn’t have kept Clark away on that day.
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Gossip Friday: Happy as Larks
From November 1939: Lately I’ve seen both Clark Gable and Carole Lombard at lunch at Ruby Foo’s (this is the old Vendome) with decorator Tom Douglas and a few days later with Bill Haines at the Victor Hugo. They are deep in the business of buying advice and decorations for their ranch home. I can’t quite see streamlined, brittle Lombard on a ranch, even a very exceptional one. But they seem happy as larks.
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On the Auction Block, November 23
TCM has paired with Bonhams again for another classic-film themed auction, this time called “Treasures from the Dream Factory.” Everything is up for grabs on November 23. There are a few Clark Gable items; some of them I know I have seen sold at auction before, either on Ebay or in the 1996 Estate Auction. Clark’s personal bound screenplay for “The Hucksters.” (est. $3,000-$5,000) Clark Gable bound screenplay of The Hucksters Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1947. Mimeographed manuscript, screenplay by Luther Davis, 135 pp, November 15, 1946 (with revision pages as late as April 2, 1947), housed in yellow Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wrappers, with Script Department label to upper front cover, stamped “Complete,” with Script Department…