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On Valentine’s Day, Clark Gable Drives Carole Lombard Crazy!
On Valentine’s Day in 1936, Clark Gable was heading to the studio for a day on the set of San Francisco when he found an old, dilapidated Model T Ford in his parking space, painted white with big red hearts on it. The note attached to the steering wheel was unsigned–saying only “You’re driving me crazy!” It could be from nobody but Carole Lombard–the reigning queen of gags. The car had cost her fifteen dollars at a junk yard and five hundred to be decorated and put in working order! Her and Clark had begun quite the flirtation over the past few weeks–at The Mayfair Ball and at Jock Whitney’s house party just…
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{New Article} 1953: Gable and a Girl Named Kelly
If you take one look at the Article Archive, you’ll note that the majority of the articles (we’re up to over 130! ) are from the 1930’s and 40’s. This being mainly because that is when Clark Gable was at the peak of stardom and of most interest to writers and the public. As he aged, the top headlines went to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis, Tony Curtis, etc. I can usually snap up any fan magazine from the 30’s and 40’s and find at least one Clark gossip item, article or photo. The 1950’s is hit or miss. Clark was in his fifties and, while still very much respected,…
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Gossip Friday: Rhett Refuses to Twang
From June 1939: Clark Gable, even, is taking his role of Rhett Butler very, very seriously. More seriously than any he’s every played before, his pals tell us. But he’s not going to try to talk with a Southern accent. So different from Vivien Liegh, the English gal who got the Scarlett O’Hara role. Vivien IS developing a Southern drawl for the film. Even to the extent of snooting her English pals, these nights. She turns down their dinner and party invitatons with this classic–“So soddy, my deahs–but I just cahn’t afford to be exposed to your broad A’s. I’ve got to talk Southern, honey!”
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{The Brown Derby Restaurant} Part 1: The History
This post is Part One of a series of posts I will be doing regarding Clark Gable’s favorite restaurant in Hollywood, The Brown Derby. The Brown Derby Restaurant was a Hollywood standard. In its heyday, it was as famous and as symbolic of Hollywood as as the Hollywood sign or Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I don’t think I have read a single book on a Hollywood star yet in which the Brown Derby wasn’t mentioned, even in passing. A 1932 article described it as such: The Brown Derby is more than a Hollywood institution. It is not only a place to meet and talk over contracts and plan divorces and further romance under…
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Gossip Friday: Don’t Believe Your Hunches
From February 1932: Playing hunches or other psychic suggestions is not Clark Gable’s way of doing things. “I don’t believe in hunches at all,” he argued. “In fact my experience has been that hunches work out exactly the opposite way. A lot of people kid themselves into believing a hunch made them do this, that or the other thing that panned out well. As a matter of fact, it was either their own good judgement or advice from outside sources that guided them and not a hunch at all. They judt don’t stop to analyze the reasons behind their own decisions and give all the credit to an imaginary hunch.”…
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Gossip Friday: The Grieving Husband
From February 24, 1942: Clark Gable today was expected to report back to work at his studio within a few days to begin work on “Somewhere I’ll Find You.” The production was postphoned indefinitely when the actor’s wife, Carole Lombard, perished in a plane crash in Nevada. From February 27, 1942: Clark Gable did not actually work before the cameras the first two days after returning to MGM for “Somewhere I’ll Find You.” He sat quietly on the set talking to his director, Wesley Ruggles, and watching various scenes. From March 2, 1942: What can Hollywood offer Clark Gable–without Carole Lombard? It certainly can’t tempt him with more money, more fame,…
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Remembering Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard died suddenly71 years ago today, at the age of 33, when her plane crashed into Table Rock Mountain near Las Vegas. Her husband, Clark Gable, was shattered. I have little doubt that the day that he stood at the base of the mountain, looking up at the burning wreckage and knowing his wife was up there, was the worst day of his life. But he was not alone in his grief–Carole was truly a person who was loved by all who knew her, even if the only way they knew her was on the screen. I have posted this fan poem before, but it is so beautiful it is…
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January Movie of the Month: Test Pilot (1938)
This month, Clark Gable is a fearless flyer, Myrna Loy is his worried wife and Spencer Tracy is his brooding sidekick in Test Pilot. Clark is Jim Lane, a boozing, womanizing army test pilot who walks to the beat of his own drummer. On one trip, his plane starts leaking gas and he lands on the field of a Kansas farm, where Ann Barton (Loy) lives with her parents. Their sparring turns to mutual attraction soon after and by the time Jim’s best friend and mechanic, Gunner Morris (Tracy) arrives to help fix the plane, they are in love. When Jim brings the plane home to New York, he has…
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{New Article} 1933: Gable Answers Your Questions!
Early 1930’s fan magazine articles aren’t exactly a pleasure to read, for the most part. In my experience, most articles from this period are so fluffy, drawn-out, pointless and so unbelievably long that you wonder if they had a word count that had to be met in each magazine so they just filled it with junk with the occaisonal hidden gem. That being said, I actually like this article. True to form, it is entirely too long–nearly 4,000 words total! I can’t even imagine PEOPLE magazine or something of that sort printing an interview with a star that is 4,000 words. A few months prior, MOTION PICTURE magazine had an…
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Gossip Friday: Moving On Out
From June 1932: When Clark Gable’s wife went to New York, Clark gave up the apartment that they had occupied together and moved into bachelor quarters. But he didn’t give anybody the address and when he appeared at the studio his manager was constantly by his side to keep him from being questioned about the divorce, which folks say is imminent. However, in his new neighborhood word sort of got around among the kids that Clark was living in that corner house and dozens of little girls–all under ten, Mrs. Gable–have presented themselves at the front door, welcomed Clark to his new house and asked for an autographed picture. In…