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Gossip Friday: Happy Birthday, Fieldsie
From July 1937: Screwiest birthday cake in Hollywood was the one at the birthday party of Carole Lombard’s pal-secretary-companion “Fieldsie.” “Fieldsie,” who used to work with Carole when both were Mack Sennett bathing beauties, and who has been inseparable from Carole ever since, was presented with the cake by Bob Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby, and Gail Patrick’s husband. Bob’s cake consisted entirely of hamburgers and hot dogs, with a “frosting” of mustard! The little decorations around the side were pickles. Most hilarious guests at the party were, of course, Carole and Clark Gable.
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Gossip Friday: A New Kind of Star
From March 1932: Yes sir, there’s no two ways about it: the old town’s changing. It’s no longer quite as mad as a hatter. Slowly but surely it’s gaining sense and balance. A few years ago, for instance, a star as brilliant as Clark Gable, would have set out with all his new found riches, to dazzle the town with 15 room mansions, swanky cars, yachts, scandals and parties. Listen to Gable. “I own two cars which I paid cash for. I rent an apartment. Just for six months at a time and not a year. I don’t even own furniture. I’m saving my money.” ____ This makes me think of Sunset…
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{New Article} 1932: The Great God Gable
I have had this article for a year; it has been sitting at the top of my “to type” pile. Every time I go to type it, I pass it up for another one because it is just too dang long and not even terribly interesting. In the magazine, it’s 11 pages. Typed and printed, it’s 13 pages and 6,055 words! And I wonder why I am beginning to get carpal tunnel. What also turned me off about it is that it is written by Adela Rogers St. Johns. What, you gasp, how can you not like Adela Rogers St. Johns?! She was an acclaimed female journalist, she wrote…
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The 1932 Mayfair Ball
The Mayfair Ball was annual event held every February by the exclusive Mayfair Club. It was the seen-and-be-seen event of the year, taking place in one of the posh Hollywood hotels. The event is best remembered by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fans for being the birthplace of their spark, as they began flirting for the first time at the Mayfair Ball in 1936. Well, it turns out that that wasn’t the first time Clark attended the ball. In 1932, he attended with Ria on his arm, and the magic of the night was descibed by Picture Play magazine: Beauty, Fashion and Fame Assemble on That Night of Nights, The Mayfair…
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Gossip Friday: Mobbed by Fans
From May 1934: Clark Gable came home from his personal apperance tour minus dozens of handkerchiefs, twenty-seven coat buttons–and a dress-shirt sleeve. The crowd in Kansas City was so dense that the crack train he was on was delayed thirty minutes while the police broke through the mob and got Gable aboard. In Baltimore, police refused to let him sleep in his own hotel! A huge crowd had massed in the corridor outside his room. He anticipated seeing many old friends in New York–but didn’t see one of them. He had no time, and they couldn’t crash through the crowds! On that same page of gossip was this piece about…
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{New Article} 1939: The Hilarious Friendship of Clark Gable and Andy Devine
Clark Gable wasn’t a glamorous gent. Not in private. This is no more proved than by examining his close friends. No tuxedo-wearing nightclubbers. One of Clark’s close friends was funny-looking, funny-sounding film sidekick Andy Devine. You may not recall the name, but the voice is unmistakable! Peter Lawford referred to it as “an asthmatic vacuum cleaner!” There exists in all Hollywood no finer, truer friendship than the tie between Clark Gable and Andy Devine. And certainly no two men in any country anywhere can testify to more fun and sheer keen enjoyment than results from that friendship. It began when Andy rode over to Clark’s place to look at a…
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September Movie of the Month: Dancing Lady (1933)
In 1933, Clark was in a musical–but no singing and dancing for him…just brooding and yelling. In Dancing Lady, Clark is Patch Gallagher, a short-fused Broadway producer who hires down-on-her-luck ex-burlesque dancer Janie Barlow (Joan Crawford) for the chorus line of his latest show. Janie is constantly pursued by a rich playboy admirer, Tod Newton (Franchot Tone). Patch begins to have feelings for plucky Janie, but grows bitter as it becomes obvious she is wrapped up with Tod. When he promotes her to the lead in the production, Tod becomes impatient (Janie said she’d marry him if the play fell through) and pays off the Broadway powers-that-be to shut the play…
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Gossip Friday: Gone Fishin’
From August 1935: All Clark Gable is waiting for is that two weeks between pictures. Boy, oh boy, has he got it all planned! Big excitement. Listen carefully, girls. Clark is going to leap into that old smelly fishing boat he chartered and go to sea for yellowtail! He won’t have to shave for two weeks, he will wear clothes you would probably give to the ashman, and what a time he will have. No floating around on dance floors in popular resorts for him.
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{New Article} 1934: Clark Gable Cuts the Apron Strings
As you can see if you peruse the Article Archive here on this site, I have a lot of Clark Gable articles. And I still have a massive stack of articles to type that seems to grow over time rather than deplete. Fan magazines, especially ones from the early 1930’s, can’t be taken to seriously. Studio publicity departments dropped lines to the magazines, feeding them what they wanted printed. And the magazines knew darn well what was fair to print and what was not. Clark and Ria on the outs in 1932 because he has been holed up in Joan Crawford’s dressing room? Nah…let’s put a nice little gossip item about…
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Gossip Friday: a Clark Gable Salad and a Greta Garbo Sandwich
From December 1931: Clark Gable has become a second Greta Garbo. No, no, little Oscar, he’s not walking in the rain and going mysterious on the home folks. It’s simply that he’s become so popular with the lads and lassies who go to the movies that scores of reporters follow him wherever he goes, trying to get hot news about him. Our faithful secret service makes us follow burning discoveries: He hates dark suits. If he had his way he’d only wear grey. He dislikes tuxedos because he doesn’t dare have them made in light material. His one objection to pictures is that he can’t wear grey suits on the…