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{New Article} 1937: Clark Gable Answers the Call of the Wild
No, this article from 1937 isn’t rehashing Clark Gable’s hit movie of the same name. It’s all about Clark going hunting for mountain lions. Which I did not find particularly thrilling, to be honest. The one interesting tidbit is the story of how Clark caught that wild mountain lion he gave to Carole Lombard, in his own words. “Our next cat didn’t give us such a long chase. The dogs had him treed and were dancing and howling below him when we arrived. Then I had to laugh. It was a cub, about six months old, and it was trying to put up a ferocious front. “I tried to think…
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Gossip Friday: Clark Gable, Earthquake Expert
From February 1934: Clark Gable is quite the California booster. During a misplaced warm spell, someone remarked, “This is earthquake weather.” “Oh,no,” defended Clark politely, “it isn’t the weather that causes the earthquakes, it’s the earthquakes that cause the weather!” Now all he has to do is alibi the earthquakes!
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1932: The Fans Speak Out About New Star Clark Gable
Clark Gable didn’t tiptoe into pop culture, he exploded. In 1931, he went from a virtual nobody to a superstar practically overnight. By the time 1932 arrived, he was declared either the next big thing or the next flash in the pan. Fan magazines of the time are of course full of fluff and are driven by studio publicity hounds–but what did the fans think? The following letters were all written to Picture Play magazine in 1932. From January 1932: After seeing Clark Gable in “Dance, Fools, Dance,” “The Finger Points,” and “A Free Soul,” I believe him to be the greatest find the screen has ever known. He has…
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70 Years Ago Today, Clark Gable Joins the Army
Within weeks of Carole Lombard’s untimely death in January 1942, rumors swirled that Clark Gable was going to give up Hollywood for good and take off for the Armed Forces like so many other stars had. Carole had wanted her “Pappy” to join while she was alive; in fact her last telegram to him urged him to “join this man’s [Roosevelt’s] army!” Not surprisingly, MGM was desperate to hold on to him, after having lost so many male stars to the service already and tried to dissuade him. Clark made no public statements one way or the other, so the public was left to speculate what was next for their…
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Gossip Friday: Gable’s Beauty Salon
From February 1932: Gable’s Beauty Salon across from the Paramount Studio has doubled its business since the sudden popularity of Clark Gable. Somehow the impression has circulated throughout the neighborhood that the shop is operated or financed by “What-A-Man” Gable and that he may drop in any minute. There is a large framed picture of Clark, placed in the shop by the shrewd owner of the establishment, who incidentally has never seen the Great Moment.
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{New Article} 1931: Why Women Go Crazy About Clark Gable
This article was published in Photoplay magazine the month after this one I posted this weekend. The second feature article on Clark Gable, this one is a bit dull as it is just speculation on why women suddenly are nuts about him. Clark Gable is the male sensation of the screen today because in every role he has played the part of a man who fears neither Jack Dempsey nor Peggy Joyce. He is a caveman with a club in one hand and a book of poetry in the other. Here is no tender lover, strumming sweet love songs; no smitten cavalier throwing his mantle over a puddle to save the…
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August Movie of the Month: Command Decision (1948)
I am going to be perfectly blunt. Here’s the thing about this movie: I don’t like it. I don’t like it and I wish that I did like it. But having just viewed it for probably the sixth or seventh time, it’s confirmed–not my cup of tea. Gable is K.C. Dennis, an American General in England during World War II. His duty is to plan bombing missions over Germany, at the loss of hundreds of men. Despite objections from fellow soldiers and Congressmen, he continues his mission because he believes it is key to the U.S. victory over Germany. Clark is supported by a great male cast, including Walter Pidgeon,…
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{New Article} 1931: What a Man–Clark Gable
As I mentioned earlier this week, this article is the first one on Clark Gable to appear in Photoplay magazine. Clark’s ascend to fame wasn’t very gradual–one month he was completely off the radar and the next the fan magazines were frantically scrambling to find out his backstory so they could put together an article. Well, every time a group of Hollywood’s prettiest get together these days, they say it’s a Gable Club. They’re all gabbling about Gable. It seems the lad has captured the fancy, not alone the screen fannettes, but also of the loveliest of the screen stars themselves. It is a remarkable thing, but typical of Hollywood,…
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Gossip Friday: Spotting the Widower
Some gossip about Clark from the August after Carole Lombard’s death… From August 1942: Our most pleasant experience in many weeks: spotting Clark Gable dining out for the first time since his loss, accompanied by friends at the Vine Street Brown Derby. Later we saw him shaking hands with young soldiers who clustered around him. Gable looks more fit than he has in a long time, lean and tanned from riding to and from work on his motorcycle. Remember that old Ford that Carole Lombard dolled with fancy paint and gave to Clark Gable for a Valentine years ago? It was so much a part of their happy love story…
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In 1931, Clark Gable was “On the Up and Up”
This week I have been digging through Photoplay magazines from 1931–the earliest year of fan magazines my Gable-hunting self would dig through, because before 1931 Clark Gable didn’t exist in Hollywood. He was a nobody and not worth mentioning. In fact, that is the case for most of 1931. He is not even mentioned at all in film reviews for films like Night Nurse and The Easiest Way. It is not until A Free Soul comes along in the summer that his name starts popping up. In September, the Questions & Answer section of Photoplay, where readers write in and ask random questions about their favorite stars, noted this: Hundreds…