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March Movie of the Month: After Office Hours (1935)
This month, Clark Gable is a rogue newspaperman (again) and Constance Bennett is a snooty socialite in After Office Hours. Clark is fast-talking, take-no-prisoners-newspaper editor Jim Branch, who is determined to dig up a juicy story on a corrupt millionaire. He starts sucking up to the newspaper’s music reviewer, wealthy socialite Sharon Norwood (Bennett), when he discovers she is close to the impending story. After the millionaire’s wife turns up dead, Sharon and Jim disagree on the culprit. Jim becomes determined to crack the case and reunite with Sharon, whom he has now fallen in love with. The plot is silly. The rogue newspaperman falling for the snooty rich…
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Gossip Friday: Good Day for Golf
From September 1940: Living in Hollywood is more or less like renting a perpetual reserved room in a madhouse. At 8am of a Sunday this journalist drove to Fox Hills golf course for his usual weekly game, still half asleep. Approaching the first tee he saw a mob of strange creatures emerge from the morning fog, accompanied by unearthly sounds of catcalls, screeching sirens and exploding guns. Any sane person would have gone home. We hung around. Presently there appeared Clark Gable, Bob Taylor, Carole Lombard, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy and other celebrities. It turned out to be the annual MGM golf tournament. When Mickey stepped up for his first…
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{The Brown Derby Restaurant} Part 2: Cooking for Clark Gable
I wrote earlier about the history of the Brown Derby Restaurant as well as it’s importance in Clark Gable history. And since it was his favorite restaurant, I couldn’t help but buy myself The Brown Derby Cookbook and get to cookin’ Clark’s favorites. From a cooking standpoint, I am very lucky that Clark was a meat and potatoes kind of guy. His favorite foods were steak, pancakes, potato salad, coleslaw, etc. No caviar or crepes suzette or cheese souffle for this Ohio-bred boy. There are over 500 recipes in the cookbook–everything from onion soup and chicken pot pie to strawberries romanoff and lobster medallions. (My husband suggested I do a Julie and…
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Gossip Friday: Tampering with his Tobacco
From June 1932: Big he-man Clark Gable, who doesn’t pull his punches, would like to know who was the dirty so-and-so who put pencil shavings with his choice tobacco in the tobacco jar. The finger of suspicion points to Buster Keaton–but yoo-hoo Buster, you know me, I never said you really did it. I just said some folks suspect you.
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{CMBA Films of the 1940’s Blogathon} February Movie of the Month: Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942)
This month, as Movie of the Month as well as my submission to the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Film of the 1940’s Blogathon, the focus is on 1942’s Somewhere I’ll Find You. Clark Gable is Jonny Walker and Robert Sterling is Kirk Walker, brothers who work together as war correspondents for a New York newspaper, and are just returning from overseas. They aren’t home for long before they are competing for the affection of Paula Lane (Lana Turner), a reporter who flip-flops between the two. When Paula is sent on assignment to Indochina and disappears, the brothers are commissioned to find her. Once they do find her, Pearl Harbor happens and…
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Gossip Friday: No Spat Between Gable and Harlow
From November 1935: Reports were published that Miss Harlow declared a dislike for Gable, and that she openly stated she would never appear in another picture with him. Other printed items vouched that Clark replied: “My pet name for Miss Harlow cannot be printed.” On the day those mis-facts appeared in print, Miss Harlow hurried to her studio publicity director to deny them. She arrived just at the moment when Gable telephoned from his sick-bed to voice and equally vehement denial. The truth is that Clark remarked that he preferred not to work with “a certain star.” Because he had just finished “Hold Your Man” with Jean, gossipers drew their…
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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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{New Article} 1940: How Does Gable Do It?
This article is one of a common theme: trying to determine why Clark Gable was so popular. At this point, Clark had been a major star for nine years. While that doesn’t seem like such a long time nowadays, to the fickle 1930’s audiences, it really was. “This won’t last, so I’m going to make my pile quick and get out!” Clark Gable told me, nearly eight years ago. The other day he smilingly admitted he had been a pretty poor prophet. Instead of getting out quickly, he has broken all records for year-after-year leadership at the box office. Throw in his Academy Award, his Rhett Butler triumph, his new…
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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!”