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Gossip Friday: Tennis, Anyone?
From December 1938: Carole Lombard isn’t exactly the athletic type, but she’s got a tennis cup. It’s the Seabright cup, and a girl gets it only by winning the women’s singles three years in a row. The cup was won by tennis star Alice Marble, who promptly presented it to pal Carole as a gift.
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Carole Lombard Behaving Like a Mugg!
One of the things that is so admirable about Carole Lombard is that she was never afraid to be the clown. She didn’t care if her hair was out of place, her makeup smudged or her manicure outdated. I have always thought it was this quality that most attracted Clark Gable to her–if there was anything he despised in women, it was those who put on frilly, prissy airs. Proof of Carole’s photogenic wackiness is evident in a series of photos printed in the November 1940 issue of Screen Guide magazine. Lombard: Why the Most Popular Career Girl in Movies Enjoys Behaving Like a Mugg! One big fault of Hollywood…
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Gossip Friday: Poor Carole
From June 1937: Two things Clark Gable brought back with him from that Arizona hunting trip–and Carole Lombard liked neither! One was a goatee! During his absence from civilization, in the mountain forests, Clark raised it. When Carole saw it, she nearly fainted. “Off with it, or else!” she [demanded]. Not liking the “else,” Clark shaved the trick beard. Other item he brought back was a mountain lion. It’s still a cub, but even so, it’s tough. And it doesn’t like Carole. It snaps at her. However, Clark still has it. Talking of Carole, the poor girl suffers from rashes that burst out all over her whenever she gets even…
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The 13 Most Fascinating Women in John Barrymore’s Life
John Barrymore lists the thirteen most fascinating women in his life, from Look magazine, Nov. 5, 1940: The most fascinating woman I ever knew was my grandmother, Mrs. John Drew. But if you ask me to define glamour–well, I simply can’t. One doesn’t define that, and therein lies its charm. Actually, I haven’t the slightest notion as to what constitutes glamour. I really feel that to find out would be one of life’s tragedies–especially where a man’s search fir it in a woman is concerned. It is the very elusiveness of the quality, and the inability to define it that provides the incentve for the search that never should end. The best…
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Gossip Friday: Carole’s New Contract
From March 1937: [Carole Lombard engineered for herself] one of the finest, fattest new contracts in Hollywood–Paramount to pay her $150,000 per picture, for three pictures a year; Carole to have full and final say on all production details! And besides that, she’s to have the right to make one picture away from Paramount each year–when and what she pleases. Oh, I say, do you hear London calling?
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October Movie of the Month: The Easiest Way (1931)
This month is an eighth-billed, mustache-less Clark Gable as a noble laundryman in The Easiest Way. In this scandalous pre-code, Laura Murdock (Constance Bennett) is a young woman anxious to escape her impoverished family. She quickly realizes that the easiest way to do that is by being “kept” by rich men. She begins an affair with afluent businessman William (Adolphe Menjou), who keeps her in furs and expensive jewels. Although this brings her the riches and lifestyle she has always dreamed of, it alienates her from the man she really loves (Robert Montgomery) and her family. Especially her sister, Peg (Anita Page), who married hard-working blue collar Nick (Clark Gable), who…
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Culver City Welcomes Mrs. Rhett Butler!
Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were nortorious for their constant pranking of one another. Clark was usually the butt of the joke; Carole was usually the more elaborate one. One of the few times he was able to successfully turn the tables on his wife was when she reported to work for the first day of shooting in Culver City for her film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When she drove up to the studio, she was startled by a huge billboard on a truck proclaiming, “Culver City Welcomes Carole Lombard (Mrs. Rhett Butler) Home of GWTW”. She was handed the “key to the city” and a bouquet of carrots! Carole couldn’t contain her…
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Happy Birthday, Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard, actress, patriot, everyone’s friend and Clark Gable’s third wife, among other things, would be 104 if she was alive today. Not impossible, but improbable. What did seem improbable was that such a sweet and beautiful soul could be taken from the earth at the age of 33. I think often of a famous quote by Clark: “That’s the funny thing about life. The tough ones don’t make it.” I don’t think Carole would have done too many things differently if someone had told her she would only live to be 33. I think perhaps having a child was the only big thing left on her bucket list; she…
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Gossip Friday: Carole Gets Glammed Up
From November 1941: Quite the nicest gesture of any month was made by Carole Lombard during the location shooting of They Knew What They Wanted. After a particularly heavy day of shooting, Carole swished into the hotel dining room , fairly reeking of satin and glamour. With a special little nod to a family group at a corner table, she joined the rest of the company who proceeded to give her a razzing for her movie queen act. So Carole explained, “Last night I came into the dining room feeling very comfortable in slacks and no make-up. But after dinner the mother of those kids over in the corner came…
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It’s Carole Lombard Month!
It’s that time of year again…Carole Lombard Month here on DearMrGable.com! Every October (well, last year it was September because of my trip to Hollywood), we highlight the love of Clark’s life, his third wife, Carole Lombard. Naturally, doing all the research on Clark Gable that I do, I come across a great deal of Carole Lombard stuff. But I don’t try to integrate too much of her film career and her pre-Clark years into the site, because if I started to do that, pretty soon this would be a Clark and Carole site rather than a Clark one! And besides, Carole Lombard is very expertly covered by Vincent at…