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Gossip Friday: Carole Lombard’s Opinion on Whiskers
From March 1937: When it comes to sheer, downright having-fun-out-of-life, you’ve got to hand it to Carole Lombard and Clark Gable. These two have had more amusement out of their romance than most people get out of a whole lifetime. Both are inveterate practical jokers–and never does either let the oppurtunity pass to “gag” the other. Carole’s latest and biggest chance came with all the fuss over whether or not Clark was to raise a set of whiskers to play the role of Parnell. Hardly had the discussion begun at MGM than Gable began to get the works–first, mysterious men with long whiskers would pop up in the most unexpected…
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{Book Review} Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood
When I heard a bio on Myrna Loy was being released, I was very excited. Myrna’s autobiography,Being and Becoming, is hands down the best autobio I have read of a classic star. Honest and refreshingly un-fluffy, the book cemented me as a Myrna Loy fan for life. Unlike a lot of autobios, I felt that Myrna had really covered all the bases so I was intrigued as to what Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood could offer. Well. I can’t say this bio is overflowing with new information. I can’t say at all that I understand Myrna better as a person after reading it. I CAN say that I did…
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{Gossip Friday} If You Had 24 Hours to Live…
From April 1935: What would you do if you only had 24 hours to live? Carole Lombard…wants to gather her friends around her for the last bow. Instead of just a few, she prefers a large gay cocktail gathering in her home. “Because,” she said to me, “I think it would be great to go out with a ring of laughter and music in your ears, don’t you?” Cary Grant: “By cable, telephones, wires and radios I would get in direct communication with the few people I have hurt during my life. With death hovering near, I could explain and ask their forgiveness, a thing that seems too difficult to…
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{New Article} 1955: Clark Gable’s Haunted Love Life
This article is from August 1955 and is all about how Carole Lombard haunts his love life and pretty much dooms all his relationships. It tells what Kay Spreckels must do if she wants to overcome the ghost of Carole and settle down with Clark. By the time this magazine hit newstands, Kay was already Mrs. Gable. Far from doing anything to push Carole from his thoughts, Gable has tenderly preserved every vestige of her influence and presence. Just as one would not violate sacred religious objects, Gable has not tampered with any of the things or people in that household that were part of his life with Carole. The…
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Gossip Friday: Marilyn Monroe won’t be Clark’s “Lady”
From August 1955: Everybody at 20th Century Fox studio has been unhappy about Marilyn [Monroe], including Clark Gable. She was supposed to be his leading lady in “The Lumberjack and The Lady,” and the king was looking forward to playing opposite the Lady of the Calendars. What combo they’d make! ___ First I’ve heard of this project or even the prospect of Clark starring with Marilyn in 1955. Interesting. They’d have to wait five years…
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Gossip Friday: Life Doesn’t End at Forty, Clark
From May 1937, this is a reader letter in response to this article where Clark claims that life ends at forty: If Clark Gable really believes that “Life Ends at Forty”, let me remind him of a few gents who are over forty and doing very nicely, thank you. Lewis Stone is a fine example of what a man can do after he is forty; Wallace Beery isn’t slipping; Lionel Barrymore is not exactly on the shelf; although Warner Baxter may have a few gray hairs , we don’t stop to count them when we go see one of his pictures. Wake up, Clark! You sound like an old maid…
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April Movie of the Month: Laughing Sinners (1931)
Clark Gable is third billed in this syrupy drama behind Joan Crawford, naturally, and Neil Hamilton (who?) Unlike most of this roles of 1931–A Free Soul, Dance Fools Dance, Night Nurse–Clark is far from a thug; he plays the ultimate good boy out to save Joan Crawford’s soul. Clark is Carl, a saintly Salvation Army officer who rescues Ivy (Crawford), distraught over being dumped by her boyfriend (Hamilton), from jumping off a bridge. Under Carl’s influence, Ivy gives up her hard-drinking, hard-partying nightclub lifestyle and joins the Salvation Army. Temptation proves to be too great though, when her ex-lover returns and she falls back into old habits. If you are…
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{New Article} 1955: Clark Gable: His Life Story
I don’t usually like articles that are titled “Clark Gable’s Life Story.” Typically, depending on the time period, they are either short and fluffy versions of the truth or they are long, bloated and completely boring to Gable fans who already know he came from humble roots in Cadiz, Ohio and worked as an oil driller and telephone lineman. I have one magazine from the 1960’s that has such a story and the article is 25 pages long. I doubt you will ever be seeing that one typed by me and appearing in the archive! So I wasn’t too optimistic about this article, particularly since it’s from 1955 and Clark still…
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Gossip Friday: Lost in Mexico
From May 1940: Getting “lost” in Mexico has been a favorite pastime among Hollywoodites recently. Oh well–it’s good for a headline–and sometimes for a laugh. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, vacationing south of the border in a station wagon, were mildly surprised to learn that their studios had been worrying about them–all over the country’s newspapers. Eddie Albert, whose publicity department lost track of him while he was sailing off Mexico in his boat, returned to Hollywood with a tale that ties the two Mexican mysteries together neatly. A Mexican deckhand on his boat, Eddie claims, asked him for a big favor. “Please,” begged the Mexican, “when you get back…
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{New Article} 1936: A Heart to Heart Letter to Carole Lombard and Clark Gable
This article was printed early in Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s relationship, before anyone was really sure if this union was a passing fling or a sweeping romance. I’ve discovered that the fan magazines did this often–“An Open Letter To”…like the stars are really sitting down and reading some journalist’s advice. Oh well. Above is an artist’s rendering of Clark and Carole that accompanied the article. What do you think? Looks more like Ginger Rogers than Carole to me. I’ve seen worse Clark drawings but I’ve also seen much better! Dear Carole and Clark, Lately I’ve been thinking about the two of you and even envying you in an impersonal…