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Gossip Friday: A Gift to the Animals
From January 1953: Clark Gable’s Christmas present to the animals of Africa was that he is tired of killing and won’t shoot living creatures again, except maybe game birds for eating. Mr. G., now on location for “Mogambo,” has decided that most of his shooting from now on will be with a camera. Don’t know what happened because he used to be an avid big game hunter. It’s not his health. He’s feeling fine. Occasionally, perhaps, a little homesick for his ranch in Encino, where he maintains a full staff–cook, horseman, gardener and secretary–wherever he may roam. ____ This is true. He gave up game hunting and the remaining years…
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Gossip Friday: Tops for 1940
From December 1940: Clark Gable and Bette Davis can eat their Christmas turkey in peace. They may not win Oscars this year, but they have copped a far more important prize, from a viewpoint of financial security, the box-office rating as the most popular actor and actress of 1940. This is the second win for Miss Davis, who was accorded the same honor in 1939. Her closest competition this year came from Judy Garland and Myrna Loy. On the heels of Gable were Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, respectively. The poll was participated in by movie editors, theater owners, civic, educational and religious leaders.
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{Photos} On a Sleigh Ride
Here’s a Christmassy photo of Clark Gable if there ever was one! I’ve had this photo in my collection for several years: But I had no background info, no date, no location and no idea why on earth Clark Gable would be pulling three seemingly random ladies on a sled. I don’t much like posting pictures I have no information about so I left it in my unknown file and frankly forgot about it. So I was very happy to come upon a news clipping of this very photo complete with caption! Dated March 2, 1934: THRILLS HIS SCREEN FANS–Clark Gable, who has snarled traffic more than once during his…
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Gossip Friday: A Horse for Carole
From December 1936: Clark Gable’s Christmas gift to Carole Lombard was a thoroughbred three-gaited saddle horse; Carole, still sick in bed, is yearning to try out her latest pet.
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Gossip Friday: Not a Clotheshorse
From April 1941: One of the reasons, admittedly a minor one, that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard get along so famously is that both see eye to eye on the matter of “dressing up” and putting on the ritz. Framer Gable goes for those dusty old trousers and sweaters in his real farm life as well as in the still pictures, and Carole, he says, will have no part in that general feminine conspiracy which aims at getting the male into white-tie-and-tails at the slightest provocation. Gable’s new picture, with Rosalind Russell, is “The Uniform,” but the title doesn’t mean he’ll be duded up any more than usual. Gable is…
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Gossip Friday: Got Weeds?
From December 1941: Weeds have so over-run the Clark Gable-Carole Lombard garden, they’re offering cuttings of Tuberous Burdock and Nightblooming Pigweeds to friends.
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Gossip Friday: Laid to Rest
From November 24, 1960: Clark Gable’s body has been entombed beside the remains of actress Carole Lombard, the third of his five wives. Meanwhile the film star’s will was filed for probate Wednesday in Los Angeles. It describes his estate only as “in excess of $10,000.” All goes to his widow, the former Kay Williams Spreckels, except that Gable’s first wife, drama coach Josephine Dillon, now 75, receives title to the North Hollywood home where she lives. Only the widow and a few close friends and associates were present at a brief Episcopal committal service Wednesday in a mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial park. Air Force Chaplain Johnson E. West…
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Gossip Friday: At His Peak
From October 1960: Travelers back from Nevada, where they watched “The Misfits” shooting, say the big news is the way Clark Gable looks–fit and handsome, and at his absolute peak as a performer. __ And, sadly, dead in less than a month. I don’t know about their assessment–I have always thought he looks sickly in The Misfits.
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Remembering Clark Gable
Clark Gable died 57 years ago today, at the age of 59. The King was gone and would never be replaced. Read about Clark’s death and funeral here. See Clark’s final resting place here. Here is an article made up of little tidbits about Clark; it was syndicated in newspapers the following week: Gable’s Label Truly Earned by Leonard Lyons Syndicated Press, November 23, 1960 Gable…No matter what the Box Office records showed each year, Clark Gable was Hollywood’s unchallenged King. Tyrone Power once told a group of us about a lesson from an advertising man concerning the significance of movie-billing: “The only names which matter on a movie marquee are…
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Gossip Friday: Causing an Uproar
Since tomorrow is Veterans Day, here is an item that appeared in October 1943: Clark Gable Throws Pentagon Into Uproar As He Talks War It was colossal! The army may have thought it could keep a press conference with Clark Gable confined to a decorous discussion of the man-sized job he’s doing, but it knows better today. He’s a captain in the air forces, an aerial gunner and a cameraman in a Flying Fortress, shot at, and missed. Back from a European assignment in the Air Force, Gable threw the Pentagon building into a furor as he walked to his first press conference. The former movie actor told of his last…