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Gossip Friday: Big Foot
From January 1939: Clark Gable was afflicted today with an ailment that brought no romantically sympathetic telegrams from his feminine fans. His 11-C size feet have swollen half a size, after six weeks of hoofing in patent leathers as a song and dance man for “Idiot’s Delight,” his latest motion picture. All his shoes tweak. Dr. H.A. Jones, a chiropodist, who was called in to see if something could be done to shrink the star’s growing feet, suggested Gable soak them in salt water twice a day.
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Gossip Friday: No Time Off
From September 1937: Metro studio offered Clark Gable six weeks more of vacation. The studio messenger found Gable in his dressing room right on the lot, where he had been hiding out for a couple of days. “I don’t want more time off,” Gable said, nearly flattening everybody with astonishment. He had come back to town quietly, gotten a script of his next story, which is “Test Pilot,” and become so interested in it he wanted to go to work.
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Gossip Friday: Prized Possessions
From June 1939: Clark Gable’s Books Are Prized Possessions Akron, Ohio–Many years before he started his film career, Clark Gable read many of the books in the bookcase pictured above and autographed his favorite ones The books and bookcases were given to Mr. and Mrs. Steve Belinsky, Portage county farmers, by W.H. Gable, father of the actor. Mrs. Belinksy is pictured as she looks over one of the books.
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Gossip Friday: How’m I Doin?
From December 1937: Clark Gable likes to “kid” during love scene rehearsals, which results in very natural action on the screen. If he has to kiss a leading lady several times, he will turn to the director with a grin and say, “How’m I doin’?”
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Gossip Friday: Looking for Jack
From October 1937: Clark Gable’s one wish is to find Jack Bates, who probably does not know the screen star is looking for him. In a recent interview, Gable was asked what more he possibly could want after gaining fame, wealth, friends and every luxury. Gable’s somewhat starting reply was: “I want to find Jack Bates. He saved my life once.” Years ago, before anyone had heard of Clark Gable, he was hoboing across the country. On his way to the west coast, he stopped off at Butte, Mont. He was emaciated and his belt was taken up the extra few notches. A stranger walked up to him and said,…
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Gossip Friday: Fed Up
From September 1937: Clark Gable is telling intimates he is “fed up” with his recent roles. And rightly. Those in the know say he is slipping just the tiniest bit at the box office. Well, you can’t always be first.
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Gossip Friday: Mudslide
From March 1941: The weather has been the topic of almost every conversation out here recently. The rain has caused floods, landslides and inconveniences for almost every one, and each land owner has his own problem to discuss. [Clark] Gable’s worry is his driveway. “You see,” he told me, “we have a good many horses on the place, and we can’t have any paved driveways. When cement gets wet, it is slippery, and the horses may fall. So I have crushed granite all over the place, and it does the trick as far as the animals are concerned. But it washes very badly, and each time we have a heavy…
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Gossip Friday: Brand New Duds
From November 1939: Fashion and local industry note: Out in Hollywood Clark Gable is sporting a brand new, fringed buckskin jacket made for him by Carl Scherer, Minneapolis Taxidermist. So pleased about it is Clark that he’s just ordered a whole suit of the same. Incidentally, Carole Lombard has also done a bit of shopping in town (by mail). She bought a whole flock of duck decoys from Le Boutin and Leo’s already had two reorders on them. Thought: Perhaps we’re overlooking this Hollywood market.
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Gossip Friday: Over and Under Exposed
From July 1938: As a newsreel cameraman, Clark Gable for a day was convinced he was a flop. For his role as a newsreel cameraman in “Too Hot to Handle,” Gable was called upon to cling to the top of a racing ambulance with his camera equipment while filming Myrna Lot trapped in a crashed burning plane. While Hal Rosson’s cameras were filming Gable and the burning plane on MGM’s Sixty Acres, Gable also was making an actual newsreel of Miss Loy and the blazing plane to be shown on the screen of his boss’ projection room. When Gable returned to the set the next day, he received a regulation…
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Gossip Friday: Too Close and Personal
From November 1956: Clark Gable has received tempting offers for the film rights to his life story which is a more dramatic tale than most movie heroes boast. But he intends to keep saying no, because he feels many of the most interesting episodes of his part are “too close and personal” to divulge them for public consumption–yet the biography wouldn’t be true without them.
