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Gone with the Wednesday: New Books and The Wind in Texas
As we head towards the end of the year, there’s more Gone with the Wind-related events happening! Ruth’s Journey, an authorized prequel of sorts to GWTW that focuses on Mammy’s life (Yes, apparently her name was Ruth?!) has been released. It was written by Donald McCaig, who also wrote Rhett Butler’s People a few years ago. This new book doesn’t seem to sit well with diehard GWTW fans. I haven’t read it yet (frankly don’t know if I will at all) but Kendra over at vivandlarry.com did. The Scarlett Letters: The Making of the Film Gone with the Wind has just been released as well. It’s by John Wiley Jr.,…
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{Ohio} Palmyra, Where Clark Gable Lived
In 1917, Clark’s father Bill Gable packed up his family and moved from the little town of Hopedale north 50 miles to the rural outskirts of Ravenna, Palmyrna Township. The area is still very rural and quaint, with houses far apart and cows and horses visible from every yard. Here is Alliance Rd, where the Gables moved to: And here is the house, modernized and added on to, but still standing! Clark was not happy in Palmyra and missed all his friends from Hopedale. He attended Edinburgh High School, which has since burned down, but a new school was built in its place: In 1920, Clark traveled back to…
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Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and the Bracelet that Raises Questions
Back in the days before internet, before the “IT” couple of the moment is photographed everywhere from airports to grocery stores and gas stations, it wasn’t exactly easy to pinpoint the when, why and where of celebrity romances. Gable and Lombard were no different. As any Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fan knows, the much-publicized place of their first romantic spark was the Mayfair Ball in February 1936. But is that true? Were there romantic sparks before then? I have come across some people who claim that Clark and Carole had something going on during the filming of No Man of Her Own and off and on since…
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{Ohio} Hopedale, Where Clark Gable Grew Up
After Clark’s mother Adeline died in her hometown of Meadville, Pennsylvania, in November 1901, his father left him in the care of Addie’s sister, brother-in-law and parents, and went back to Ohio to continue oil drilling. In the small village of Hopedale, he met Jennie Dunlap and became instantly smitten. Everyone was surprised that she returned the rough Bill Gable’s advances and accepted his proposal. They were married on April 16, 1903. Soon afterwards Bill went back to Meadville to collect his son. Addie’s family was not happy to give up the boy and many tears were shed, but Bill was his father and had found his boy a mother.…
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{Ohio} Dennison, Where Clark Gable was Baptized
A brief little post here on our trip to Dennison. Dennison, Ohio is a little town of about 3,000 people about 23 miles from Cadiz. Our sole purpose for visiting was the Immaculate Conception Church. Clark Gable’s mother, Adeline, was a devout Catholic. She was very ill after his birth and had psychotic episodes and seizures. In one of her lucid moments, she pleaded for her only child to be baptized Catholic. There was no Catholic church in the little town of Cadiz at that time, so a neighbor named John Conway and his wife took baby Clark to the closest church—Immaculate Conception in Dennison. He was baptized there on…
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Carole Lombard Roundup!
I have done Carole Lombard Month the past five years and I know how past posts get lost in the shuffle, so here is a round-up of past items about Carole Lombard: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Photos: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard on a Picnic On Valentine’s Day, Clark Gable Drives Carole Lombard Crazy! Carole Lombard Behaving Like a Mugg! Culver City Welcomes Mrs. Rhett Butler 1938: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Attend the Marie Antoinette Premiere A Photographer’s View on Gone with the Wind and Carole Lombard Hollywood: Carole Lombard Lived Here Ahoy to the USS Carole Lombard Property of Carole Lombard Clark and Carole at the Races…
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Gossip Friday: Unknown Backstage
From September 1937: Carole Lombard tells this one on herself. It seems that during the Los Angeles run of “Idiot’s Delight,” Clark Gable took Carole to see Lynn Fountanne and Alfred Lunt in this latest of their plays. Upon being introduced to Carole backstage after the play, Miss Fontanne asked Carole, quite naively: “Are you English?” Whereupon Carole replied she was not. “Oh,” said Miss Fontanne, “are you in pictures then?” Carole smiled in her best Gracie Allen fashion and replied, “Yes–I’m just around–” And we’d give a pretty penny to learn what Miss Fontanne’s reaction was when she found out to whom she’d been speaking!
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Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and One Wild Cat
Carole Lombard was known for her menagerie of animals. Her home in Bel-Air was affectionately referred to as “the Farm,” because of its diverse residents: a rooster, cats, dogs, doves and ducks. In early 1937, Clark Gable had some time between films and set off on a hunting trip to Arizona. This was before they were married thus it was inappropriate for Carole to accompany him, so she flippantly requested he bring her back “a wildcat or two.” Little did she know that Clark would take her seriously… He returned from his trip with a seventy-five pound mountain lion cub, complete with sharp claws and teeth and a personality to…
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{Gone with the Wednesday} 75th Anniversary Event in Cadiz, Ohio
The reason for me traveling to Ohio was twofold: One, to follow in Clark’s footsteps around the state and visit where he was born and where he lived before departing the Buckeye state for good in 1920. Two, to attend the Clark Gable Foundation’s 75thAnniversary of Gone with the Wind event. We arrived on Thursday, October 2. A lot of people fly into Pittsburgh when they go to Cadiz, because the little town is so close to the Pennsylvania line. We flew into Akron though, because we decided to stay in New Philadelphia, which is 30 miles north of Cadiz. We arrived Thursday night and discovered by our quick…
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Photos: Farmer Gable and His Wife
Photos from the November 1939 edition of Silver Screen magazine: They really live on a ranch, but Carole and Clark call it “The Farm.” It has fourteen acres in Encino, California, and they bought it from Director Raoul Walsh, who used to live there. Their house isn’t very large, but it’s built for comfort and informality. Carole and Clark did all of the furnishing and decorating themselves. There’s a large main living room with a small adjacent bar; a cozy dining room off which is the kitchen and butler’s pantry; two small cellar rooms, one of which Clark calls his “gun room” and the other “the office” because that’s where…